REPLIES TO CARD AND SCHEDULE INQUIRIES. 343
Very few of the manufacturers who replied to this question are, at
the present time, exporting through a joint selling agency or even
cooperating in joint advertising campaigns.
All the replies are tabulated in the statement below:
TasLE VI.—Summary of replies regarding existing cooperative efforts.

(nt joint selling agencies. ...c.ceeevan-(n
 joint advertising campaigns. .

Yes.

No.

No an-SWer.


Total.

6 ' 1,230 . 82 1,410
48. 1,283) 79 1,410

To note what reply concerns already in joint selling agencies have
made to question 1 regarding their view of the law, is suggestive.
Practically all who stated they were members of joint selling agencies
 either were noncommittal on question 1, or believed that export
combinations are not prohibited, or that only combinations covering
competing goods are prohibited.
[t was found upon later inquiry that of those who answered this
question in the affirmative many had meant that they sold through
export commission houses or foreign agents who handled the prodnets
 of other manufacturers. Several, however, have cooperated in
maintaining agents or salesmen in foreign countries. Practically all
the cooperation thus reported consisted only of manufacturers of noncompeting
 goods. The lines thus represented are of a varied character.
For example, a candy manufacturer whose goods are sold in the
Orient through a joint selling agency states that their agent handles
other products “ from soap to leather goods, about 15 in all.” As a
rule, however, the products thus handled are what might be termed
kindred products—those that may be sold to the same trade. Thus
p New York firm which sells directly through salesmen, whose expenses
 are borne proportionately by eight or more noncompeting
concerns, handles farm machinery, grain cribs, dynamos, grinders,
gasoline engines, etc. Another New York firm handles its own pianos
together with the pianos of another manufacturer making a cheaper
grade. Only a small per cent of those now cooperating by this
method are manufacturers of staple lines, such as lumber, coal, etc.
The expenses of advertising the various goods handled by a single
agency are also sometimes borne proportionately by the manufacturers
 of these goods. Many of those engaged in joint advertising
campaigns, however, do so by virtue of being members of trade associations.
 Thus the California Fruit Growers’ Exchange, Illinois
Manufacturers’ Association, Association of Manufacturers of Chilled
Car Wheels, Philadelphia Commercial Museum, and the National
Paving Brick Manufacturers’ Association are reported as being
engaged in advertising the products of their various members. -
ADVANTAGE OR DISADVANTAGE OF EXPORT COMBINATION OR COOPERArive
 oRGANIZATION.—The third question of the manufacturers’ schedule,
 a question not included in the schedule sent to the other three
classes. was as follows:
Do you think it would be an advantage or a disadvantage to you in your
business to participate in some form of combination or cooperative selling
pngency for export trade, and why?
To this question 923, or 92 per cent of those answering directly,
said that participation would 5 advantageous for them, and only