Keen Competition for Trade through the Gorges Ichang, July 15.
The arrangement for standardization of freight rates made at a conference on rates and fares recently did not last long. Some of the smaller shipping companies fell away first and the "stronger companies retorted by making still lower quotations: for freights. A bale of cotton yarn can now be transported from Ichang to Chungking for Tls. 1.60, while ordinary cargo has been shipped as low as 56 tael cents per picul. This is as cheap or even cheaper than the junks can carry freight and augurs an active freight war until some agreement can be reached between the companies. Passenger fares are also down again and one steamer is reported to have left Ichang for Chungking recently, carrying passengers for less than 5 deck passage.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.