The Nome Daily Nugget

The rate war that is threatened among the trans-Atlantic steamship companies may result in some good. It grows out of a beggarly quarrel over the routing of steerage passengers. If carried out it is practically certain to lead to important developments on this side of the water some of which will not be agreeable to the contentious parties. Immigrants in this country once spontaneous, is now controlled to a great extent by powerful steamship companies. They depopulate whole villages and sections of Southern Europe. They bring over tens of thousands who never would think of coming were it not for the exaggerated representations that are made to them. A rate war would reveal some of the methods that have been in use for years past. It would be likely also to lead to congressional action which would put some of these heartless traffickers in human life and human hopes out of business.-Ex.