Transatlantic Cut

No industry has been sunk deeper by Depression than transatlantic shipping. Plumb lines measuring the depth: a 30% to 50% decrease this year in American tourist traffic; a corresponding $250,000,000 drop in European tourist receipts. Last week, at the insistence of the Britishers, 18 major transatlantic lines met in Paris to take action.

The alternatives confronting the conferees were: 1) to restrict travel by cutting down schedules or 2) to increase travel by cutting down rates. They took the latter course, announced a cut beginning Aug. 17 of from 10% to 30% in first-class rates, of 13% in third-class rates. In shipping circles it was rumored that the cut had been practically forced by the British, who had threatened a rate war against the French and German lines. Oldsters recalled that in 1904 British and German steamship companies competed so bitterly for immigrant trade that one could travel from Great Britain to New York for less than $10.

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