COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE. 177

ments. German capital has been the leader in promoting and finaneing
 such projects. The German firm most prominent in this work in
Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile has apparently been the
Siemens-Schuckert Co., although the Allgemeine Elektricitéts-Gesellschaft
 has shared largely in such business. The success of the
Germans ih obtaining contracts for installation in cases where bids
were on a competitive basis was attributed by numerous informants
to the support of the German Government, through the Deutsche
Bank. This, it was stated, enabled it to make a practice of underbidding
 any competitor, and, through control of the field and the
installation of German electrical apparatus, to develop a permanent
large market for German electrical supplies. Some informants
stated that it was the practice of their German competitors, after
seciiring stich 8 contract, to obtain modifications in the specifications
which allowed the substitution of cheaper material than originally
called for. In consequence the German installations have frequently
given unsatisfactory service, because of inability to do work up to their
specified capacity. On the other hand, other informants, who
claimed to be acquainted through experience with such installations
of German electrical machinery, stated that it not only was cheaper
but gave satisfactory results. It was stated, in Argentina, that
the result of the struggle of the German electrical construction and
supply firms to secure control of the trade by systematically underbidding
 on all contracts for installation and supplies had resulted in
a heavy financial loss to the German firms and little business for
their competitors.
Of the importations of electrical goods into Argentina in 1913, over
50 per cent were of German origin, 34 per cent of British, and 6 per
cent from the United States. The establishment of a permanent
and extensive demand for American goods in these lines appears
dependent directly on the investment of American capital in street
railways, light and power companies, and other important consumers
of electrical supplies.

SECTION 5. THE COMPETITION FROM FOREIGN COMBINATIONS.

As has already been pointed out, the European war has seriously
interfered with the South American trade of many of the European
cartels and combinations. This is particularly true of the Belgian
and German organizations, which seem to have been most effective
aids to the development of the foreign trade of those countries. As
a result, they have at present little or no competitive effeat on the
American trade. The same is, to a considerable degree, true of
British and French combinations, many of which covered products
which no longer can be exported freeiy.
M941° ~16——13