288 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,

distances of thousands of miles from the place of production—in a word, all
experts in their lines. The individual mill owner, on account of his limited
product, can hardly afford to support the overhead cost of such a service. The
result is that most manufacturers, in our own as well as in other industries,
state that they can not engage in the foreign trade or do not want to sell anyching
 “ beyond the Battery,” because they know nothing about it.

*®

By such association they could meet through increased banking facilities the
credit demand of the various markets, which they do not care to meet as individuals,
 and secure greater shipping advantages on account of being able to offer
larger tonnage, thus fostering more than anything else a shipping trade from
America, than if they should continue to sell in a haphazard way as the opportunity
 arises.
By such cooperation they would be able to establish strong agencies in the
various consuming centers in the hands of most competent and responsible men,
who would be attracted as agents on account of the larger volume of business
possible, instead of being confined to the limited amount of one particular
oranch of the industry. They could employ the best of technical talent, as
traveling men, to sell the various products, instead of having to select such men
purely on account of their willingness to accept moderate compensation for
their work. nN

We should have direct representation between manufacturers or manufacturing
 associations in this country and the foreign consumers, Joint export
pgencies in this country, joint export agents in the consuming centers, cooperative
 arrangements with travelers in the foreign countries, and arrangements,
whenever necessary, for the best equipped mills for foreign trade in our industries
 to carry on such foreign trade with the help, pecuniary or other, of the
remainder of the mills in the same branch of the industry.
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If the Government will clearly state its position in favor of the association,
 cooperation, and ‘ combination” of manufacturers in the export trade,
we are confident that the paper makers in this country will soon find the
means of perfecting an organization which will most actively carry out all the
Government’s wishes for the development of an export trade in this, one of the
targest industries of the land, an organization which will contribute to the
fullest extent to the balance of trade in favor of our country and will carry our
watermarks with the additional “ made in the United States of America” to all
parts of the world.
L. A. Fritsch, manager of the Ohio Truss Co., Cincinnati, Ohio,
although not in favor of cooperating generally with their competitors,
 since they were the first to enter the foreign field, said:
On the other hand, if you mean from the standpoint of price, I believe that
that would be a very good idea..
Fred W. Rice, of Rice &amp; Hutchins (Inc.), Boston, Mass., shoe manafacturers.
 said:

We have not done our business in combination with other manufacturers,
although I believe that would be an excellent thing to do. In many cases
here are manufacturers who either have not the resources to do it alone, or
where the market has not justified them in doing it on their small line alone,
and who could well combine with other manufacturers in the same line and
build up a business in competition with other and possibly stronger houses.
[ believe that would be an excellent thing to bring about.
Thomas F. Anderson, secretary of the New England Shoe &amp;
Leather Association, Boston, Mass., said:

Mr. Jones is probably correct in stating that as a broad proposition, taking
 in the larger concerns like his own, Rice &amp; Hutchins, and a few of the
ther big concerns that are down there already id a large way, an opportunity
 to combine together with other lines of shoe trade would not appeal
to those people at all. But the small manufacturer, who needs this outlet, and
who can only find it in foreign countries, if he is going to run his factory on an
officient basis, has either got to do his business in the standard way. as it