206 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,

distinct value of proprietary names, formule, and brands. Speaking
broadly, however, this is one of the industries in which export cooperation
 might be expected to prove highly beneficial.
The most striking feature of the chemical industry and the one
which has led many of those engaged in it to believe that combined
efforts are essential to any development of export is its interrelation
and interdependence. The different items in the industry can not be
considered separately, but must be thought of as component parts of
an organism, each of them vital to some other one, all of them serving
some useful function in the industry as an organic unit.
In the manufacture of chemicals in America there are a few large
houses and a great many small ones. The large houses are already
equipped for foreign trade and would have little to gain by combination.
 The small manufacturers, however, are seldom in a position
to undergo the expense of opening up and maintaining an export business.
 When a small manufacturer of some chemical item or items
begins to consider conducting an export trade of his own he is discouraged
 by the obstacles confronting him. Often he is not familiar with
the commercial forms in use, he does not know what other products
of the same character as his own are sold in the foreign market. He
does not know what advertising will be necessary, what import duties
prevail, what laws may affect the sale of his product, to what extent
buyers are financially sound, what kind of packing is necessary, and
countless other elements in the situation which might mean ruin to
his trade. The demands in South American markets are little known
and only intimate study can develop just what chemicals are needed,
in what form, and in what packages, and how they could be economically
 marketed in those countries. The question of credits, the habits
and customs of the people and their methods of doing business must
all be carefully considered.
The Manufacturing Chemists’ Association of the United States, in
reply to a query by the Commission, stated:
The association believes that there is not only an opportunity for,
but an obligation upon American manufacturers to develop the foraign
 trade of this country, The suggestion of export cooperative
associations as an economic pete of undertaking this problem
would seem to have merit, and the association believes the Government
 should remove any unnecessary legal obstacles which stand in
the way of this development.
This body is an organization composed of about 40 concerns
engaged in producing a great variety of articles. It is estimated that
BO per cent of the manufacturers of heavy chemicals are represented
im the organization. After the outbreak of the war the association
began an active study of the foreign trade situation, and as a result
of investigations by its executive committee consulted the State and