Show = lIARD TIMES IN OCEAN TRADE The IUlllan Red Star and Anicri can Lines to 1tUl Under One Mal1arclnCl1t 111 J iI Kirk asont of the Inman Steamship Company and Peter Wright Sons agents of the Red Star Steam panies ship and American this Steamship Com joint YeSterday announcement Negotiations are pendhig which suit in Pen ng may re the management of the Inraan line in this city belg transferred to Peter Wright Sons who are now the a ents of the Red Star and American lines tt1g derstood lt is un that this is practically a tion of interests with a view to greater consolida effi ciency and economy of working and the change will likely take place about June 80 The weekly samce of the mmcmi line will be maintaine pool between New York anti Liver This means said Mr Kirk yester day that the three lines will be yirtu ally run as one line The Inman piers m this city will be given up and the ves sels will start from the piers of the Red Star line in Jersey City Mr Wright will decide whether the present offices ill the Washington building ° are to be re tained or not I do not know the rea sons of thoJ change It emanates from the C11lf office in Liverpool It is not true that it is due to misfortunes of our vessels We are now running six vessels the City of Chicago City of Mon treal City of Chester Citv of Rich m0l1i1 City of B rlilland W the Baltic which we have chartered from the While Star line None of them will be withdrawn An old steamship man said The great competition of ocean traffic the hard times and poor business are at the bot tom of the trouble The Inmau line like other lines has paid no diYidends fora long time It has besides issued debenture bonds on which it has failed to pay the interest Its creditors including includ-ing Peter Wright Sons have now demanded de-manded that the strictest economy be I enforced and that the management of the line in this city be turned over to Peter Wright iS Sons Otherwise they threaten to foreclose on the line Not long Igo the Inman line sold the City of Paris and City of New York and ithas economized in every way It lost the City of Brussels three years ago by a col 1 lision and the City of Berlin was recently injured by striking an iceberg I understand under-stand that they have discharged their agent and the entire force of clerks here without any warning whatever That is certainly very hard treatment for men who have been long in their service Mr Fitzroy V Cochrane the Liverpool manager man-ager of the line arrived here by the AuranSa on Sunday and he evidently came over to wind things up Mr Cochrane was in consultation yesterday yes-terday with Mr Wright Mr Kirk and Mr C N Briscomb of the American line The Inman line is one of the oldest lines and at one time earned a great deal of money New York Sun 2S ult I |