The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-06
RUIN FACES AMERICAN FIRMS IN GERMANY BECAUSE GREAT
 BLOCKADE GETS EVER TIGHTER
American Shoe Men Despair of Getting Any More of Their Goods While War Lasts-A1nerica Only Coun- try Hurt Is Claim of Big Business Leaders Affected


 almost entirely from the goods with
 which they do business, have been
 making desperate but comparatively unOrganized efforts to stave off the
 ruin that has been staring them in the face. Some have tried to import
 stocks surreptitiously while others have attempted by curtailment and
 economy to weather the storm. But,
 just as steadily as they have cur
 tailed, just so steadily has England frightened it's blockade, until today the man who receives a shipment of any thing that is non-contraband is en- vied of all his fellow American bus mess men.
 The situation became immeasur-
 ably worse last year when the facili-
 ties of the parcels post no longer
 were available. More than one firm had eked out it's existence by this l means.
 After year and a half 9, more or | less feeble effort at concerted action
 has been made. This has consisted | to individual Coingressmen, through l the American Association of Com
 merce and Trade" praying for some
 action. The Association first sent to most of the big American business
 firms in Germany set of questions,
 the most important of which was | What do you think will be the re-
 suit if you continue to be unable to
 get goods?''
 The answers varied in wording, but were epitonized in the reply of the
 representative of z big typewriter
 company, declaring that a continual l ton of the present situation spelled
 ruin. Though the Association's list 1 of questions did not touch upon the point, nine-tenths of the replies
 pointed out that in addition to inn
 pending disaster, trade was slowly but
 surely falling into the hands of Ger
 man competitors.
 A correspondent made a. canvass of
 the larger American establishments in errnany-eSta blishments which for 1 the most part have been in business
 for decades, and which not only are I gradually losing thSIr German and Austrian business but also before the war dealt with Germany's present op- ponents, and consequently have lost their trade with Russia, France, Italy, Belgium and other countries.
 The list included the largest type writer company in the world, the largest dental supply firm in exist ence, the biggest shoe company, in point of sales of American goods, in Germany, a large adding machine cor poration, a well known elevator man i ufacturing concern, one of the largest
 manufacturers of toilet articles in 1 America. and other smaller concerns, 1 but attempt was made to deter
 mine the possible losses of establish l ments dealing in contraband, or even l in conditional contraband-except as the later constitutes part of the inn ports of the dental supplies in the form ofg utta; percha, and rubber. The correspondents investigation was con fined solely to things at present held up by the blockade which could not directly serve war purposes.
 Many millions of dollars worth of goods either have been held up or, l -1A TanT because of the impossibi1ity of getting them. Many more millions of invest ed capital probably will be lost com p1etely, in the opinion of their 1nves- tors, if there is not speedy remedy. Women and chi1dren's shoes, it is 1 contended, are not contraband. Yet the American shoe men in Germany
 despair of ever being able to get any
 more because they assume that Eng | land withholds these articles on the theory, that without American goods, 1 Germany must apply considerable 1 proportion of its leather stock to sup ply it's civilian population. With American shoes for women and chil- dren this leather could be used for soldiers footwear.
 Business men in other Iines-type- writers for example-fai1 to under stand what advantage the blockade can have. America, and America only, they maintain, is being hurt. | ys of metal, and the exclusion of Amer ican typewriters merely gives the German manufacturers of this ma chine an advantage that they have waited for in vain since the introduce ton of the industry here.
 A considerable item in the damage to Americans caused by the blockade lies in overhead expenses. Almost without exception the principal firms here find themselves with long-term | IL. face the necessity of shutting up shop" within short time, their rents must be continued as long as they have the money to pay them. All have had to discharge employees, and all have been hampered by losing men who have been drawn into the army
 One adding-machine company has reduced it's subsidiary concerns from eighty to twenty.
 The situation, at least for the firms dealing in mechanical devices is the more serious because they not only are not able to import their machines but because even shipments of parts are stopped, and they cannot in con- sequence cvarry out contracts made before the war.
 The only American firms which have not reached almost hopeless stage are those-principally the man ufacturers of farming machinery which have plants here in Germany, and which heretofore are largely in dependent of imports. Many of these are said to be prospering by divert ing temporarily their activities to the production of ammunition.
 American importers of goods of ev- cry kind long ago gave up Holland
 as a country through which they could get material. Scandinavia has become the medium through which the little dribbIes, that comes in. And the Scandinavian countries, according to the concensus of opinion, are busily occupied in looking out for them selves.
 Some of the American business men in Germany, have discarded all scruples in the matter of declara- tions, and very frankly admit that whenever possible goods declared to r-N-.-