38 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
remedy that we trust that we shall establish in time an American
merchant marine.

A member of a New York firm that exports and imports crude
materials on commission. says.

In my line the main thing—in fact the vital thing—of importance
far in excess of any that might lie in a combination between producers
in its effect on the export trade is the absence of merchant-marine
service and freight room to carry goods away. That does not only
apply to present conditions, where freight room has been taken up
on account of the exigencies of war, but also in times of peace. The
British steamship companies could give special facilities to their
axporters in certain lines. For example, I recall that two years before
the war we intended to open direct business with the Gold Coast. Our
consul there published a little summary in the Consular Trade Report
in order to help American exporters and importers to do direct business.
 It was impossible, we found, because there were almost no
steamers at all trading direct between New York and the Gold Coast,
and all business had to go through Liverpool merchants.
Americans charged higher freights.—It is stated that foreign
steamship interests have sometimes given manufacturers and producers
 of their own nationality lower rates than were given Americans
for shipments to South America and other competitive markets.
Several examples of such discrimination have come to the attention
»f the Commission, of which a few are cited herewith.
A large manufacturer of automobiles said that in an important
deal in South America in which American, German, and English bids
were submitted, the Germans were enabled to obtain lower freights
from a German shipping company, and thus secured the business.
In discussing export trade conditions in South America, a manu-Facturer
 of musical instruments said :
The advantage that the German and English manufacturers have
had over the American manufacturer, as shown by our experience of
over 10 years in the South American field, is through the preferential
rates given German and English manufacturers by the steamship
lines running from their countries to South America over the rates
that we can obtain under the German and English flags. from American
 ports to South America.

The American consul at Vladivostgk, shortly after the outbreak of
the war, described the freight-rate handicap which American exsorters
 had previously encountered in his territory, as follows:
American manufacturers, notwithstanding their proximity to this
market, have in the past been at a disadvantage in shipping facilities
and freight rates. Before the war German and British shipping
lines had regular boats from Hamburg, Antwerp, London, and Liverpool
 direct to Vladivostok and Nikolalevsk, with freight rates much
lower than from America, notwithstanding the great difference in
Jistance.