The Alaska daily empire., 1924-01-01
BILL TO ELECT
GOVERNOR WILL
Be INTRODUCED
Delegate to Offer it = Also
Seek to Amend Shipping
Act, Says Rustgard.

bill to amend the Merchant Mar
inc Act of 1920, by removing the
discriminatory clause against Alas
ka, one to provide for the election
of Governor by the people of the
Territory, and resolutions introduced
for an investigation by Congress of
the Alaskan Fiseries situation, are
among the most interesting matters
to tho people of Alaska which are
to come up before the present Con-
gress, in the opinion of Attorney
General John Rustgard, who returned
to Washington. While his visit in
eluded an appearance before the SUI
preme Court for the Territory, much
OF his time was spent in investigat-
ing transportation matters and in an
effort to upset. the fisheries reser-
vations policy of the Administration
Says Complaint Useless
When he left for Washington, he
said, it was with the idea in mind
that he would file a complaint with
the Federal Shipping Board alleging
unjust rates charged by steamship
companies on the Alaska routes. AT
ter spending some three weeks in
the Boards Washington offices study
ing the matter, he said he decided
it was useless to make any such
complaint. Two reasons, he added,
influenced him in this decision. One,
that the Board is without authority
to hold real inquiries, the second,
said Mr.. Rustgard, is that the Board
in the past has not shown an atti-
tude that would lead TO the belief
that its findings would be just to
the public.
In connection with the first, he
declared that the Board had no
authority to go into the steamship
offices and get it's own data but is
forced to accept whatever figures the
companies furnish. In other words,
whatever conclusions the Board
might reach would be based on facts,
or alleged facts, furnished by the
transportation companies.
Even if the Board had all the
necessary authority. I came to the
conclusion it would be hopeless for
me to file a complaint for relief"
he said. This conviction was reached
after he had studied the rate-mak-
ing policies of the Board as applied
to lines outside of Alaskan waters.
He found, he said, that two tariffs
are used by such lines; one max
imum tariff" which was fixed by
the Board, the other confidential
tariff fixed by agreement among the
lines. The latter is minimum
tariff" rates below which the COM
panies bind themselves not to charge
under penalty of forfeiture of a
$4,000 cash deposit. 1t is signi-
cant that the latter tariff in many
instances is about one-fourth OF the
rate allowed by the Board in its
maximum tariff" Under such a
policy, he said, discrimination is
practiced by lines between shippers,
not only between carlot and small
shippers but also among shippers OF
even cargo. For instance, he aided,
the maximum tariff rate on coal be-
tween Atlantic and Pacific coast
points is 500 per ton, which no one
could afford to pay. He found that
in a certain freighter on one voyage,
one shipper was charged s4.90 and
another with an equal amount OF
cargo Sc per ton for coal. Such
a condition made him realize the
of securing remedial
action from the Shipping Board.
Jones Refuses Aid
He said he conferred with Senator
Wesley l.. Jones, of Washington, rela>
tive to the introduction of bill to-
repeal Section 81 of the Merchant
Marine Act but found the latter un-
willing either to introduce it, or to