SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, 141

don), oleo oil and cotton oil (via Rotterdam), and hardware (Via
Hamburg). The large buyers as found in continental Europe and in
America do not as yet exist in Turkey, because investments of capital
are limited.
It has already been suggested how European competitors enhance
their chances in Turkey by loans to the Government, investment of
capital in public utilities, obtaining national or municipal concessions,
 loaning to Turkey officers or experts as councilors and advisers,
 organizing special banking and transport facilities, forming
chambers of commerce in Turkey in conjunction with home institutions
 of a similar character, arranging commercial excursions to and
trom Turkey, providing facilities for Turkish students going abroad,
itishing newspapers in Turkey, and maintaining in Turkey educational
 and charitable institutions. European nations enjoy many advantages
 which count heavily in their favor in the matter of foreign
trade, as, for instance, nationals residing and doing business abroad.
What is primarily needed in the interest of American commerce in
the Levant may be briefly summarized as follows:
1. Adequate direct and regular steamship connections, preferably
under the American flag.
2. American banks of both discount and investment in the prinripal
 Near Eastern centers, thereby helping to solve the question of
credits.
8. Through bills of lading between interior railroad points in the
United States to the markets out here and favorable railroad rates
for American exports.
With such improvements, American goods would stand an excellent
chance in the Levant, notwithstanding the European competition and
especially the German system of combination which appears to thrive
so well under a paternalistic form of Government.
In Turkey, as stated in the early part of the present report, manufacturing
 is still in the primitive stage of development. The country
is largely agricultural and pastoral. In a tariff bill now before Parliament,
 the Government is endeavoring by protective rates to foster
home industries. It will take years before much is accomplished in
this direction.
NORTH AMERICA.
CANADA.

Rpesiel overt ‘of Consul General John G. Foster, Ottawa, Canada, October
12, 4

The merger movement.—In Canada there do not appear to be any
industrial amalgamations in the nature of cartels, such as operate
ander Government sanction in Germany, for example; but within
the past six or seven years there has been a pronounced tendency
toward the formation of industrial combinations or mergers along
practically the same lines as those in the United States. Prior to
1909 the movement had not assumed very large proportions, but in
that year and in the years immediately following there was a pronounced
 wave of “mergeritis,” as the movement has been termed
by some observers. The growth of the country, its rapidly increasing
 population, the changed market conditions, and other developments
 are in part accountable for the consummation of many industrial
 amalgamations. The tendency at that time might also be