2906 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
In this connection, J. E. Blaine, of the Globe-Wernicke Co., Cincinnati,
 Ohio, said:

Personally, I have no occasion for doing it; no desireto doit. * * =
* * * we do not make an ordinary commodity, such as nails, something
which goes by the ton, but something which goes on its peculiar characteristics
ns we make it.

Albert Krell, of the Krell Piano Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, did not
think combination possible in the piano line for the following
reasons:

The competition is too severe, and the question of who makes the best piano
and all that sort of thing. 1
C. J. Anderson, export manager of Lyon &amp; Healy, Chicago, Ill,
said :

I doubt it. I think that the only thing to be done would be for three or four
at most of the manufacturers to he represented by a single salesman, because
a single man could only represent three or four people at a time, and in so far
as some form of cooperation is concerned, I do not see that it would be of any
advantage in the piano line.
G. J. Mitchell, manager of the National Stamping &amp; Electric
Works, Chicago, Ill, manufacturers of lighting specialties, stated:
I do not believe in trade combination among firms which should be competitors,
 because of the tendency under such circumstances to smother individual
 effort.

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I am firmly convinced that knowledge of the foreign-trade conditions is the
first and most important item in the building of the foreign trade, and I am also
ronvinced that any firm, who produces a good article that is salable in foreign
countries, can build up a trade on that article to a better advantage alone and
produce better results than he could obtain through a combination with his
rompetitors.

E. M. Galbraith, of the Anchor Buggy Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, as to
cooperation with competitors, said: :
I do not feel that that would be of any advantage to us.
William A. Biddle, of the American Laundry Machinery Co., Cinrinnati.
 Ohio. said:

In our line there are so few of us that there is no chance to cooperate. There
are only two manufacturers of laundry machinery, of any consequence, and we
get along nicely. I think there is no advantage we could gain in cooperating,
especially in our particular line.

W. T. Beatty, of the Austin Manufacturing Co., Chicago, Ill,
which manufacturers contractor’s machinery, railroad machinery,
ete., said:
In order for us to get together we would first have to thrash out a whole lot of
our abuses that we have experienced in our domestic business. Some businesses,
of course, owing to their very nature, are susceptible to a higher grade, more
Inflamed competition than others, and I think we have one of the inflamed kind.
Now, if we were part of a company composed of several manufacturers handling
 our line of goods in some foreign country * * * we would not have
any control over that thing at all, and we would not have any way of knowing
at the end of a year whether this manager, who would represent practically
the good will of the company and who would have the business all at his fingers’
ends, might not fix up a scheme with one of our competitors and go off with the
business and we would have it all to do over again. We would feel like spending
a little more money and keeping it in our own hands,