Still Cheaper Travel

For the past 18 months transatlantic-steamship companies have been ploughing through heavy financial seas with little ballast aboard. Bookings have fallen off sharply despite all manner of inducements to tourists. Last summer first-class rates were cut 10% to 30%. Last month Cunard Steamship Co. resorted to instalment-plan ticket sales. Ostensibly to consider further rate reductions, the North Atlantic Passenger Conference met last week in Brussels. Before it had time to consider anything, U. S. Lines (which is not a member of the Conference) tossed a bomb into its midst.

Announced in Manhattan was a 20% cut in all classes of passage aboard the three large U. S. Liners (Leviathan, President Harding, President Roosevelt), plus a further reduction on de luxe accommodations, plus elimination of the increased rates for summer travel. Competing lines immediately met the issue. North German Lloyd and Hamburg-American, Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (French Line), Canadian Pacific, White Star. Red Star, Atlantic Transport and Cunard (which has been agitating for reductions since last year's report showed a -L-533,000 net loss) cut prices in all classes an average of 20%. The newly consolidated

Italian Lines made 10% to 20% cuts on their southern route. No pain to travelers was this price-cutting. Under the new rates one can travel tourist-class to England for as little as $84, to England and back to the U. S. for $148. A trip to France on the Rochambeau (cabin-class) can be had for $110. A first-class trip on the Homeric costs $168. For the famed Prince of Wales suite on the Berengaria the price has been cut from $2,430 to $1,267.50. Average minimum rates, new and old: New* Old First Class $200 $250 Cabin 132 165 Second Class 120 152 Tourist 108 132 Third Class 71.50 79.50 The Conference was faced with a difficult problem. If it refused to approve the cuts, member companies might give 30 days notice and withdraw. Said North German Lloyd's John Schroeder: "I am an optimist." Said French Lines' Felix Lachesnez-Heude: "We are prepared to make this sacrifice ... in the hope that it will develop much new business."

*Low as these rates seemed, they were far above the prices in 1904 when a price war sent the price of third class passage to $10.

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