Speech #770043747

That monopoly has been granted by the spirit and principle of our law. The Maritime Commission granted them that shipping right from American ports to Mediterranean ports and to Lisbon. Now. to show how well fixed that monopoly is and how jealous Export Lines is of that monopoly. at a time of great emergency. when the European war broke out and refugees by the hundreds of thousands were seeking ports -from which they could get away from European countries and come to a place of safety and haven in America. they went to Mediterranean ports and there the American Export Lines found itself without sufficient ships to carry the refugees from Mediterranean ports to American ports. The United States Linesanother subsidized line. if you please. but not having the right. under the Shipping Board. to sail into Mediterranean portssent its ships into those ports to bring away the refugees. One would imagine that under such circumstances there would be no comeback to the American Export Lines. but. lo and behold. they not only demanded that the shipping should be limited. but they exacted $400.000 from the United States Lines. Four hundred thousand dollars was demanded and was paid as a bonus by the United States Lines td the American Export Lines.