CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 239

foreign competition, particularly of American origin, is very influ-.ntial
 in the matter of German customs duties, and is frequently
sonsulted by the authorities in connection with the import and export
 valuations of machine tools and other matters relating to the
industry. It has established standards for machine tools supplied
jo German Government railways, and its opinion in certain technical
 matters has been accepted as final by the authorities.” It has
also carried on a systematic and extensive propaganda in favor of
(terman machines for German shops at home and abroad.
Shoe machinery.—Manufacturers of shoe machinery in Germany
formed a combination in 1915 styled the * Verband zur Abwehr des
Schuhmaschinentrusts E.-V.,” with the object of meeting more successfully
 the competition of the United Shoe Machinery Co. of the
United States, and its European branches. The combination is
composed of manufacturers of shoe machinery, lasts, skiving knives,
syelets, lacing hooks, and needles.”
Pump machinery.—German pump manufacturers exporting to
Turkey are organized in the “ Fluegel Pumpen Kartell,” which includes
 in its membership all such makers. All of the important
patents in air pumps are owned by the great German electrical
concern, the Allgemeine Elektricitits-Gesellschaft. They will license
anyone to make and sell the article who will agree to maintain a
certain minimum price, and business is apportioned among the various
 manufacturers according to the capacity of their plants.
Railway Rolling Stock.—Among formal organizations of German
 manufactures of railway equipment may be mentioned the
Association of Railway Carriage Manufacturers (Verband Deutscher
Waggon Fabrikanten), which controls 90 per cent of the total German
 production. The Orenstein-Koppel Aktien-Gesellschaft represents
 a syndicate of producers of narrow-gauge railway materials.
It has practically eliminated French and Belgian competition in
Turkey which formerly constituted the Turkish supply. Several
associations of German steel works, principally railway rolling stock,
were prolonged in 1914 for a term of years. The products represented
 were wheels, rims, axles, loose wheel parts. sectional locomotive
 wheels, and switches.
An American manufacturer of well-known engineering specialties
assigned the general spirit of cooperation resulting from the highly
organized condition of German industry as a factor militating
against ‘American export trade. His products are standard on railroads
 in practically every country in the world with the exception of

1 A. J. Wolfe, Commercial Organizations in Germany, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
Commerce, Special Agents Series No. 78, 1914, p. 43.
3 The Shoe and Leather Record (London), Apr. 30, 1915, p. 29.