REPLIES TO CARD AND SCHEDULE INQUIRIES. 411

Coal —A coal operator whose output is worth over a quarter of a
million dollars, but who exports only a small part of it, says that coal
buyers in South America are controlled by English and German coal
producers.
Cotton.—The exchanges of Liverpool, Bremen, and to a less extent
 Havre, are the principal markets for American cotton abroad.
Quotations are made there just as in the exchanges at New York or
New Orleans. A buying combination, however, exists on a large
scale among the cotton mills of Austria. This organization has a
resident representative at New Orleans, and its president is Arthur
Kuffler, of Vienna. It uses about a quarter of a million bales yearly,
and its buyers shave market prices by purchasing directly from
dealers throughout the Southern States.
On the Liverpool Exchange there is said to be at present a boycott
against Americans who have sold cotton to Germany and Austria.
Besides being clearly a consequence of war conditions, it is no less
manifestly a personal and not a commodity discrimination.
Cottonseed products.—A concern manufacturing cottonseed products
 and exporting from a quarter of a million to a million dollars’
worth, says:

In Denmark and Germany it is common to have cooperative societies for the
purchase of oil, cake, etc., to be used directly by the consumer. These societies,
however, usually buy through middlemen. If they could be turned to purchase
direct from a cooperative association of American manufacturers, it would be
to our distinct advantage.

Another large exporter of cottonseed meal and cake says:
All countries with whom we do business have their combinations in the
name of associations or exchanges which act in unison, thus forcing the Ameri-«an
 to conform to any and all terms they may dictate. Our principal competitor
 18 a Danish combination (the Danish Korn og Fodderstuff of Aarhus,
Denmark), which controls the Danish market and operates a buying branch
in America. Other competitors are the Seeds Oil Association of Liverpool
and the Hamburg &amp; German Importers’ Association. The latter requires us
to sign an agreement to confine our business to its members.
That the manufacturers of these products find combinations abroad
that control their markets is clearly shown. One of them says that
the Rotterdam butterine makers “act as one” through private agreements
 in buying cottonseed oil; that the same is true of soap makers
in England; and that there is an association of farmers in Denmark,
who buy cottonseed cake.
An exporter of cottonseed products says that, in Hamburg, a number
 of importers of cottonseed cake TL meal have formed an association.
 which practically shuts out all outsiders from the import
business. American exporters can not sell to the members of the
Hamburg association without signing an agreement not to sell to any
German buyers outside the association.
Showing that this is nothing new, another manufacturer says that
40 years ago a ring of buyers in Liverpool controlled the price of
American linseed and cottonseed cakes, and were known as “The
Forty Thieves.”
Foodstuffs.—There is some evidence of combination among buyers
abroad in the purchase of foodstuffs in Germany, certain well-known
firms, principally in Hamburg and Frankfort, quoting a common
price to American manufacturers. The uniformity of bids appears.
however, to result from private understanding among dealers and

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