Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 11, 1903, Page 26

Belgian Markets for American Manufactures OLD CITY HALL (Copyright, 1903, by Frank G. Carpenter.) RUSSELS, Dec. 30.—(Special Corre- spondence of The Bee.)—The streets of Brussels are torn up by the American invasion. In front of the Stock exchange a crowd of blue-gowned, black-capped, clog-shod work- men are digging out the old horse railroad and putting in an American underground trolley. The road is roped off and the brok- ers have to walk a half square out of their way to enter the bourse. At night lighted lanterns mark the confines of the work, and all day the sound of the pick and the ham- mer is heard, The work is under the charge of the Americans, although they are not di- rectly on the ground. 'The machinery is be ing put in by the General Electric company of New York, which has invaded many par of Europe and is doing a big business here The Westinghouse company is competing with it. It has an office in Brussels and its electrical supplies are found in all parts of the country. There is a good opening here for trical machinery. Many of the cities have no tramways and good-sized towns have no electric lights. Belgium is cut up by canals now operated by horse power, and at thin writing horses are used to haul many of the cars of Brussels Itself. They drag the cars not only along the tracks, but on the cob bles, pulling cars weighing two tons and, in addition, thirty passengers over the rough stones. Our horses could not do it, but these big Brabant steeds are very ele- phants in harnees and they haul with ease loads that would stall the American Per cheron. Brussels Is fast adopting rapid transit. The electric work is being well doue, and when completed the roads will be managed on military principles. The street car conductor here I8 as gor- geous as a German lieutenant. He has a uniform with brass buttons, his cap is cov- ered with gold embroidery, and he keeps himself as bright as though he came out of a bandbox. Every conductor has a whistle or a horn, a bag for his money and receipt slips for fares. He carries a little metal tube with a sponge in it upon which he wets his fin gers in tearing off the slips The car fares are low, ranging from 2 cents upward, according to class and dis tance. On some cars the first-class seats cost 3 cents and the second-class 2 cents the seats being exactly the same, except that the second are behind the first. The thrifty Belgians patronize the cheaper seats so that there is usually room in the 3-cent guarter Brussels is the capital of Belgium, com- mercially and politically. The from all parts of the country buy, and by a look at the to see that the trade is enormous. All sorts of notions are sold. Our patent med feines are displayed in the drug stores and our porous plasters are advertised on the plenty of merchants here to is easy come stores it walls. Kodaks and American typewriters are well represented, as are all sorts of American farm tools Brussels is more than 1,000 years old and in the middle ages it was already doing an enormous business. One of the oldest parts of the town is the market place, con- taining the city hall, one of the finest build ings of medieval Europe Right next to this old building are stores of American hard ware, stacks of lawn mowers from Phila- delphia, hay forks from Columbus, O, and grindstones from Berea. Nearly every Brussels business house keeps its accounts with American cash registers made at Day- ton and the most of the tailors use Amer fcan sewing machines One of the brightest business Americans 1 have met on the continent is Mr. H. C_de Clerq, who represents the King Spring com pany of Buffalo and a number of other Amerlcan institutions. He Is one of the IN BRUSSELS largest of the Belgian importers and is making a big thing in selling American goods. He has three buildings in Brussels devoted to his stores, workshops and sup- plies and he trades not only with Belgium, but with Germany, France, Spain and Italy Among other things Mr. de Clerq sells American harness, carriages and wagons and it was in talking of this branch of the business that he told how he invaded Europe with an American trotter Said he “1 first for one of the biggest carriage factories of the United States. My employers thought they could sell their goods here, and, as I speak and write German and French as well as the English, they chose me to introduce them 1 laid out the campaign and they gave me the money to carry it out. In the first place 1 bought a buggy with rubber tires and ball bearings and in the second a fast American trotter to ATy over the country I brought th with me to Eu rope and traveled in carriage through Holland and Belgium, going from Antwery to Berlin, visiting the greater part of Ger- No one had ever seen a buggy like and the carriage dealers everywhere gave me small orders. I could drive about forty miles a day, stopping at a big town almost every night. I had a folding bicycle and I would now and then rest my horse and get orders for it The trip as a whole panned out well, but when I went over the same ground six months later I found that the men who had ordered my carriages were not trying to sell them, as they did not want American com- petition. The result was that I established agencies myself and from that time to this I have had a good trade.” “What class of Belgians carriages?"’ 1 asked. “Only the rich. me came here as an agent me my many mine buy American They are too expensive for the poor,” was the reply, “but the no- bility are glad to get them. Two of my earliest customers were Viscomte de Buis- seret and Baron de Chambres, well known over Burope as the owners of fine racing horses.” g b s cw BRUSSELS AN AMERICAN REAPER IN SIBERIA. “What did you do with your Aamerican trotter?"’ “I sold him. His knees got sprung by rough roads and I took $100 for him. The purchaser entered him for the races in dif- ferent parts of Belgium and made $1,800 out of him in one year.” I walked with Mr. de Clerq big store on the Boulevard far from the bourse. It American notion- his notl through Anspach, has every sort of American inks, erasers, pens, files, scales and all of knick- knacks 1 especially interested in a gas radiator which Mr. de Clerq tells me he sorts was was the first to introduce into Europe. Said he: ““The Belgians live in flats which are seldom heated They were glad to get the radiators and at the start I sold thou- sands at $8 apiece This gave me a big profit, but the Germans and Belgians are now making cheap imitations and the Sw are sending in a copy which will drive the American radiator out of the market and I will have to make my money out of something else. *This has the case with nearly every one of American importations, and I have come to expect it. I take up an American novelty and work it for five years, knowing that at the end of that time the natives will copy it and undersell been my me. Then I drop it and take up something else. “Just now,"” Mr, de Clerq went on, “I have a knife sharpener, a little wheel affair which I can sell by the thousands one now. I have ordered the makers to cable me terms and prices, so that I can order from 10,000 to 50,000, as I want them I must have the goods here in order to do Here is business These people won't wait, and they won't buy from catalogues They must see the goods themselves. If I tell a customer it will take six weeks to supply him he goes somewhere else.' I am especially iInterested in the way American furniture is handled on the con- tinent. Mr. de Clerq imports more of our office desks, unit books cases, files and charts than any other man in northern HORSE TRAMS ARE BEING DRIVEN BY Burope. We went together over his ware- houses. He has two great buildings packed with our furniture and he sells something like 2,000 desks every year. Much of his furniture is from Cincinnati and other stuff comes from Grand Rapids. Mr. de Clerq says the Europeans cannot compete with us as to office furniture. La- bor is low, but is not so cheap as American machinery. As it is now, the desks and chairs here in rectangular boxes in pieces knocked down. They are uot smoothed nor varnished. The finishing is all done by Belgian cabinet makers as good as our best men in the who will work for from 80 cents to §1 a day. The chairs are sent in such a that a dozen dining chairs foot thick and four feet square, while a roll-top desk takes but little more space. In this way the freight is low. The tariff on rough goods is also less than come states, way come in a box a that on the finished articles Mr. de Clerq says that we ought to have an American warehouse in Brussels where our exporters could keep supplies of Ameri- can goods on hand and sell on call. Said he: “If a half dozen of our big firms would put in, say $10,000 a year each and display their goods in such a warehouse near the bourse they could build up an enormous trade. The bourse, or stock exchange, is the business center of Belgium Every Wednesday the merchants and manufac- turers from all parts of the country meet there to buy and sell and talk over trade, and they could be taken into the warehouse easily ‘““Not only that,"” continued Mr. de Clerq, “but such a warehouse would build up our trade in all parts of northern and central Europe. This is the natural headquarters for the sale of our goods to that territory It is central, and can reach the dif- ferent parts of Europe more quickly from it than from any other great point. The taxes are light and the territory is neutral. The Germans don't like to do business with the French nor the French with the Ger- mans, but either will trade with a Belgian you ELECTRICITY. or a man who lives here. I prefer Brussels to Paris.’ Leaving Mr. de Clerq, I called George W. Silcox, the vice the Belgian Anglo-American chamber of commerce., Mr Silcox does an enormous business in importing American goods and selling them to all parts of Europe. He was about the first if not the very fi to found an American honse on the continen* and he might be called our first continental invader. He came to Europe as secretary of the Vienna exposition in 1873 and In the vear following represented American in- terests at an agricultural exposition in Bre- men. He said: “At that time manufacturing Germany was in the first throes of its birth. The For this reason upon Mr. president of Franco-Prussian war had closed and empire was at its beginning. There were no factories. The German p-asants were plowing with wooden plows shod with iron by country blacksmiths, their grain was flailed out and they knew nothing of mod- ern agricultural machinery. The Bremen expesition opened their eyes and they gave such orders for our farm tools that about twenty American firms were established in Bremen. I represented one of them and the only one which has lasted to this day. I did business there for some time, but when Germany established its zoll verein, or protective tariff combination, I came to Brussels and opened my house hera’ “What kind of a place is Brussels as a headquarters for American goods?” 1 asked. “It is the best in Europe to reacn the whole country, the cheapest place to land goods and the easlest point for their dis- tribution. I have a big trade with every part of the continent, supplying agricul- tural machinery and tools to Russia, Hun- gary, France, Germany, Spain and Norway and Sweden, and the most of my goods pass through Brussels. I can keep a ton of freight a month in the government ware- houses at Antwerp for 20 cents. The Bel- glan government gives low freight rates, and it expedites foreign business in every possible way. Besides, living in Brussels is cheap and the social and educational ad- vantages are of the best.” ““Tell me, Mr. Silcox,” said I, “how an American importer can establish a success- ful business in Europe?" ““That is not so easy,” was the reply there are certain cardinal principles which must be observed, or failure is sure. Th American who comes here must learn the market and the people, and he must deal with them honestly and according to their customs. It is useless to try to do business here as at home. Take the matter of its. I begin to ship agents in D« cember, and continue shipping until March My payments do not come in until May they all the cred to my and continue the coming rest of year. T have to wait from six to u{%f months for my money, but at the end of that time my business is cleaned up and that with a less percentage of loss than in the United States The English, French and Germans give similar terms of credit and the American who plans doing business here on a New York cash basis had better save his transportation, for he will not suc- ceed ‘“As for me continued the American im- porter do all my business under my own name I make my own payments to the American exporters and all payments for goods sold are made to me, although many of my customers think they are dealing with the factories through As far as America is concerned my busine cash.” “But do you hold your trade?" is largely I asked “Yes, better than similar businesses in the United States. I began here twent,- 'v years ago, and I have on my books muny (Centinued on Eighth Page.)