But the German Government objects to its people cutting each other's
throats. American dealers were getting unheard of bargains when the
German Government stepped in and compelled the competing corporations to
recombine under threat of putting on an export duty that would eat up
their profits.

The advantages of such business coöperation are specially shown in
opening up a new market for an unknown product as in the case of the
introduction of the Stassfurt salts into American agriculture. The
farmer in any country is apt to be set in his ways and when it comes to
inducing him to spend his hard-earned money for chemicals that he never
heard of and could not pronounce he--quite rightly--has to be shown.
Well, he was shown. It was, if I remember right, early in the nineties
that the German Kali Syndikat began operations in America and the United
States Government became its chief advertising agent. In every state
there was an agricultural experiment station and these were provided
liberally with illustrated literature on Stassfurt salts with colored
wall charts and sets of samples and free sacks of salts for field
experiments. The station men, finding that they could rely upon the
scientific accuracy of the information supplied by Kali and that the
experiments worked out well, became enthusiastic advocates of potash
fertilizers. The station bulletins--which Uncle Sam was kind enough to
carry free to all the farmers of the state--sometimes were worded so
like the Kali Company advertising that the company might have raised a
complaint of plagiarizing, but they never did. The Chilean nitrates,
which are under British control, were later introduced by similar
methods through the agency of the state agricultural experiment
stations.

As a result of all this missionary work, which cost the Kali Company