Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-05

a million dollars q year. 1t maintains
stores in Berlin, Frankfort-on-the-
Main, and in Hamburg.
In August, 1914 the firm had an or
der for 100000 worth of shoes placed
in New ork - an order which never
has been delivered. When it became
evident that direct, or indirect, ship
ments were impossible it resorted to
the parcels post. In driblets it has
received up to date about $4,000
worth of goods. In normal times the
stores would have imported 100000
worth of goods. Stock has been so
exhausted that in one day recently one
store had to turn away 114 customers
who wanted American shoes such as
they had bought before and could not
get elsewhere. Expenses for maintain
ing the three stores amount to about
$3.50 day. The owner is cutting down
his force as fast as he can, but at
last has arrived at the point where a
definite and perhaps permanent clos
ing of n.s establishments is necessary.
The largest American typewriter
company in Germany has an invest
ment here of about two and half
months of war has "given up the
ghost" It's guiding official, after try
ing every possible diplomatic and Of
fetal means of relief, has settled down
to the task of unloading" as judi
ciously as possible. The assets of this
concern are great - but they cannot
be turned into cash at the present
time. The concerns representative
has been brought to believe at last
that he will be lucky if he can liqui-
date so as to come out even, that is
to say if he can wind up his affairs
without sacrificing more than the
capital invested.
This company was one of the pio-
neers in the typewriter industry. In
competition to it, a whole row of Ger
man firms sprang up a number of
years ago, and flourished because they
put out cheaper, though inferior ma
chimes Gradually an intense trade
jealousy was evolved. The numerous
German concerns in time outstripped,
in point of business done, the Ameri-
can firm with it's three subsidiary COM
panies but the American company
nevertheless made gigantic strides in
Germany and Austria, until its annual
business had risen into the millions.
All that stopped when the war be-
gan. The head of the concern re-
fuses to resort to any subterfuge in
obtaining either machines or supplies
and the warehouses of Goteborg are
clogged with typewriters originally
intended for Berlin. The Berlin office
has orders for hundreds If not thous-
ands of machines which it cannot fill.
Germany has always been a Mecca
for American dentists. Thousands of
Germans go to the "parlors" of
Americans. In consequence the larg-
est dental supply house in the world
long ago established a large branch
in Berlin. From this branch Ameri-
can and other dentists all over Europe
have drawn their supplies. This con-
Germ was doing, at the outbreak of the
war, a business of between $4,000
and $75. 900 a month. To-day it is do
ing-chiefly through the sale of Ger
man goods-a business ranging from
seven to nine thousand dollars a
month.
1t struggled along while the parcel
post was still working. Such things
as dentists chairs, electric motors and
the like have long since been sold out
and cannot be replaced. But, by mail.
1T was able to get gutta percha and
rubber, amalgam, and the various in
gradients for filling, but even that is
impossible now.
It's office force has had to be re-
duced by about 80 per cent. It's head
quarters have the appearance of
barn with few articles standing for
lornly about. For weeks and months
off the eventual closing down until
the end of the war.
An adding machine company is
another one of the several American
firms that had comparatively large
stocks on hand at the beginning of
the war. The firm at first was not at
all inclined to side in with other
American establishments in their
complaints against English blockade.
The business fell off only during the
first months of the war, and picked up
during the first half of 1915. Then the
pinch began to make itself felt. Old
machines were returned for repairs
that could not be made, in spite of
contracts, because of the lack of
parts" Orders for new machines
continued to pour in until existing
stocks were exhausted. They are prac-
tically gone now, and the manager
looks with regretful eye at the sixty
thousand dollars worth of machines
that. at the last accounting, were held
at Kirkwall, England.
With varying details, 1t is the same
story with half a dozen American
firms who sell farming machinery.
For months it also has been almost
an impossibility to buy American toi-
let articles in Berlin. The wife of an
American recently spent days and
considerable taXicab fare in visiting
every drug store of Importance in the
residential sections of the city in a
vain search for a few things which
she and her husband wanted. A big
American firm dealing in toilet arti-
cles has for years maintained branch
here, but business has gone so hope
lessly bad that the manager even has
left, and the office is merely kept open
hy subordinates in the more or less
indefinite hope that affairs will bet
ter themselves soon.
American hats formerly had some
what of a vogue, but they now are ex-
Guided. So did radiators senaratofrs