242 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
Beginning with 1900, free competition for Government orders was
abolished and the apportionment of orders among the various mills
vas placed temporarily in charge of a special committee of ministers.
The committee fixes prices on railroad equipment for three years in
advance; it excludes foreign competitors and includes orders placed
by private railroads in the quotas allotted to each mill. It collects
nformation as to the capacity of iron works, as to their equipment
and efficiency, and the amount of orders received both from the
{rovernment and private roads.
The railroad-equipment syndicates are a direct outgrowth of the
Government apportionment policy, and they are typical examples of
the second group of iron syndicates.
The railroad-car syndicate “Prodvagon” was first organized in
£904 as a selling agency under a joint-stock corporation charter. It
:mbraced 13 mills, controlling over 95 per cent of the total sales of
railroad cars.
The syndicate of locomotive works embraces seven or eight factories
 and exists by virtue of a simple agreement. It seems to work
2ffectively, because its members are represented on the Government
&gt;ommittee on apportionment.
The “ Prodameta ” (see pp. 281-232) sold iron parts of railroad
cars intended for export from 20 to 30 per cent below the price
nuoted for the home market.?

UNITED STATES.

Existing cooperation.—There are a number of manufacturers’
associations which deal with different classes of finished products.
Examples are the National Railway Appliances Association, the Association
 of Manufacturers of Chilled Car Tires, the National Machine
Tool Builders’ Association, the American Supply and Machinery
Manufacturers’ Association, and the National Automobile Chamber of
Commerce. Such associations are primarily interested in various
problems met in the domestic trade.
In certain lines there are large companies having world-wide selling
 organizations. Some of these are: International Harvester Co.,
United Shoe Machinery Co., National Cash Register Co., Singer
Sewing Machine Co., American Locomotive Co., The Burroughs
Adding Machine Co., and several large typewriter companies.
In a number of instances, manufacturers and producers of finished
iron and steel factory products in noncompeting, but usually kindred
lines, have cooperated for export trade in a joint selling arrangement,
 primarily in order to reduce their individual selling expenses.
In some cases the cooperation was for the purpose of carrying on
some advertising or other promotional campaign for foreign trade.

! Sec. 11 of the by-laws of the committee. Kafengaus, op. cit, p. 122,
t Kafengaus, op. cit., p. 144.