The Cordova daily times. [volume] (Cordova, Alaska) 1914-1947, 1918-06-18
huns LOSE'U.S
: FUR TRADE
INTERESTS

WASHINGTON, June 1s.-Another
tentacle of German control in Ameri-
| can industry has been severed by A.
| Mitchell Palmer, the alien property
| custodian.
Under arrangements now being
completed between the custodian and
the Fur Merchants Credit Associa-
ton of New York city, the interests
of the German fur barons of Leipzig
will be purchased by American mer-
chants and the money paid turned
into the United States treasury, to be
held until the end of the war for the
Germans involved.
In announcing today the forced re-
| tirement of German interests in the
industry, Mr.. Palmer said even rough
estimates of the enemy holdings can
not be made until all the fur dealers
have reported balances due the Ger
mans.
ut may be stated, however" said
the custodian, that the negotiations
| just completed will root forever the
last German dollar invested in the fur
business in this country turn loose
the American furrier from the control
| of the Leipzig cabal, and establish a
great new industry here in America
Of
already have readjusted their hold
ings under the agreement of the gov
eminent are the Theoder-Thorer Com
pany, Gaudig & Blum and M. S. Elias,
Jr., Inc, among the best known fur
houses on this side of the Atlantic
Many others are in process of read
| justment, including Otto Erler Com
pany, Fuchs & Co., Inc, and Eisen-
bach Bros.
Before the war the trade of Amer
lean furriers was practically nothing
but collecting and shipping agency
for the Germans. Almost every pelt|
taken by American trappers had to go
| to Leipzig before it could be sold
Leipzig dressers and dyers were the
! best in the world. None could COM
pete with them. Although LondonI
was the worlds market, by reason of
the pioneer work of the old Hudson
Bay Company and far-sighted English
commission houses, three-quarters of
the fur shipped to London from Amer
| lea, Russia, and even China, went,
after the auctions, direct to Leipzig
for dressing and dyeing.
Eat Leipzig each year, after the fur
was prepared and the Germansnner-|
chants had fixed the price for that
year, Americans were allowed to pur-
chase as much as three-fifths of the
entire fur produced for manufacture
into garments, although in so doing
they were forced to pay the original
cost, plus the expense of dressing and
dye;ng. plus handsome profit for the
Germans, plus 80 per cent duty be-
fore they got them back home. They
we're constantly either indebted to the
Germ ans or completely under their
domination"
Mr. Palmer said American fur dye
i,,g houses now are operating in New
York, and that in St. Louis the at
tempt has been made successfully to
dye sealskins, which previously had
never been done outside of Leipzig
and London. Fur auctions also have
been undertaken successfully both in
ST. Louis and New York.
"When the war is over" Mr.. Palmer
concluded, Germany will again buy
American furs, but these goods will
be bought in the American market
this time, from American firms, and
they will be American dressed and
dyed, and prepared for European con-
sumption. The unnatural trade con-
ditions which forced Americans TO
: ship certain furs abroad, to buy them
back, and to reship them to America,
will have disappeared, and Germany
: will be the loser"
|