The Alaska daily empire., 1923-04-07

It was reported, he added that the
 routes recently reached a rate agree lment stabilizing rates at higher fig ures than had been prevailing 1 Apparently, they haye got oyer their scare Of the sherman Act" re
 marked the Attorney General. There was nothing secret about the agree ment, the Shipping Board knew all
 about 1t as it owned most of the
 boats being operated in the traffic,
 Mr Knickerboeker explained.
 Tho comparative costs of operating the motorship Kennecott and the Alameda led to an exchange of sallies MT. Rustgard eontended that the high CT cost of operating the Alameda re- suited from expenses incidental to it's passenger traffic, and that it was unfair to compare freight rates charged on tho two ships for that reason. We are not making any money on the passenger business on the Alameda" remarked MT. knick- erbocker. q suppose you are losing on the freight. also?' asked Mir. Rust gard. "No one has said so,' was the response. He said further that the Ktnneeott was built for an ex- pertinent and had made no money since construction. It had been built originally for the Alaska run but conditions since had hot warranted it but he hoped 1t would do So this season.
 Other maltcIs uUtened on wore rates from San Francisco to Seattle. Mr Rustgard admitting he used the lowest figure he couid find on the commodities quoted and that other lines did quote higher rates on the same commodities. He said he/bad been able to find no settled table of distances for the several routes quoted in his report to which cx
 ception was taken by Nr. Knieller- becker in the opening session, but that he had usc1 figures published by tho Seattle Port Commission. Ho centended that he had ondeayored t0 he fair. He defended using the direci distance on the outside route be tween Seward Anchorage and Sc attle, saving it wUs unfair to those l towns for rates to be based on tho
 Inside Passage route and contoadin 1 t is the accepted practice for rate
 to be based on the nearest direc route Alr. knickerboeker said the company did not use the outside
 route, that it called at Inside Passage
 ports, carrying freight, mail and pas
 sengers for those ports and that the roundtrip on the Seattle-Anehorage
 run is 1,200 miles farther than quot
 ed in the Attorney Generals report. | He explained the method of ar
 irving on the actual cost of hauling
 pulp from Speel River to Port An i geles, which he had previously testi- l fled is S355 per ton, while a rate of 1 s is charged. He said he thought it
 possible to handle pulp direct to Sc. attle for $3 He sadd, however, that
 did not mean that canned salmon is delivered to Seattle at the same cost
 as the service rendered in handling
 the latter commodity had to be fig ured.
 l Handling Charge Unform l Questioned relative to trucking, or drayage charges between docks at
 Seattle, he said he didn't know what
 other companies did but that all freight moving across the company's s
 docks had the same charges for that service whether destined to Alaska or not. The wharfage charge, he
 said, was soc per ton and the dray- age 55c, making total of $1.05 | per ton.
 The hearing was concluded at 10 l D. m. to resume sessions at ?. m. today. Asked by the chairman if it was acceptable to him to be ques-
 toned by others than members of
 the committee and the Attorney Gen eral, Mir. Knickerbocker said he was
 here to give any information possible
 on the transportation question and
 would be glad to answer any queries l he could on that subject.