The Steamship Fare War That Cut Seattle to San Francisco to $15
The Pacific Coast Steamship Company slashes cabin and steerage rates as a rival steamer forces a fight to the finish.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Pacific Coast Steamship Company yesterday chopped rates on its steamers running between this city and San Francisco, reducing the fare for cabin passengers from $20 to $15 and the steerage from $10 to $5, commencing on February 3. This is done in opposition to the steamer Farallon, which sails from Schwabacher's wharf. J. H. Johnson, the company's agent in this city, said yesterday that the fight was to a finish, and if need be his company could afford to carry passengers for nothing for a time. He stated that when his company started in on a war of this kind money was no object. The rival Alaska steamers City of Topeka and Chilkat both left yesterday morning. The Topeka had 31 saloon and steerage passengers and the Chilkat 20 saloon and 12 steerage. This is a very large number for this season of the year, and shows that many took advantage of the big cut. Mr. Johnson said: 'It is probable that on the next Alaska steamer, rates will be considerably less than those on the Topeka. As is usual in rate wars, no round trip tickets will be sold. At present the rate from Juneau is the same as from Seattle, but the traffic is much lighter.'
“The fight was to a finish, and if need be his company could afford to carry passengers for nothing for a time.”
Seattle's economy has always been tied to the price of moving people and goods across the water, from steamship fare wars to today's ferry and cruise traffic. The 1895 cut shows how a single rival vessel could force down rates and how quickly competition turned into a fight to the finish.
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