When I bought the Cochrane from the Tampa Steamship Company and organized our line to Havana, we applied for and received from the Post-Office Department an appointment to carry the Cuba mail, and under that authority we have been taking all that was offered us by the postmaster at Key West twice each week-say 10 to 20 pounds per trip. This covers, as I suppose, the Key West local mail. If you intend to send us any, whether from points north of here, I would suggest to you that we connect with your contract steamer from Tampa to Key West only on Saturday, taking into Havana on that trip the New York dailies two and three days in advance of the New York steamers. The merchants are inquiring why they cannot receive letters, when papers come thus, through in advance. I would further suggest that your mail facilities would be much enhanced by adopting the opportunities made use of by private enterprise. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, General Manager Key West Steamship Company. NICHOLAS M. BELL, Esq., Superintendent Foreign Mails, Washington, D. C. [Post-office, New York, N. Y., third division, mailing and distributing department.] JUNE 27, 1885. SIR: In response to the repeated request made of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to advise this office of their sailings for next week, the accompanying letter was to-day received. In dealing with this question I have advertised closings in accordance. with the monthly bulletin furnished by the Department, which is based on the tenders made in the early part of the month, the copy therefor being prepared at this office, and the originals of the tenders transmitted therewith to you on the 12th instant. To these your attention is respectfully called in the consideration of the letter here with inclosed. Unless otherwise advised by you, dispatches will be made in accordance with the bulletin. Very respectfully, NICHOLAS M. BELL, Esq, H. G. PEARSON, Superintendent of Foreign Mails, Washington, D. C. Postmaster. [Pacific Mail Steamship Company, pier foot of Canal street, North River.] NEW YORK, June 27, 1885. DEAR SIR: As requested by you, I beg to confirm the list of sail ings for the month of July, given you under date of June 5 last. In this connection you will please understand that this is not a ten der on our part to carry any mails (and imposes no obligation to do so), except as under the terms of contract with the Department. Respectfully, H. G. PEARSON, Esq., JOS. HELLEN, Treasurer. Postmaster, New York. [New Orleans and Belize Honduras Royal Mail Steamship Company, Macheca Bros., managers.] NEW ORLEANS, June 26, 1885. DEAR SIR: On April last we submitted to you, at your request, map of the Caribbean Sea, with the reon placed the different routes traveled by our steamers, and a synopsis of each route respecting time and distance. The steamers running to Belize are under contract to carry the British mail, and have also a mail subsidy with the Guatemala Government, which are both small matters. Desiring of obtaining the mileage which the United States Govern. ment pays for carrying the mail, we kindly requested you to apprise us, if possible, with data and address with which to proceed in the object for obtaining the mileage offered, carrying said mail on foreign routes. As we received no information yet relative same, will you kindly honor us with same, at your first opportunity, and if not able to do so, please refer us to some proper party, and oblige, Very respectfully, yours, Hon. NICHOLAS M. BELL, MACHECA BROS., P. ANTHOIN. Superintendent Foreign Mails, Washington, D. C. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF FOREIGN MAILS, Washington, D. C., July 2, 1885. GENTLEMEN: In reply to your letter of 26th ultimo, relative to obtaining a contract for your steamers to convey mails from the United States to Belize and Guatemala, I have to inform you that the Postmaster General has decided not to advertise for bids to convey mails to foreign countries under the provisions of the law passed by the last Congress. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Messrs. MACHECA BROS., NICHOLAS M. BELL, 129 Decatur Street, New Orleans, La. CALIFORNIA AND MEXICAN STEAMSHIP LINE, San Francisco, July 3, 1885. SIR: I learn that the New York steamship men have made another application to the Postmaster-General for a subsidy under the act of March 3 of this year, and that they were unable to change the views of the Postmaster General and went off to New York, where they threaten to refuse to take the mails after July 31 unless their claims receive recognition to the extent of 25 cents per mile. According to your showing, if all American steamships now carrying the mails foreign were treated alike, and the $400,000 divided up among them, they would get about 17 cents per mile. So if they get 25 cents per mile, some one will get nothing. The New York gentlemen will doubtless lay siege to the $400,000, advancing by regular approaches. We should always be pleased to be con 1 sidered in one of the approaches, and in case of victory come in for our share of the spoils. The Postmaster-General having kindly assured me that we should receive recognition in case any mileage were allowed, I took the liberty of writing him to day, saying that our remoteness from Washington should not prejudice our claims to recognition should he change his views in the matter. As you made some allusion to the speed of steamships when I last saw you, I may in a day or two tell you what is not generally knownthat is, what speed costs-which may possibly be of service to you. Perhaps it would not be out of place for me to say now that it takes eight times as much power (hence eight times the coal) to run a ship 16 knots per hour as it would to run her 8 knots per hour. It takes about 25 per cent. additional power to increase the speed of a ship 1 knot per hour; hence, it is the last knot that takes the coal. Yours, respectfully, NICHOLAS M. BELL, Esq., J. BERMINGHAM, General Agent. Superintendent Foreign Mails, Washington, D. C. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF FOREIGN MAILS, Washington, D. C., July 10, 1885. SIR: In reply to your letter of the 3d instant, relative to the claims of the California and Mexican Steamship Line for recognition in case the Postmaster-General should finally conclude to exercise the authority conferred upon him by the act of March 3, 1885, to pay American vessels for the conveyance of mails to foreign countries upon the basis of the number of miles traveled, I have to inform you, although not specially authorized by the Postmaster-General to make the statement, that in the case referred to the claims of your company will receive due consideration. I will be glad to receive the information you propose to furnish respecting the expense of obtaining a high rate of speed for steamers, as well as any other information that might be of advantage in considering the subject of our ocean mail service. