Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-10-21
CERTAIN SHIPPING CONDITIONS

I1OW cooperation between snip anu
rail service may relieve freight
blockadcs and reduce dcmurrage
charges, losses which ultimately fall
on the consumer; how the shipping
facilities of certain other countries
are given preferential treatment was
clearly shown in an address which
! Commissioner Edward c. Plummer of
the L. S. Shipping Board gave this
week before a convention of indus
trial engineers.
Among the instances of this which
he cited was the following:
'If American goods are sent from
Chicago over American railroads to
San Francisco and thence to Aus
| tralia. the tariff duty assessed upon
them by the Australian Government
is based upon the value of the goods
at Chicago plus the entire sum paid
American railroads for transporting
them from Chicago to San
| FranciscO; but if those same
! goods are sent from Chicago over a
| Canadian line to a British port on the
Pacific and thence to Australia, no
! tax is levied upon the amount paid
| for transportation in Canadian terri
tory--a great discrimination in fav-
o: OF foreign transportation.
'Thc fact that 6S per cent of the
| import and export business passing
through Vancouver last year was
American indicates the tremendous
loss winch this single piece of Aus
tralian legislation has imposed upon
railroads passing through the great
Middle West.
/ "Of course, the obvious effect of
! Australia'S discriminating duty is to
/ deprive the American farmer in the
! Middle West of return loads for the
/ cars which have carried his products
! to the Atlantic scaboard: to deprive
American lines of just that amount of
paying business which they need to
help them improve their service and,
consequently, to increase the freight
cost to the American farmer, while
/ furnishing American cargoes to load
those cars which have taken the
! products Of his Canadian competitor
/ TO the seaboard. Thus it "starves'
/ tho American lines and builds up the
| foreign lines to the American farm
! crs injury.
/ But this is not all. This discrim-
| mating duty forces these American
goods to pass through British ports
! to the benefit of British ships there;
and it takes these American cargocs
away from American ports and from
! American ships there. The fact that
our American steamship line running
! from SAN Francisco to Australia
/ would have been put out of business
this sumemr on account of this loss
OF freight had not the Post Office Dc
| partment come to its rescue. shows
the heavy handicap which this for
, ciSn legislation places upon Ameri-
can ships
Now l am not complaining, or in
any way criticising this Australian
legislation. | am citing it merely to
show the bold falsity of those con :
stantly repeated claims that foreign
ships are not aided by preferential
! legislation: and also as proof that
not only past hut present legislation
by our competitors in foreign trade
compels the United States to give
American ships whatever preferences
OF financial aid they may require ,if
our flag is to remain on the seas"
That better service and better rates
to the shippers ought to result from
active competition with foreign YES
sells he illustrated by what has oc-
Cured in the affairs of British line
from this country to South America.
Since the Shipping Board entered in
to competition this British line has
set about improving its service and
trade with South America must ben
eft from it.
Commissioner Plummer naturally
and logically arrives at the conclu-
/