258 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,
As to cooperative organizations for handling foreign trade, J. H.
Kirby, a prominent yellow pine lumber manufacturer of Houston,
Tex., said:

We would be on the same basis then with our competitors, especially our
British possessions’ competitors, who have no such handicap, as I understand
it. And they form these organizations for the purpose of handling foreign
trade. They even go so far as to provide bottoms to carry their product in.

(b) Effect on American Export Trade.

Eli Winkler, of Isaac Winkler &amp; Bros., Cincinnati, Ohio, selling
agents for the Columbia Chemical Co., speaking of the effect of
foreign combinations in the South American trade, said:
The result is that we five or six manufacturers in this country, who are
trying to find a market for our surplus, if we ever have it—we have had it—
and we run up against these enormous company combinations; they are all
smart, brainy people who are connected with them, and they know their
business.
As soon as we go after trade In Brazil, for example, they will pluck our
heads off in Brazil. When we get tired there, we go somewhere else, and there
Is not much left of us. They will pursue that policy, and have been doing it
for years. They have had a market for themselves for probably 100 years.
They have never had any interference and naturally they resent it now and
make every effort to prevent our inroads.
The business itself is not particularly large, as business goes nowadays;
that is, the volume, Probably $8,000,000 or $10,000,000 is the amount of their
exports in our line. But, of course, with their organization and concentration,
as they have it, they are capable of doing it much cheaper than we are. We
five are fighting, not only each other, but we are fighting them also.
The operations of a German chemical cartel in stifling American
exports were described by Herbert H. Dow, of the Dow Chemical Co.,
Midland, Mich. Excerpts from his statement follow:

Possibly the most highly organized chemical in existence is indigo. It is the
most important of all the dyes. Possibly eight or nine years ago we made a
little indigo in the laboratory to see if we could make it. From time to time
we have worked on the matter of intermediate products and are to-day turning
out one intermediate product that we did not turn out a few months ago. We
have an organization now working on indigo. It will require, however, a very
large investment to complete an indigo plant, if they decide that they know how
to make it well enough so that they think they can compete. The question will
then arise as to whether the price will immediately be reduced the minute we
start to manufacture.
All indigo is sold through a German organization. Not one pound is sold
otherwise. And this applies, as far as I know, to all German chemicals.

We have been up against the German Government in competition, and we
believe that we can compete with Germany in any product that is made in sufficient
 amount, provided we have the time and have learned the tricks of the
trade. Until we learn the tricks of the trade, however, we can not compete.
We have had some experience in the past in which a German has come over to
our plant and told us that for every pound we exported he would put two
pounds in the United States, irrespective of the price.
As I said, the representative of the German cartel told us, in so many words,
that he would put two pounds in the United States, irrespective of price, for
every pound we sent abroad. The price at that time was about 49 cents in
Germany, but, at first, they tried to maintain the market price at 15 cents
in the United States after paying the import duty of 25 per cent on the German
 price.

Prof. Oliver M. W. Sprague, professor of banking and finance,
Harvard School of Business Administration, Cambridge, Mass., said :
My own feeling is that the most valuable, the most profitable foreign trade
which we will develop, in addition to that which arises out of the exports of