The Baltic Pool, another strong combination of lines, included the Wilson Line, Hamburg–American Line, North-German Lloyd, and Scandinavian– American Line.
17. Combinations in Pacific steamship connections between the Orient and both the Atlantic and the Pacific ports of the United States are also controlled by agreements. Some of the strongest are the eastward Atlantic Suez agreement, to which the United States and China–Japan Steamship Com pany, the American–Asiatic Steamship Company, the American and Manchurian Steamship Line, the American and Oriental Line and Anglo-American Oil Company are the principal signatories. This agreement is controlled by the New York Conference.
The Pacific Coast lines cooperate in the trans-paci fic Tariff Bureau which regulates the east and west bound traffic of the Blue Funnel Line, the Great Northern Steamship Company, the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, Bank Line Ltd., the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and the Japanese lines.
18. The South American trade.—The South American steamship lines are controlled by European and American agreements. The principal European conference is the London Conference which regulates sailings and rates of the Hamburg lines, the Prince Line and the Lamport and Holt lines to and from Brazilian ports.
The New York River Plate Agreement regulates the rates on the Prince Line, Lamport and Holt Line, Barber Line, Houston Line, American and Rio Plata Line, to and from the River Plate.
In the trade of the Caribbean Sea, the Royal Mail and the Hamburg-American lines had the pooling agreement both in respect to freight and passengers which was described in the first part of this chapter.
19. United States Shipping Board.—An exhaus tive study of the shipping situation was made by the House Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fish eries, and this resulted in the enactment of a law in 1916, establishing the United States Shipping Board and doing away with the evils of shipping combina tions while allowing them to exist under government supervision.
Under this act all common carriers are forbidden to grant deferred rebates, to use fighting ships, to refuse cargo accommodations to shippers, to discrimi nate by means of rates or service between shippers, or to give preferential treatment to localities.
All rates must be filed and kept open for public inspection. Carriers also are compelled to file true copies of any agreements affecting rates and services they may enter into with other carriers or with shippers.
It is declared unlawful for any official of a carrier to disclose any information concerning the nature, quality, quantity, destination, consignee or routing of any shipment entrusted to it.
The board had hardly been organized when the United States entered the European War. During that struggle the attention of the Board was largely taken up by the Emergency Fleet program. Some investigations, however, were carried on even in the midst of the stress of war. These may prove the basis of legislation which will lead to bene ficial results.