106 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
50 and 60 per cent of the straw paper manufactured in France. It
receives no export bounties from the Government nor rebates on
freight. The following are the names of the several plants that are
included in the membership of the organization:

Usine de Grandmont, St. Junien (Haute-Vienne).
Usine Notre Dame du Pont, St. Junien (Haute-Vienne),
Usine du Moulin Pelgros, St. Junien (Haute-Vienne).
Papeterie de Saint Brice, St. Junien (Haute-Vienne),
Usine du Dérot, St. Junien (Haute-Vienne).
Usine du Moulin Neuf, Exideuil (Charente).
Usine Blanchas-Chambas, Exideuil (Charente),
Moulin de Puygrénier, Confolens (Charente).
Usine Fraisseix, St. Léonard (Haute-Vienne).
Usinec du Val d’Evirand, Feytiat (Haute-Vienne).”*
Syndicat de la Meunerie Francaise (French Flour Milling Syndicate).—*
 The Syndicat de la Meunerie Francaise, in the Bourse du
Commerce, Paris, is an organization which has among its members
practically all of the millers and flour brokers of France. But this
syndicate makes no attempt to distribute work or divide territory,
or to regulate production, or to influence prices. I am told that the
idea of the syndicate is to promote the general welfare of its members
 as a body. ~If, for example, some projected law, national or district,
 would operate to the disadvantage of the flour industry, this
syndicate exerts all its influence to defeat the passage of the law.
If tariff changes are contemplated by the Government and these
changes would adversely affect the members of the syndicate, then
every influence is exerted to prevent the changes being made. If
some newly patented process of manufacture is brought to the attention
 of one member of the syndicate, and if he does not care to experiment
 therewith on his sole account, he can have the syndicate undertake
 a complete investigation for the benefit of all the members.
Also, the bad debts of each member are reported to the syndicate
for the benefit of all other members; and the names and descriptions
of all dishonest salesmen are kept on file for all members. At times
also the syndicate has used its influence to protect its members from
what were considered unreasonable prices demanded by the farmers
for their grain. ;
“This organization is not a cartel, or a trust, in the general meaning
 of those terms. The members are entirely free to make their
prices and to operate in whatever territories they can sell. In fact,
wheat and flour prices are regulated by the operations of the Bourse;
as determined on Wednesday afternoon of each week, and the prices
of the Bourse are themselves regulated by the arrivals of wheat
and flour in the harbors of the country and from the farms of France.
“The war has interrupted much of the work of the syndicate as
an entity, and probably at present the millers and brokers are guided
in many things by the Grands Moulins de Corbeil. One prominent
broker here in Paris says that it has been impossible for this Syndicat
de la Meunerie Francaise to attempt to regulate prices or divide
territories because of the intense rivalry and jealousy among the
business men in this industry.”
Société des Nouvelles Galeries (Society of New Stores).—* The
Société des Nouvelles Galeries, 20 Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, Paris.

1 Report from American consul! at Limoges.
t Report of secretary to American commercial attaché at Paris.