Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1948-07-01

for the facts behind the Puget
Sound ferry dispute, Mr.. Gorrie
has prepared articles covering the
controversy from the beginning to
the present time. This is the first
article of the scrics.)
No placard draped picketS march
up and down before the Transpor-
tation Department but the Puget
Sound Navigation Company did
strike against the people of the
State of Washington. This strike,
still in progress, directly affects
the pocketbook of $4,000 residents
and many hundreds of business and
industries of the Sound islands and
the Olympic Peninsula. Indirectly
it affects every person and indust-
ry in the State.
Ferry operation on the Puget
Sound is not a private business
but quasi-publc in its nature. Fer
ries are the ross-Sound link of
the highway system of the State
of Washington.
The State and the Company Made
4 Trade
Many years ago this State es-
tabhshed regulatory control over
the service and rates of ferry COM
panies and, at the same time,
agreed to protect ferry companies
from competition. The procedure
of this trade" was set out in pub
lie service laws still in effect. The
purpose was to obtain for travel
erS between the populous main
land centerS, the vast olympic
Peninsula. and the many Sound is
lands a dependable and cconom-
zeal transportation.
Year by year, by grace of state
protection of its monopoly on the
routes it operated, the Puget Sound
Navigation Company grew larger
and more powerful with the &c
onomic growth of the area it
served. One by one it swallowed
smaller ferry companies until it
controlled virtually all Puget Sound
Ferry Operation. 1t now owns p
ferry boats, % docking facilities,
a lay up dock and a mooring
ground, and operates 10 ferry
routes.
Trouble At The Ticket Window
Trouble arose during the past
war. Ferry patrons became rest
less when il was evident that the
Company was making fabulous
profits. At the insistence of the
state Department of Transports
ton. backed by Bremerton Navy
Yard authorities, the ferry com
pany took voluntary 800 re-
duction in rates affecting passen-
ger Communication fares and auto
mobile rates.
During the war years the prof
its of the Puget Sound Navigation
Company (the net operating in
come before income taxes. and fig
ured on sinking fund deprecia-
tion,"D were as follows: 1941 -
1923, 339 95-ll6c5, 1912 81
OBJ .565 -377f,; 1943 -- S2,255,-
3sl.07 - 459l2 1914 -- S2,066,-
s50.55 - 1856, 1945 - S2,205,-
1872 50 -4O.sscs; 1916 - S9sO,3Ol
-1SO2se. The ferry company, de-
spite its 800, voluntary cut in
fares. was rolling in clover.
Fabulous Profits and still Higher
Fares
At the end OF the year, 1916. de-
spite its million dollar profit of
that year. the Puget Sound Navi-
cation Company raised its rates an
average Of 800 on automobiles
and certain commutation fares.
This was accomplished by the
simple restoration of the pre-war
rates on file with the State De
partment of Transportation. Hav-
ing taken a voluntary cut in rates,
the Company now took a voluntary
raise.
However. IN January, l9i7, the
ferry company demanded of the
state the right to raise fares in
all catagories an additional 80
The fare raise now totaled So
generally over rates which had