SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, 39

The amount of participation of each factory was fixed when the
company entered the union, so that the amount furnished would be
in proportion to the capacity of the factory and the total sale.
At the close of the year the average price of various manufacturers
was considered together and from it.a total average price was reckned.
 The factories whose prices were above the average price fixed
had to pay the difference to the cashier of the association.
The Union of South German Portland Cement Manufacturers
was organized soon after the Silesian association came into existence
in the year 1893. It covered the following districts: Bavaria, Wiirttemberg,
 Baden, Hessen, Alsace-Lorraine, Hohenzollern, Luxemburg,
Birkenfeld, and a part of the Prussian Government districts of Trier,
Koblenz, Wiesbaden, and Kassel, which were south of the railroad
ines Trier, Koblenz, Wetzlar, and Fulda, extending to the edge of
the Bavarian border. This union had no such completed form of
operation and management as the Silesian. The total production
of various works was reckoned together annually, whereby the pro-Juction
 of a particular factory for the foregoing year was used as a
oasis to reckon its production for the following year. The total of
the amounts so reckoned formed a standard producing capacity,
which at the general meeting was increased or decreased on a perrentage
 basis, for all works, having due regard, of course, for the existing
 condition of the market. Sales were made by the manufaeturers
 themselves, who were obliged to observe minimum prices and
iefinite sales conditions. Sales were watched over by a controlling
reckoning board, which monthly must reckon the total production
of the district. It attempted then to equalize the excess of orders,
which were then given to the werks which had a less demand upon
them. If a natural equalization was not possible, then an equalization
 was made by money. If higher prices were charged than those
fixed, the difference must be paid to the reckoning board. Besides
the reckoning board the principal organ of the union was an advisory
 board, which audited the business books and negotiated trade
agreements. There was also a general assembly or general meeting.
For settlement of disputes or differences of opinion the same regulations
 existed as for the Silesian Association of Manufacturers. The
South German association existed in this form up to the year 1903.
At that time a crisis developed, which showed the form of organization
 to be weak in many particulars. Its weakness lay principally in
the annual reckoning plan for the works participating and also in the
fact that the sale of each factory was managed for itself and not by
a central selling agency. For these and various other reasons a
cartel of a better form was necessary.
The South German Cement Selling Agency, Limited (Die Siiddeutsche
 Cement verkaufsstelle G. m. b. H.), a new organization
with offices at Heidelberg, came into existence. It covered the same
district as the former South German Union. Besides a general
selling organization, the cartel purposes the buying up and esjahlishing
 of plants manufacturing hydraulic binder. The company
bought the cement from the works and then sold it to the customers.
 No member could sell to any other organization besides
the selling agents. It was managed by a principal agency, selling
 agencies, a board of directors, and a general meeting of