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Show IW HI 1ft FRE Ksrriman Transportation Monopoly Mono-poly .Vehemently Assailed by. Secretary of War. Washlnjton, Feb. 2 ?erretry of Var Difklnj-on telay prois.-d that the a.lll-troL ;.w Ik Invoked to break up thftal!ege.1 monopdy by which the Pacific Mali Stearic hip conipr.Dy and the Hirrlnian trr.;isontlnental lines control bur.lne.49 between Pc"lflc cor.i, ports and the Isthmus of Tanama. UTieii (t Was simcoBfed todny that suit unlr the Pterman law might fall bemuse the s'camrhlp company, operated ns an Independent line, might te considered a competitor of the Southern Pacific railroad , numbers num-bers of the senato committee on In-ipr-oeaanic- canals dlccussed the ad-viscbality ad-viscbality of re-onimendln'r legislation legisla-tion Jh.Tt would re;ch the merger. The hearing today was held to give the fecretary of war opportunity to answer the criticism of Senator Brls-tow Brls-tow that the government was giving aid to tb. transcontinental rtillrords by not enccurnln. the establishment of an Independent steajnshlp line on the r'nelflc coast as proposed by B. N. Biker of Baltimore. Secretary' Dicklson produced the propored cm-tract cm-tract to show his understanding the offer. It Indlcnted that the coni-pany coni-pany was to have an exclusive contract con-tract and many other favors that Mr. Dickinson sold could not. be granted under authority rested in him or any other member o( the president's cabinet. cab-inet. The statement b"d lwen made by Mr. Dickinson tha. he had pra-tlc-ally been coorced by a serious situation situa-tion lno cenpenting to the dem?nd of the Fae'flr Mrll comnny for Tu per cent of the joint rate. The 'Pacific 'Pa-cific rnnli hd threaiened to with draw Its ships ond if this had been done, he. suld, It would have left the government line without an outlet on the Pacific roast. "If the ships on the Pacific side had been withdrawn I foel my position would have been Indefensible and therefore I was forced to accept the terms offered by the Pacific Mail," said :hrt secretary. "I consulted with the president, who knew more about the canal affairs than I did and we were not willing lo lake the risk of calling the Pacific Mill Steamship corapany'R bluff." |