CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 269

covering this or that territory. These organizations undoubtedly
are additional factors in the cooperation of the Japanese in their
export trade. The Japan Cotton Spinners’ Association, organized
in 1882, has been important in the export trade. By a system of
premiums to merchants or mills on exports of coarse yarns and cloths,
and even by a lottery system tried for a while in 1908, the association
 has undertaken to stimulate exports.!
Other factors named as contributing to the success of Japanese
over American goods in China are (1) the lower cost of production
and transportation, (2) the presence on the ground of Japanese firms
with extensive facilities for the distribution of goods, enabling the
Chinese dealers to obtain supplies in quantities as small as they desire,
while in buying American goods through Shanghai importers it is necessary
 to contract for considerable quantities at a time—more than
most native dealers are able to handle, and (3) the difference in time
required for filling a contract. American cotton goods, it is said,
are recognized by the Chinese as. superior in quality to those made
in Japan.?
Combinations in China.—There is in China a strong movement
toward retaining trade among the domestic mills. These have the
advantage of cheap labor. They are organized as the Cotton Mill
Owners’ Association, which, it is claimed, is an organization similar
to those in the United States, devoted solely to such objects as
recommendations for special tariff or taxation treatment.
Organization among the cotton-goods dealers in China usually
takes the form of guilds, which exist in nearly all the important
cities. Practically the entire distribution of cotton goods from
Shanghai is controlled by the local piece-goods guild. The importance
 of this is evident when it is recalled that American goods are
purchased mostly for cash in Shanghai by dealers and sold to importers
 in Newchwang, who in turn sell to dealers in the interior, whereas
the Japanese ship direct to Tientsin and Manchuria, because they
are nearer to these markets than to Shanghai, and sell direct to
Chinese dealers.?

COOPERATION AMONG AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS FOR EXPORT TRADE.

To facilitate and make more effective the textile export operations
of the United States and, in particular, to meet the foreign competitive
 conditions outlined above, American manufacturers and
pxporters of textiles have expressed themselves generally as favoring
some sort of organization for export trade. A few believe such
organizations should be confined to noncompeting lines in the
1 Bureau of Foreign snd Domestic Commerce, Special Agents Series. No. 86, 1914, pp. 58-64, 88-103 and
128,
Pt. TI, pp. 227-228.
i Bureau of Foreien and Domestic Commerce, Special Agents Series, No. 107, 1916, vp. 52. 119-120.