Charges Foreign Shipping Controls Boards of Trade
A New York ship broker testifies before a congressional committee that foreign shipping interests had quietly seized control of American chambers of commerce and maritime exchanges, skewing national policy debates on shipping legislation.
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Omaha Daily Bee 187?-1922 · February 21, 1915 · Page 1
1 min readWASHINGTON, Feb. 20.
Charges that representatives of foreign shipping interests control principal committees of many chambers of commerce, boards of trade and maritime exchanges have honeycombed the American maritime field were made today by Wallace Downey, a New York ship broker, before the special committee investigating the alleged lobby against the administration ship bill.
Downey told the committee he was the organizer of the United States Merchant Marine association, which restricted its membership to Americans having no connections with foreign shipping interests. Secretary Walsh wanted to know why that discrimination was made.
"The maritime field of this nation," replied Downey, "has been honeycombed with representatives of the foreign shipping interests. Innumerable organizations, such as chambers of commerce, boards of trade and maritime exchanges, have been formed in this country. Representatives of foreign shipping interests have joined these organizations, secured control of the principal committees, and when the organization takes a stand on a maritime matter where the line must be drawn between foreign shipping interests and American interests, they dictate the resolutions. Thus, you gentlemen in congress and other legislative bodies do not get the real American viewpoint in such matters. For this reason we made the limitation."
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