[D8941AAS], Letter from Everett Frazar to Alfred Ord Tate, June 7th, 1889
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Title
[D8941AAS], Letter from Everett Frazar to Alfred Ord Tate, June 7th, 1889
Editor's Notes
Enclosed I hand you copy of letter received from Shanghae. Will you kindly read and place same before Mr. Edison? This is the most direct case of interference on the part of Germans, who are offering Edison electric lights made in Germany, of anything we have yet encountered.####We have secured an order for 450 lights for Shanghae Cotton Mill of which Mr. Danforth, whom Mr. Edison has met, is the chief engineer. Being a friend of our Mr. Wetmore’s he has succeeded in securing the order, but upon a basis which will not, as I make it, leave us 5% commission, out of which we have sundry cable and other expenses. It is very necessary, however, if we are to keep the business or have any hopes of doing anything in it, for the future, that we should not let slip an opportunity to put in an American Edison plant in order to secure further business with the Chinese. We have ordered the dynamo and other fixtures and expect to ship the plant within 10 days.####In case Mr. Edison should be going to Europe during the present summer I shall be glad if he will make a special exertion to see the Berlin people and do his best to stop their interference with our Japan and China agencies. We have taken a great deal of time and trouble and --- under a heavy expense in the introduction of the Edison light into these countries, but it looks today as if we were going to meet with competition in the very same class of goods with the very worst competitors in the world.—the Germans, who are content to work for nothing if they can simply keep others from getting contracts which they may seek. I have lived in China and Japan for many years and know of what I speak. My letter files are filled with instances of this competition, as we took this business and worked hard and honestly in Mr. Edison’s interests, as well as our own, I know that he will fully appreciate our position and will do everything in his power to aid us. Within the past six months we have paid the Edison Machine Works $6,500 for dynamo apparatus alone, besides orders for many thousand of lights from the Edison Lamp Co. and sundry fixtures from Bergmann & Co.####Asking you to place the above information fully before Mr. Edison, believe me,####Yours very truly
Author
Recipient
Date
1889-06-07
Type
Folder/Volume ID
D8941-F
Microfilm ID
126:640
Document ID
D8941AAS
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University