SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. 7
as possible among the members, with due consideration for the wishes
of the purchaser and the location of the plant (freight rates). These
five plants are the only manufacturers of white sheet metal in Germany.
 Because of the cheapness of the English product they are
only able to sell about 60 per cent of the demand of the whole market,
the other 40 per cent being imported from England.
In 1912 the above-named five firms were joined by the Vereinigte
Stahlwerke van der Zypen and their new plant Wissener Eisenhiitten
 A.-G. in Koln-Deutz and the Capito and Klein A.-G. in
Benrath. This led to a reduction in the price of tin cans of 25 pfennigs
 a case.
A “Central Selling Agency for Iron Packing Bands, Limited ”
(Verkaufsstelle fiir a .G. m. b. H.) was
founded as a limited stock company in Diisseldorf, composed of the
following firms with definite quotas assigned to each: Boecker &amp;
Haver, Boecker &amp; Rohr, Weber &amp; Giese, Vereinigte Walz- und
Rohrenwalzwerke A.-G., all located in Hohenlimburg ; Gewerkschaft
Deutscher Kaiser, a Thyssen concern, in Dinslaken ; Eisen- und Stahldrahtwerke
 G. m. b. H., in Schwelm; Ernst Selve, in Augustenthal ;
and Vereinigte Bierbachs’sche Drahtwerke, in Altena, i. W.
The Deutsche Feinblechverband G. m. b. H. in Kéln (German
Sheet Union, Limited), founded in 1902, syndicated all so-called
commercial sheet iron not having special quality specifications
and all fine sheet iron under 5 mm. thickness made from iron
or steel. Out of 60 to 65 plants, 45 joined the Verband. Also a
half dozen firms were connected loosely with the Verband under
contract. This combination expired in 1904 because of foreign
competition and the price policy of the Steel Works Verband. The
allied industries were immediately reorganized, however, with the
Stahlschwarzblechvereinigung (Black Sheet Steel Union), including
only about one-eighth of the entire industry. This reorganization
was to take advantage of the export bounty paid by the Stahlwerksverband
 only to an organized industry.
The Rohrenkonvention (Tube Convention), whose former convention
 was dissolved in 1912, has been reorganized again.
The Mannesmann-Rohrenwerke-Verkaufsgemeinschaft (Mannesmann
 Tube Works Selling Union), an organization for supplying the
market for seamless gas pipes, has been perfected through an understanding
 between the Mannesmann and Thyssen interests and the
Gewerkschaft Kifernburg zu Nassau. The Manriesmann interests
withdrew their discounts, running from 15 to 20 marks ($3.57 to
$4.76) a ton, and the Thyssen interests agreed not to ent the Mannesmann
 prices.
The Deutsche Abflussrohr-Verkaufsstelle (German Drainage Pipe
Selling Office) is a central selling organization for the drainage-pipe
industry.
The Walzdrahtverband (Rod Union), manufacturers of rolled
wire, 98 per cent of which is used by the drawn-wire and nail
industries, was formed in 1908 under the name of Drahtwalzwerke
A.-G. (Rod Rolling Mills Company), which superseded an earlier
Berlin organization. The old offices were moved to Diisseldorf
in order to be in closer touch with the Stahlwerksverband. The
Berlin office had been founded in 1902 as successor to the Deutsche
Stahlwerke Syndicate, which had marketed its goods through the