The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Rail | Failure to Restore Old Tariffs on Exports and Imports Hampers Competition With Ports on Atlantic and Abroad—Relief Asked ISPARITY between the com- D bination ocean and rail rates from interior points in the United States to the Orient via the Atlantic seaboard, as compared with direct rail and ocean rates through Pacific ports has virtually wiped out the entire business of exporters and importers operating on the Pacific coast. ‘There is at the present time a feeling of unrest and uncertainty among those who are engaged in this business, which carries with it a distinct danger to the restoration and future’ growth of the foreign trade through these ports. The pres- ent transcontinental rates. on the bulk of the commodities entered) on the west coast are such as to absolutely prohibit even the contemplation of doing business through the Pacific ports and this is equally true of the transcontinental rates on American goods intended for export to the Orient. Remove Foreign Trade Rates This condition, which is not over- drawn and which is responsible for a near-panic among western commer- cial interests, was brought about, pri- marily, by the action of the railroad administration on June 24, 1918, in reducing the number of commodities for which export rates were provided from 88 to 17 and the number of commodities for which import rates were provided from 205 to 31. Thus the export rates on 71 commodities and the import rates on 174 commodi- ties. were cancelled under the stress of war necessity and while shipping was confined largely to the Atlantic. But with the signing of the armis- tice and the release of shipping, con- ditions have changed. Exporters and importers maintain—and the facts justify their contention—that the movement of goods through Pacific ports to and from the Orient is im- possible under the prevailing high rail rates, which approximate the rates charged by the carriers) when the Pacific export and import busi- ness was in its infancy and before the shippers obtained an equaliza- tion andi an adjustment of rates. Just as an example: Oriental vege- table oil, packed in barrels, can be shipped from Shanghai to ‘Cleveland, via the Panama canal and New York for less money than the same _ ship- ment could be made from Shanghai to Cleveland via San Francisco, This is at the present rail rate to Cleve- land of $1.12%% per hundred pounds, as compared with 60 cents a hundred pounds under the old schedule which was cancelled June 24, 1918. Ocean freight rates between Oriental and Japanese ports and those on the Atlantic ‘seaboard are now andi are expected to remain the same or near- ly the same as the rates between these Oriental ports and the Pacific coast. With this in mind, the west- ern interests point out the impossi- bility of importing commodities for distribution to manufacturers at points on or near the Atlantic seaboard, or even to points in the Middle West, such as Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chi- cago, Kansas ‘City; St. Louis and Buffalo. The differential between the old and new rates on spices walnut meats, nuts, seeds, tea and gums, is of such huge proportions that a New York importer, under the present rail and water rates, can ship spice from the Dutch East Indies to New York and thence inland as far as St. ‘Louis, Kansas City and Chicago, at a less rate than the Pacific coast im- porter can move the same commodity from the same point of origin to the same destination via San Francisico. The rail freight rate from New York City to these points on such com- modities. as. spices, seeds, teas and gums, is. in the neighborhood of $15 a ton. When this is added to the long ocean route rate, a preferred differential of from $10 to $15 a ton is created over the combination rate from the Oriental port to the inland point via San Francisco. In a general way, it may be said that the present transcontinental rates inhibit the importation through ‘Pa- cific ports of such commodities as beans, cocoanut cake -and meal, cot- tonseed cake and meal, coffee, copra, gums (such as copal, damar, kowrie, shellac and gam. bier), kapok, matches, nuts (including peanuts and walnuts, shelled and unshelled), vege- table oils (such as soya bean, China wood cottonseed, cocoanut, fish, rape- seed and peanut), rice, sago, tapioca, 160 By Cruse Carriel sago, tapioca and potato flour, seeds (such as alfalfa, canary, cloves, hemp, millet, rape, sesamum, sorchum and sunflower), skins and hides, spices (such as cassia chillies, cinnamom, cloves, condiments, ginger, mace, nut- megs and turmeric), animal tallow and tea. The present rates are a positive bar- rier, it is mainitained, against the ex- portation through Pacific ports of chemicals, drugs, dyestuffs and iron and steel, such as angles, bars, nails, rails, rods, shapes staples and wire. Lower Cost Via New York The transcontinental rate on steel and iron products from eastern manu- facturing centers to San Francisco and other Pacific coast terminals is now 85 cents per hundred pounds, as against the old rate of 40 cents. This rate, together with the ocean rate from the Pacific coast to Jap- anese and Oriental ports exceeds the combined rate from ‘Pittsburgh and other eastern manufacturing centers to Japan and the Orient via New York by $7.50 a ton. With the re- cent announcement of a further cut in the rates from north Atlantic ports to the Orient, the differential is even greater than this amount. This, then, is a rather general state- ment of a national problem, focusing on the west coast, but which includes the question of competition on the part of the whole country with Asia and Europe. The solution, western- ers believe, is the immediate restora- tion of the import and export trans- continental rates which were effective prior to June 24, 1918. Pacific coast interests, more than anything else, desire that the railroad administration announce its intention to restore these rates, even with a 25 per cent increase for such an announcement, it is felt, would serve to restore the confidence of importers and export- ers in Pacific coast ports. The old rates, it is pointed out, were not the result of any sudden demand on the part of the shippers or concessions on the part of the rail- roads, but they were gradual modifi- cations in the then existing tariffs, brought about by experience after a thorough investigation extending over a period of nearly: 20 years. Such