194 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

There is another question in relation or in connection with our
relations with Germany to which I think it is but meet that I should
call your attenticn and remind you of what has been done in the past.
A fow years ago we entered into a contract of community of interests
with Mo, Renner &amp; Co., in order to obviate, if possible, or at least
alleviate, the competition existing on the continental market between
our Argentine-produccd extract and the extract produced in the continentul
 factories. What is the position of that contract to-d.y? Is
it in existence? Is it suspended during the war? Is it inoperative ?
Will it continue and be considered operative during and after the
war? Those are questions which I can not answer because the lawyers
are not in a position to give us an authoritative statement upon the
point. I must tell you that in normal times Germany and Austria
are by far and away the greatest consumers of our products. They
are by far and away the greatest consumers of logs—that is to say,
the raw material which is extracted from our forests—and, after the
United States, they are by far the largest consumers of extract.
There have been some changes in the quebracho industry since the
time of Baron d’Erlanger’s speech to the stockholders. As a result
of the war the price of quebracho extract has risen from about £15
to nearly £50 per ton. The demand for the material is such that the
exports of Argentina in 1915 were 111,583 tons, nearly 23,000 more
than in 1914, in spite of the fact that the price has risen over 300 per
cent and the freight on it to Europe 1,500. per cent. The British
Government has imposed certain regulations for the ¢onduct of the
business of the Forestal Land, Timber &amp; Railways Co. It requires
it to sell to tanners in the United Kingdom all the extract that they
need at a price not over a certain fixed maximum price. It permits
any surplus to be marketed in the United States to certain tanners
who agree not to use it for the manufacture of supplies for Germany.
 The price which such tanners pay must be not less than a
certain fixed minimum price, which has been fixed at a point substantially
 higher than the maximum price permitted to be charged
the English tanners. It is stated that all sales of extract to the
American tanners must obtain the approval of the British consul at
New York.
THE IODINE COMBINATION.

The extensive nitrate fields in the north of Chile form the greatest
known available source of sodium nitrate. The great demand for
this article in many lines of manufacture and as a fertilizer in agriculture
 has developed the most important industry in Chile. Of the
total exports from Chile the value of the products of this industry
forms 75 per cent; and through the operation of a heavy export tax
and from royalties received from mines on State lands, the Chilean
Government derives more than half its revenues from nitrate.