The St. Louis Republic., 1903-01-11

American furniture Is handled on the Cor
| tinent.
| MIR de CIerd imports more Of our office
| desks. unit bookcases. files and chairs thar
! any other man in Northern Europe. We
| went together over his warehouses.
He has two great buildings packed with
| ugr furai;rrr. and he s'ls some; ;h.n-; l!!i.
: ~ desk every year.
/ NIch OF his furniture ;R from Cincinnati
| and other stun comes from Grand Rapids
| Mr. de-. ClaTG SAYS the Europeans cannot
! compete with us as to office furniture La
/ hor 10 low. but is not 50 cheap as American
mac hinery
| As it is now. tn" dc,Ss ami chairs come
! here in rectangular boxes In pieces knocked
! down. They ar. NOT smootHCd nor var
! nisheJ.
The finishing IS all done h. Belgian cab
! inetmakers as good as our best men in the
! States. vino viii work for from SO cents
/ To 81 day.
The chairs are sent in such a way that a
dozen dining chairs come in box a foot
thick and four feet square. while roll
too desk takes hut little more space.
In this way the freight is low
The tariff on rough goods is also less than
on the finished articles.
Mr. dc CierG says that We ought to have
an American warehouse in BRUSSELS. where
our exporters could keep supplies of Amer
lean goods on hand and sell on call
Said he:
IF half dozen of our big firms would
put in. say. $1,000 u year each and display
their goods in such warehouse near the
Bourse. they could build up an enormous
trade.
The Bourse. or Stock Exchange, is the
business center OF Belgium.
Every Wednesday the merchants and
manufacturers from all parts of the coun-
try meet there to buy and sell and talk
over trade. and thoy could BE- easily taken
into the warehouse.
Not only that" continued Mr. de Clerq.
.hut such II warehouse would build up our
trade In all n.Tts Of Northern and Central
Europe
This is the natural headquarters for the
sale of our goods to that territory. 1t is
central. and you can reach the different
parts OF Europe more quickly from it than
from any other great point.
The taxes are light and the territory is
neutral The Germans don't like to do bust
ness with the French. nor the French with
the Germans. but either will trade with a
Belgian or a man who lives here
For this reason 4 prefer Brussels to
Paris.
SILICON WAS SECRETARY
OF VIENNA EXPOSITION.
Leaving Mr.. de CIerq 1 called upon Mr.
George ". Si.cox, the vice president of the
Belgian Anglo-American Chamber of Com
merce
MIR. SilCoN does an enormous business in
importing American goods. and selling them
to all parts of Europe.
He was about the first. IL not the very
first. to found an American house on th,
Continent. and ne might he called our first
continental invader.
He came to Europe Secretary of the
Vienna Exposition of 1873. and in the year
following represented American interests
at an agricultural exposition in Bremen.
Said he:
was in the first throes of it's birth The
Franco-Prussian War had elo,en. and the
Empire was at its beginning.
There were no factories The German
peasants were ploWing with wooden blows
shod with iron by country bIacksmiths:
their grain was failed out and they knew
nothing of modern agricultural machinery
The Bremen Exposition opened their
eyes and they gave such orders for our
farm tools that about twenty American
firms were established at Bremen
Il represented one of them. and the only
one which has lasted TO this day | did
business there for some time but when
Germany established its zoilverein. or pro-
tective combination. | came to Brussels and
opened my house here"
What kind of place is Brussels as a
headquarters for American Soods?" /
asked.
1T is the best in Europe to reach the
whole country, the cheapest place to land
goods and the easiest point for their dis
tribution. l have n big trade with every
part of the Continent. supplying agrcui-
tural machinery ana tools to Russia, Hun
gary, France, Germany, Spain and Norway