The New York herald., 1922-07-29
GERMAN CONTRACT
FAYORS U. s. LINES
Americans to Do Booking,
Lloyd the Actual Opera
tion of Ships.

United States Lines and tha- North Ger
man Lloyd. which is now being dis
cussed by Shipping Board officials. is
most favorable to the development of
American shipping abroad, according to
the statement of z. j. Mccormack of
Moore & Mccormack. s Broadway, who
returned yesterday aboard the steam
ship President Roosevelt after having
spent several months abroad negotiat-
ing the contract. in company with A.
q. Clegg of the Roosevelt Steamship
Company. T.. H. Kossbottom. general
manager Of the United STATES Lines,
and w. ]. Love of the Emergency Fleet
Corporation.
The contract being drawn up and
now before the board for consideration
will save the United Stases consider
able money" Mr.. Mccormack said yes
terday. "and 1t is very favorable In
every respect. The United States Lines
is becoming very popular abroad. The
principal difficulty we have at present
is interesting the American tourists
who constitute at least 80 per cent. of
the travelling public. We would have
considerable more business from abroad
but for the immigration rulings, which
have cut down]the number of persons
taking passage to this country"
U. s. Lines to Do Booking.
Mr.. Mccormack said satisfactory
agreement had been drawn up as part
OF the North German Lloyd contract,
which called for the alternate sailings
OF the German and United States ships.
Separate booking offices will be main
tanned throughout Germany by the
United States Lines. and the terms of
the contract call for the freight to be
handled through the North German
Lloyd offides and the passenger traffic
through the offices established by the
United States Lines. All of the physi-
cal handling and operation of the ships
under the contract will be taken care
of by the North German Lloyd, and
the United States Lines will handle
most of the business relative to the
booking of passage and other business
details.
Mr.. Mccormack also made a tour of
inspection which took in all of the Of
fices of his own company throughout
Norway and Sweden and also In Lon
don. He also was negotiating some
business for his own lines the nature Of
which he did not make public. With
Mr.. Clegg and Mr.. Rossbottom he was
in constant touch and conference with
Mr.. Love, who returned here last week
and who is now in Washington working
with Chairman Lasker on the various
phases Of the North German Lloyd con-
tract.
Big German Concessions.
Similar expressions of satisfaction with
the details of the contract were also
made by Mr.. Rossbottom, who stated
that the arrangement made between
the United States Lines with the Ger
mans was far more favorable than could
have been made by any private lines,
for the German company was most
anxious to make suitable terms for
the steamship lines owned by the United
States Government and were therefore
ready to so much farther In making
concessions which a private concern
would not have been able to obtain.
Mr. Rossbottom also told of the un-
usually large increase of business for
the American lines abroad and predicted
that even more business is In store for
the lines when shipping and passenger
conditions have adjusted themselves on
a more solid basis.
AS an tNlueItc Oh tHt eiAoTlo OA tHC
Germans to have everything meet with
the approval Of the Americans, the
North German Lloyd insisted that the
men make PERSONAL inspection tour
OF their facilities for handling the ship
ping. and Mr.. Rossbottom and Mr.. Clegg
went over the entire German SYSTEM,
including the seacoast and inland de-
pots This was insisted upon before
the Germans would enter into the
agreement as a matter of displaying to
the Americans their ability to fill their
part of the contract. The shipping men
also went to France England and Ire
land, where they inspected the various
offices of the United States Lines.
AS to general shipping conditions
abroad, Mr.. Mccormack said that the
European shippers are in the trough OF
depression due to rate wars which have
forced the different companies into
knitting competition. Despite the bene-
fits the rate of foreign exchange could
give them, the depression Is still seri-
Gus. The three shipping men will leave
for Washington shortly to confer re-
A. t~oa NJ