254 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
mill, or some equitable method by which each member of the association would
receive his proportional share.
=

Practically all of these steamship lines, whether Italian, German, French, or
English, are in agreement, by which they pool the territory and pool the freight
from any one country or any one continent. Then, there are arrangements
with the charterer by which these steamship companies allow-—I think it is 10
per cent—rebates to any shipper who ships continuously by allied steamship
lines, or the lines in the agreement. They hold this rebate for six months,
and at the end of the first six months the shipper gets one month’s rebate back.
He is always six months in arrears, so far ag the rebate goes. If at any time
he ships by an independent line he forfeits the entire amount of rebate, and
that, in a good many cases, amounts to many hundreds or thousands of
dollars.

They (Germans) have banks, steamship lines, and manufacturers, and all
are allied and working together, hand in hand. They have manufacturers’
associations, I understand, in Germany which enable them to give the very
iong-time credits they do. That is, a manufacturer will go to South America,
and if he is a member of the association at home, he can sell his goods on
three, six, or nine months’ time, taking the note from his customer, indorse it,
and send it back to his association in Germany, and the association will take
care of it for him, through the Deutsche Bank, one of the largest German
banks, which is fostering the parent organization in Germany. In fact, they
work in very close combination. I do not think, or did not hear, that the
English work in that way. I think they are on a mere competitive basis and
work more as individuals than do the Germans.

oe

The Germans had to use artificial means to get into the South .American
countries and secure the trade. They had to cooperate and combine and eliminate
 every possible chance of competition among themselves that they possibly
could; and I think that accounts for the highly efficient organization of the
German banks, steamship companies, and manufacturers.
As to the potash syndicate, J. Ogden Armour, president of
Armour &amp; Co., Chicago, Ill., said:

In carrying on our various industries we have come to know the European
“trade convention,” the “syndicate,” the * cartel,” and the ‘ get together”
of continental Europe, and especially of Germany, where this method of buying
and selling has reached its greatest development. We buy from them; we sell
to them ; we compete with them. Many of these syndicates are as efficient as
buzz saws and as dangerous to fool with. Sales pooling is encouraged by the
German Government, In some industries the German States participate. The
result is greater efficiency at less cost, the public as well as the member sharing
the economy. Some of these conventions “ go wrong,” as, for instance, the one
controlling the buying and selling of some 300 glue factories scattered through
Germany and Austria; others “ go right,” as, for example, the steel convention,
the sulphate of ammonia selling company, and last, but not least, the potash
syndicate.
This syndicate now represents some 160 mines, owned probably by 80 companies.
 This one selling organization takes the place of, say, 80 under
competitive conditions, and saves the industry and the country at large an
unnecessary selling expense. It has one export department, with representatives
 in every country. Its educational fund totals a million and a half
dollars a year, and a large part is expended in foreign trade propaganda.
Its trade increases each year. Prices, considering the number of mines
participating, have been fairly reasonable. Mining has been carried on under
strict Government supervision, with no waste. Their prices are profitable
enough’ to cover good mining methods, unlike much of our coal mining, where,
I understand, low prices have compelled wasteful mining methods and inadequate
 protection to workers. ,
Alfred Terrell, of the Simmons Manufacturing Co., Kenosha, Wis.,
which manufactures metal beds, said:
In 1911 negotiations that ran over several months took place between the
British Manufacturers’ Federation and the Bedstead Workmen's Association