Question: What was imposed at the Paris Peace Conference that resulted in the formation of the United States Mail Steamship Company?

Context articles: Collins Line
United States Mail Steamship Company
World War I reparations
Alaska Pacific Steamship Company
SS President Taft (1920)
SS California (1848)
Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company
SS Haiti (1932)
SS America (1869)
SS Arab (1879)

The Collins Line is the common name for the American shipping company started by Israel Collins and then built up by his son Edward Knight Collins, formally called the New York and Liverpool United States Mail Steamship Company.
 Under Edward Collins' guidance, the company grew to be a serious competitor on the transatlantic routes to the British Cunard shipping company.
The United States Mail Steamship Company – also called the United States Mail Line, or the U.S. Mail Line – was a passenger steamship line formed in 1920 by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) to run the USSB's fleet of ex-German ocean liners that had been seized by the United States during World War I or awarded as war reparations after the end of the war.
 Receivers were appointed for the line after financial improprieties and massive losses came to light.
 After review of the financial data, a United States District Court ordered that all the U.S. Mail Line ships be returned to the USSB.
World War I reparations were compensation imposed during the Paris Peace Conference upon the Central Powers following their defeat in the First World War by the Allied and Associate Powers.
 Each of the defeated powers was required to make payments in either cash or kind.
 Because of the financial situation Austria, Hungary, and Turkey found themselves in after the war, few to no reparations were paid and the requirements for reparations were cancelled.
 Bulgaria, having paid only a fraction of what was required, saw its reparation figure reduced and then cancelled.
 Historians have recognised the German requirement to pay reparations as the "chief battleground of the post-war era" and "the focus of the power struggle between France and Germany over whether the Versailles Treaty was to be enforced or revised".
The Alaska Pacific Steamship Company was a short-lived freight and passenger shipping line that operated on the West Coast of North America between 1906 and 1912.
 The company was created by E.E. Caine, who used the steamships "Buckman" and "Watson" on the route between Seattle, Tacoma, and San Francisco.
 The following year, Caine's partners in the company took over management of the Alaska Coast Company, which operated the steamships "Jeanie" and "Portland".
 In 1909, Alaska Pacific acquired the twin-propeller steamships "Admiral Farragut" and "Admiral Sampson" from the American Mail Steamship Company on the East Coast.
 In 1912, Alaska Pacific acquired the remaining Admiral-class steamships "Admiral Dewey" and "Admiral Schley" from American Mail.
 Before the end of the year, the company's directors decided to merge Alaska Pacific with Alaska Coast Company to form the new Pacific-Alaska Navigation Company.
SS "President Taft was launched as one of the "state" ships, Buckeye State", completed by the United States Shipping Board as cargo passenger ships after originally being laid down as troop transports.
 "Buckeye State" had been laid down as "Bertrice" but was converted and renamed before launching.
 Originally assigned to the Matson Navigation Company as the Shipping Board's agent, the ship was later renamed "President Taft" and assigned to Pacific Mail Steamship Company for operation.
 In 1925 the Shipping Board sold the ship to Dollar Steamship Company.
 "President Taft" was operated by Dollar and then its successor American President Lines until requisitioned by the War Department on 17 June 1941.
SS "California" was one of the first steamships to steam in the Pacific Ocean and the first steamship to travel from Central America to North America.
 She was built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company in the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants: William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland.
 She was the first of three steamboats specified in a government mail contract to provide mail, passenger, and freight service from Panama to and from San Francisco and Oregon.
The Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company (sometimes abbreviated to O&O) was an American shipping company founded in 1874 by US railroads wishing to provide competition to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which had not complied with its obligations to them.
 Chartering vessels from different companies, the most important being the British White Star Line, the company quickly became financially successful, against the expectations of its founders.
SS "Haiti",  GRT , was a passenger and freight ship built for the Colombian Mail Steamship Company built at Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia and delivered 15 December 1932.
 The ship was renamed briefly "Puerto Rico" in 1938 and "Monterey" in 1939 to operate for the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company until requisitioned with transfer of title to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 25 September 1942.
 The ship was then allocated to the U.S. Army for operation under a bareboat agreement as USAT "Monterey".
 In 1943 the ship was assigned to the command at Trinidad to supply bases in Brazil and Ascension Island.
 After layup in the reserve fleet the ship was sold to Turkey.
SS "America" (1869–1872) was a ship for Pacific Mail Steamship Company operating on the China Line along with the  , SS "Great Republic" ,  , SS "Alaska" ,  and spare steamer  .
 The America, which was one of the largest paddle wheel steamers in the world, was valued by Pacific Mail Steamship Company at $1,017,942 or about $40,000 less than the SS "Great Republic" or SS "Japan".
SS "Arab" was a steamship built by James & George Thomson and launched in 1879 for the Union Steamship Company.
 She was transferred to the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company in 1901 and scrapped that year at Harburg.