Evening star., 1927-10-30

Many officials here believe that the
next great spectacle on the whole
worlds stage is battle to a decision
between European allied and COM
bined business units and American
Independent and competitive business
units.
So it seems likely that the State
Department may presently be called
upon to decide whether or not it will
be willing to give it's sanction to loans
from private American bankers to
European Industrial combinations de.
signed to wage a concerted European
warfare against American export
trade in Latin America and in the
Orient.
This question of American policy
toward European international anti.
American cartels is rapidly eclipsing
at Washington the issue even of our
vigorous and vital tariff dispute with
France.
Chemical Trade Involved.
The prospect thus raised has been
brought to an acute stage by the re.
cent European agreements affecting
and involving the manufacturers of
chemicals in Great Britain and Ger.
many and France. The weight of
opinion among our officials is that one
or the prime purposes of these agree.
ments is to attack the present Ameri-
can sales Of dyestuffs and other
such commodities in non-European
countries.
1t is believed that the method OF
attack will be to- sell below cost in
those countries and to recoup the
losses thus incurred by raising prices
in the European markets. This
method would be difficult and perhaps
even impossible If attempted by one
European firm. It becomes potentially
| feasible when all the important firms
in the three great countries of Great
Britain and Germany and France
| unite to cut prices in Asia and in
South America for a period long
} enough to insure the collapse OF
American chemical exports and unite
also to distribute the temporary
losses over the whole European chem
ical industry and over the whole
European consuming public.
Was Used Here by Germans.
The Department of Commerce here
| remembers that this precisely was
| lAiS 'iCliioh uSCu ny Tic OHlnlDOIG1l
| German dye trust in our own
American market in the days before
the great war. 1t is natural that an
even more drastic and devastating use
of it is feared from an organizat tion
which now includes not only the Ger
mans, with their genius for applica
tion, but the French, with their high
| talent for original research, and the
British, with their unsurpassed knowl
| edge Of the channels of world trade
In other words, our officials con
ceive that American industry, not
only in chemicals, but also in numer
Gus other departments of production
in which the Europeans have estab
lished and are operating international
cartels, is now approaching worlt
test Of the first magnitude.
Among such cartels in Europe, com
bining European international force.
in varying degrees of closeness, are
those in potash. in incandescen,
lamps. in steel, In iron pipes, In roll
ed wire. in wood screws. in enamel
in bottles, in benzine, in glue, ir
rayon or artificial silk, I'm fertilizers
in tin. in nitrogen and in fuel oil
extracted from coal.
Meanwhile in the United States thu
tendency has been. on the whole, II
precisely the opposite direction. Sci
dom in the history of the United
States has competition In most line.
of business been so severe as 1t |.
today. The results have shown them
selves in the prevalent and painful
marrow margin of profit" which
caused so much agitated discussion
in the recent session of the Nationa
Association of Manufacturers a
Chattanooga. The results have ais.
'ehown themselves in a steadily de