430 REPORT. ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
Operations of the shipping conferences and pools.—The reply of
the president of a large bank throws light on the operations of the
shipping combinations:
The various shipping conferences and pools are reported in an investigation
of the shipping combinations to have given preference to foreign goods indirectly
by making payments to merchants in the way of salaries for acting as agents
and by giving rebates on freights in certain sections, as, for instance, the
Straits Settlements, in the Far East, to enable merchants of the countries of
the shipping pool to keep Americar goods out of the markets.
Need of facilities for securing reliable information—A New York
exporter replies that his suggestion on this question would be about
as follows:
It would be highly desirable if the Government could arrange bureaus or
departments for information of just how it would be easiest and most economical
 to arrange shipments all over the world. It is a fact that when we get
a few miles away from our shores there are practically no ways or means, and
absolutely no library or collection of data, by which it is possible for an exporter
 to figure a price for the goods delivered at the place desired. This is a
very important item in export trading, and anything that can be done to help
us in that respect would in my opinion be a step in the right direction. This
bureau or rate investigating establishment should also give absolutely reliable
reports to our Government, giving comparative figures of costs of shipments
from our country, and how much it costs for manufacturers and exporters of
other nations to lay their goods down at the point of competition, in that way
enabling our Government to judge just how desirable it would be to arrange
for new ways and means of communication and new rates more or less directly
controlled by our Government, and assisting in the completion of such arrangements.

Bonded warehouses and the German system.—The establishment
of bonded warehouses in Latin America is suggested by a member of
an export bureau as a means to overcome some of the above obstacles
encountered by those seeking to promote foreign trade. The follow-Ing
 suggestion is made:

If bonded warehouses could be established in five. centers in Latin America
from which the local merchants could draw merchandise as they required it,
and the manufacturers of the United States of America could, upon some form
of certificate of deposit of the goods in these warehouses, obtain money at a
low rate, a cure of overstocking by the Latin American merchant and long-time
credits might be arrived at, and this might supply a slight relief to the nowcomplained-of
 slow merchandise transportation between the Americas.
The head of a concern selling confectionery abroad states that—
The absence, as a rule, of American importing houses in the foreign field
is a further drawback to the American manufacturer in securing foreign trade,
We might cite Maracaibo, Venezuela, as an example. There, the import trade
and, for that matter, the export trade is practically in the hands of Germans,
who also do a certain amount of banking business as well as merchandise trade,
Their salesmen scour the interior and do not object to taking trips of from
six to nine months, which in the absence of railroads must be done partially
with small boats or on muleback, burros carrying the samples. In some instances,
 in the interior, a salesman is compelled to camp out of doors, or chooses
that in preference to the miserable hotel accommodations.
The system is perfection itself. The home office in Hamburg or elsewhere
sends out one or two of its most likely young men from time to time, and they
are placed on trial from three to five years. If they make good, they are given
a six months’ holiday to return home and recuperate from the trials of the
climate. They are advanced periodically and in about 20 years’ time usually
become the managers of the business, with an interest, those before them retiring
 to Germany. Thus is created a machine which moves along irresistibly,
and the young man knows there is a positive future for him. Naturally, Germany
 and German goods are constantly in mind, and there is always the opportunity
 to acquire interests in local industries and franchises.