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. BERMINGHAM, Esq., NICHOLAS M. BELL, Superintendant Foreign Maite. Agent California and Mexican Steamship Line, San Francisco, Cal. CALIFORNIA AND MEXICAN STEAMSHIP LINE, San Francisco, July 3, 1885. SIR: Since I left Washington, after the President had decided to do nothing with the $400,000 appropriated by Congress March 3, 1885, which American steamship owners were led to suppose was for their benefit, I learn that the steamship owners in New York have again made application to you to be allowed 25 cents per mile for carrying the mails, which offer you very properly rejected for the reason, as I believe, that only 17 cents per mile, paid pro rata to each American steamship carrying foreign mails. would exhaust the entire appropriation above re6755 P M G -9 ferred to. I don't believe that Congress had the most remote idea of favoring one steamship to the exclusion of another; therefore, should the President or Postmaster-General at some future time be pleased to make payment for carrying the foreign mails, we should be pleased to receive the consideration our service is entitled to. Our remoteness from Washington—and as you were pleased to say to me that it was unnecessary for us to be represented there, as all would be dealt with alike-should not prejudice our claims to recognition should you finally be prevailed upon to grant subsidies to American steamships for conveying the mails to and from foreign countries. Most respectfully, your obedient servant, J. BERMINGHAM, General Agent California and Mexican Steamship Line. Postmaster General VILAS, Washington, D. C. NEW YORK, June 30, 1885. DEAR SIR: We, the undersigned, representing various steamship companies plying between domestic and foreign ports, respectfully represent: That, as requested to do by you, mails were carried from the first of April last until the present time on our several lines, although the compulsory laws had expired on that date, we assuming that the appropriation of $400,000 fixed by Congress at its last session would be availed of by you as compensation for the fiscal year beginning July 1. You have announced your determination not to make payment in the manner indicated by such appropriation, but you have not suggested any other basis of compensation for the carriage of mails to foreign ports after July 1. In this situation of affairs we have determined, so that you may have ample time to make proper arrangements, to continue the carriage of mails during the month of July, the compensation to be hereafter determined either by agreement between ourselves or in some other manner. We shall be glad to know your views at an early date, in order, if possible, to come to some mutually satisfactory understanding before the 15th of July, and so that, if no arrangement can be made between your Department and ourselves before that date, it will enable us to give proper notice to the public of the cessation of the service for the Post-Office Department in the carriage of outward United States mails, and to substitute for such service such other arrangement for the carriage of mail matter as we may deem just to ourselves and the public. Very truly, yours, (Signed) PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY, by W. H. Lane, secretary; F. ALEXANDRE & SONS; NEW YORK, HAVANA AND MEXICAN MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY; JAMES E. WARD & Co.; NEW YORK AND CUBA MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY; BOULTON, BLISS & DALLETT; RED D LINE OF STEAMSHIPS; UNITED STATES AND BRAZIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY, by H. K. Thurber, chairman executive committee; Wм. P. CLYDE & Co.; CLYDE WEST INDIA STEAMSHIP LINE; OCCIDENTAL AND ORIENTAL STEAMSHIP COMPANY, by C. P. Huntington. Hon. WILLIAM F. VILAS, Postmaster-General. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF FOREIGN MAILS, GENTLEMEN: I am in receipt of your communication of the 30th of June and have considered its contents. You state that you have determined to continue the carriage of the mails during the month of July so that the Department may have ample time to make proper arrangements, and that you desire to know my views at an early date in order, if possible, to come to some mutually satisfactory understanding before the 15th of July so that if no arrangement can be made between the Department and yourselves before that date, it will enable you to give proper notice to the public of the cessation of the carriage of the outward bound United States mails and to substitute for such carriage such other arrangements as you may deem just to yourselves and the public. It is unnecessary to remind you that the lines of steamship travel which you represent are entirely independent and, with two exceptions, widely diverse from each other, and that the mail service which it is possible for these lines to render to the United States is exceedingly various. The Pacific Mail Company maintains four lines, three running from San Francisco to China, to New South Wales, and to New Zealand, and to Panama, respectively, and one from New York to Colou. The ships of the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company sail from San Francisco to China. The New York and Cuba Line, and the New York, Havana and Mexican Line both send vessels between New York and Havana, and the latter company navigates also to Mexico. The Red D Line plies between New York and Venezuela, the Brazil Line between New York and Brazil, and the Clyde Line between New York and St. Thomas. The mail service rendered by the several vessels of these lines during the first quarter of this year, in respect to which returns are before me, differed in quantity to such an extent that the payment made by the Government to the Australian line of the Pacific Mail Company was $3,000.66, while to the Clyde Line it was but $166.27; and to the others various sums between these limits; the payment per trip ranging from $1,002.20 to the ships on the Australian line to $30.17 to the ships of the New York and Cuba Mail Line. The difference in these compensations was due in great part to the difference in the quantity of mail carried, although to the Australian line of the Pacific Mail Line a very much greater rate of compensation was allowed than to any other line, except the United States and Brazil Company. From these considerations it is evident that there is no such community of interest between the several lines you represent as either requires on your part or justifies on the part of the Department a joint agreement between your companies and the Department for the purpose of carrying mail. While you were representing the desire of your companies to secure from the United States a division among you of the amount which the Postmaster-General was authorized to expend upon mileage contracts, there was such unity of interests as gave warrant for joint representation of your views. This representation has been fully made, has been patiently considered, has been considered with the utmost friendliness of feeling towards the interests of American commerce, but has finally resulted in a decision on the part of the Government not to attempt to make contracts upon that basis. Upon that decision the community of interests between the different steamship companies, so far as regards this subject, terminated, unless it be supposed admissible for the companies to combine, with a view to embarrass |
