The Daily Alaska empire., 1948-12-30

sons for the passage of legislation that made the Interim Agreement possible. Under this plan it will be remembered that the government furnished certain vessels to service 1 the Alaska trade at S1 per year
 charter hire as well as carrying the
 cost of the hull insurance. I fur
 ther attempted to point out that
 the effect of the failure of the
 Maritime Commission to renew the
 Interim Agreement would lead to a
 probable increase in rates. T h e Maritime Commission not only fail- ed to renew the agreement, but it was necessary for the Alaska Steamship Company to purchase
 at great additional cost the Termi- nal Knot, to charter sufficient ad- dit.onal tonnage at standard gov-
 ernment rates and pay the full in-
 surance costs to carry out it's 1948
 seasonal commitments The impos-
 sibility of continuing opera tion
 without loss was demonstrated by the fact that two other companies, then serving the Territory, return ed their chartered vessels to the Maritime Commission.
 Furthermore, before the seasons operations were completed, begin ming September 2, we were tied up with a strike which lasted 95 days. The results of the negotiations add ed a substantial increase in the cost of labor. There have also been further increases in the operating expenses of the company through the general price advances with which we are all familiar.
 Recently we filed passenger tar ifs showing approximately IS per cent increase in revenue to be- come effective December 20. We did this in an effort to have the passenger service carry itself and not depend on the general revenue as heretofore. We have not filed for a freight rate increase for we are determined to make every pos sible effort to maintain these rates at the pre-strike level.
 "At the demise of the Interim four companies were sharing traffic insufficient to jus tify operation of more than one That situation has now changed. For the first time on any ! major scale, maritime strike has | in the withdrawal of sev- eral operators, from the Alaska ! trade with the result that The Alaska Line finds itself to be the sole established operator undertak- ing to serve the Territory of AL aska. Since we have historically | accepted the responsibility of serv- ng all Alaska, rather than merely | skimming the cream from a few ports which offer the greatest re- turns, many of our schedules have been met at loss. We hope now that additional cargo on each sail ing will enable us to balance the unprofitable features and still off set our increased operating costs without advancing rates or d!min- ishing service.
 Considering the changes that have taken place, we feel very hopeful that with the cooperation of labor, with the support of our
 Alaskan friends, and through every
 possible effort of our own, an in-
 crease in freight rates may be avoid
 ed. The events of the next several
 months will tell us whether or not
 this goal can be reached.
 We have often stated that our foremost objective is to provide the best freight and passenger service possible at rates that will promote Territorial growth and prosperity.
 That still continues to be our ob- jective.
 We invite your assistance and support in helping us to make this a reality