9272 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

ridiculous to have seven or eight concerns having seven or eight representatives
-ouring South America, as is the case at the present time in a good many lines.
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We have made great progress in recent years, and the percentage of increase
in the export of manufactured articles was greater in the period of 1900 to 1912
than that of Great Britain or Germany, but if the figures for oil, steel products,
efined copper, and agricultural machinery be deducted, the remaining totals
would not be encouraging.
A study of our export figures indicates that the greatest progress in the
development of foreign fields has been made by reason of an intensive study of
markets and an intelligent organization of sales forces on the part of great
industrial corporations like the United States Steel Corporation, the Interaational
 Harvester Co., the Standard Oil Co., and the selling companies representing
 the refined copper interests. What has been done in Germany on a
national scale, through the cooperative efforts of all classes, with the encouragement
 of the Government, has been accomplished by these large American corporations
 without Government encouragement, and entirely as a result of the
skill and ingenuity of the American sales manager with a large vision and a
constructive imagination.
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It is plain, from the experience of Germany and England, that material progress
 in the development of foreign commerce depends upon cooperative effort,
not only between manufacturers, but between the Government and those interssted
 in foreign trade.
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Export trade, with its many difficulties and problems, requires such a concentration
 of resources and effort that the great benefits to be derived by the
whole country from a large foreign commerce argue powerfully for the removal
of all restrictions upon combinations in export trade.

Let there be organized under the laws of one of the States a corporation to
pe known, for example, as the American Drug Manufacturers’ Export Corporarion,
 the American Coal Producers’ Export Association, or some similar title;
the organization to be incorporated with sufficient capital stock to permit all
of the members of the industry throughout the country, or in certain cases
those in a particular locality, who so desire, to become members upon exactly
the same terms. Each producer desiring membership to subscribe to a definite
amount of stock, his subscription being payable in equal installments over a
term of years, sufficient stock to be retained in the treasury to provide for
those who might subseqtiently desire to become members upon equitable terms
fair to the original members, each member to own exactly the same amount of
stock. .-The
 general scheme and method of operation, which will constitute the contract
 between the corporation and the members, as well as between the members
 themselves, will properly be embodied in the articles of association, and
will be along the following lines:
1. The corporation is to be impartially organized in a8 manner fair to all its
members, and the management selected with expert ability as the sole test.
2. Membership on the board of directors to be arranged so that in due course
of time every member shall receive representation. To avoid possibility of unfair
 treatment, there will be provided a permanent arbitration committee, to be
selected in an impartial manner and to be made up of persons having no interest
 in the industry. To this committee shall be referred any questions in dispute,
 and its services may be invoked by any member.
3. Each member shall, at the beginning of the year, report to the export corporation
 the amount of its product available for export during the year, the
conditions of delivery and of acceptance of orders, and the price at which it is
willing to sell in a foreign market. These tenders may be changed from time
to time under such conditions as may be thought advisable, and special quotations
 of additional quantities may be named whenever desirable.
4. The sales force of the corporation will undertake the. disposal of the exportable
 surplus of its members on the terms and conditions specified, obtaining
the best possible, making use of the export commission houses, the local representatives,
 the trained salesman, and every agency of value in building up
foreign trade. The difference between the price quoted and the price ‘obtained