ence, determination, and financial strength to combat the aggression of foreign rivals selling their wares in England under cost price. Yet all these excellent attributes in no way remove the risk of the same power being used to raise prices to exorbitant heights, and, therefore, in contradistinction to all the established maxims supporting economic liberty. So far, English combines have been unable to stem the current of falling prices. The future alone will show how far they are able, and how far they are willing to prevent prices from reaching inflation levels. The striking appeal just put forth by the Imperial Tobacco Company, defining the assumption of an attitude never previously given such prominence by any combine, forms a fitting conclusion to this article. Here is the full page announcement which appeared in the Financial Times for December 2, 1901. "To the British Public: Americans, whose markets are closed by prohibitive tariffs against British goods, have declared their intention of monopolizing the Tobacco Trade of this country. It is for the British Public to decide whether British Labor, Capital, and Trade are to be subordinate to the American System of Trust Monopoly and all that is implied therein. The Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain and Ireland), Limited, will be an amalgamation of British Manufacturers who have closed their ranks with the determination to hold the British Trade for British People." To the many tests to which British patriotism has recently been put, there has now been added yet another. (To be continued.) course, one must have traveled in both the old and the new. Hundreds can tell you of the discomforts of a few years ago and the comforts in ocean travel to-day. It may be supposed that the limit of speed and comfort has not yet been reached, though it is difficult to see in what manner greater comfort can be secured or greater luxury supplied. The victims of sea-sickness will at once say that a quicker voyage would mean greater comfort. They are right, no doubt, and greater speed is the thing now sought for. Broadly speaking, the steamship line with the swiftest vessels is, and will be, the most popular. But not altogether, either. Comfort and luxury are demanded, as well, and as the Atlantic travel is yearly assuming greater proportions the problem for the directors of the various lines is not alone how to get passengers from shore to shore in the shortest possible time, but how to give them the comforts and luxuries they find on land. English, French, German, and American lines are in this contest. At the present the palm lies with the Hamburg-American Line, whose great steamship Deutschland holds the proud position of the swiftest liner afloat and is at the same time a veritable palace. That this ship will have to take a secondary place is probable. is not unlikely, either, that she will be beaten by another of the same line, for there appears to be no limit to the energy and ambition of the men who in a little over fifty years have built up this company's great fleet, now reaching all parts of the world. The achievements of the Hamburg-American Line mark the most "strenuous" period of transatlantic travel. Before me lie pictures of the Deutschland of 1847 and the Deutschland of to-day. They mark the achievements of the company, for the earlier Deutschland, a square-rigged three-master of about 717 tons, was the first to fly the then newly organized company's flag. She cost about $41,250, not a small sum in those early days of navigation, and had accommodations for twenty cabin and two hundred steerage passengers. She was shortly followed by the Nordamerika, and subsequently by the Rhein, Elbe, Oder, and Donau, all of about the same size. Their average westward passage from Hamburg to New York was forty days; eastward, twenty-nine days; while the fastest passage recorded by any of the fleet was twenty-nine days from Hamburg to New York and only nineteen on the eastward trip. The Deutschland of to-day has a net registered tonnage of 16,000, with a displacement of 23,000 tons. She holds the record for the fastest time across the Atlantic, eastbound as well as westbound. She has a passenger capacity for 467 first cabin, 300 second cabin, and 300 steerage. The luxuries she offers to all classes of passengers are matters of general knowledge. She is, indeed, a palace on the water. But if the Deutschland of to-day is the greatest achievement of the men who in 1847 sent across the Atlantic the little three-master, she represents, as well, years of endeavor and the success which has crowned energy and well directed effort. The Hamburg-American Company, which was organized primarily to facilitate direct traffic with the United States, is the oldest German line, and was established, as has been said, in 1847. Its capital, about $112,000, was subscribed with difficulty, and the enterprise was deemed very risky. There were many trials during the first few years, but these were successfully overcome, and in 1855 the directors decided the time had come to adopt steam power. fleet were withdrawn, and four new steamships were acquired in their stead. A fortnightly service was begun between Hamburg and New York, and occasionally vessels were sent to New Orleans. In 1867 the company owned ten large transatlantic steamers, several smaller craft, a considerable amount of valuable real estate, and an expensively built dry-dock. In 1872, when the company celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, the fleet had grown to twenty-five steamships, and a regular weekly ser Yalta vice to New York was maintained, with extra sailings, according to the 'demand of travel and traffic. By this time the company had extended its operations to Mexico, the West Indies, and the Spanish Main. For several years, progress was slow, but in 1888 the directors decided to construct twin-screw ships which should rival in speed and equal in elegance the finest crafts afloat. Two vessels, the Augusta Victoria and Columbia, were ordered at first. They were followed by the Fuerst Bismarck and the Normannia, names honored on the roll of Atlantic travel. The most recent additions to the fleet are too well known to make description necessary. The company at present owns a fleet of 124 ocean steamers, 134 river steamers, and so forth, representing 668,000 tons. The capital of the company is now about $25,000,000. To the perfection of Atlantic travel the Hamburg-American Company have added new joys to the wandering inclined by the spring and winter cruises they offer. They saw that many people would be glad to make extended trips, visiting places generally not included in the itinerary of the average globe-trotter, and to meet this desire they constructed they constructed a new twin-screw cruising steamer, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise, for cruising purposes only. This vessel, which combines the excellences of a completely equipped private yacht with the speed and safety of a great steamer, has already made a number of these cruises, to the delight of all who have ever traveled in her. |