CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 301

well be lower. Cement is made by grinding, calcining, and regrinding
a mixture of clayey materials and limestone. In the eastern part of
the United States such a mixture already exists, practically perfectly
balanced, in various argillaceous limestones, so that this ‘cement
rock” is the only raw material of this kind required. In Europe,
however, limestone and clayey elements must be brought together
from different deposits, which materially increases the cost of production.
 Furthermore, coal is*one of the chief items of cost in the
manufacture of Portland cement, and coal in the United States is
produced at from one-half to one-third the cost of mining in Germany,
England, Belgium, and France. From the Lehigh district cement
reaches tidewater at a railroad freight rate of 17 cents per barrel,
and from the mills up the Hudson it can be floated down at much
lower rates. This compares with 15 cents per barrel freight to ports
for the competing German cement and 8 cents per barrel for the
British. Thus the United States enjoys the advantages of natural
deposits of cheaply available raw material, large scale production,
low manufacturing costs, and accessibility to the seaboard.
In spite of these advantages, however, Germany, Belgium, Great
Britain, and France proportionally far outstrip the United States in
the export of Portland cement. In 1913 the United States exported
4,000,000 barrels, while Germany exported 6,650,0002 barrels,
Great Britain 4,400,000 % barrels, Belgium 5,200,000 barrels, and
France 2,350,000 ® barrels. In that year the United States exported
only about 4 per cent of its total production, while in 1912 Germany
exported about 15 per cent of its production,® and in recent years
France has exported as much as 23 per cent of its production.
Similarly, Belgium and England export a far greater proportion of
their output than does the United States.” Furthermore, of the little
which the United States did export prior to the war, five-sixths went
to North American countries—notably Panama, Canada, and Cuba-—
while only one-sixth went to South America, and in that important
market American producers had but an insignificant share of the
business,
This condition resulted from two decisive advantages enjoyed by
European cement mills. They had lower ocean freights to South
America, and through cartels, syndicates, and amalgamations they
were united into powerful groups, so that individual American producers
 were opposed by powerful foreign combinations which could
maintain superior selling organizations in Latin America.

Commerce and Navigation of the United States, 1914, p. 377. (Fiscal year.)
 Statistisches Jahrbuch [ir das Deutsche Reich, 1914, p. 201.
3 Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries, 1914, p. 41.
| Tableau Général du Commerce de la Belgique, 1913, p. 119.
' Tableau Général du Commerce et de la Navigation, Paris, 1913, p. 501.
+ Statistisches Jahrbuch fiir das Deutsche Reich, 1914, pp. 116 and 201.
‘ Minaral Resources of United States. 1914 (U. 8S. Geological Survey), Pt. II. pn. 249.