Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1903 — OURS A BIG NATION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OURS A BIG NATION.

AMERICA MORE THAN A BILLIONDOLLAR COUNTRY. Uncle Sam’i Conmerie the Put Tear Amounts to 92(000(000,000 Prosperity the Dominant Word of the American People. Washington correspondence: P* URING the fiscal J[ ]) year just closed the A United States has broken all records. Prosperity is the great, dominant word which de- • gw scribes the condition vj££sWs»£ssßßt of the American IffmUHHl , p s?. ple \, „ This 18 a . * iU- r ~~ iffL billion-dollar country in that it has shown itself to ylH*** yJrjjjKi stand a loss of a thousand millions in a few months alilWHHTfi most without a ripJnnTll p!e “poa the sun(jU’ face of the waters. It is a billion-dollar country in its yearly ability to buy of other nations. It is pretty nearly a billion-and-a-lialf country in what it sells abroad in a twelvemonth. And it is well on toward the two-and-a-half billion dollar country in its total foreign commerce in a single year. 4 The fiscal year ended tlm last day of June. Figures prepared by the treasury bureau of statistics show an estimate of the record when the books are made up for the end of the year, as follows: Imports $1,020,000,000 Exports 1,420,000,000

Total foreign c0mmerce..52,440,000, 000 This is the largest total foreign commerce In the history of the United States. The total exceeds that of any other nation in the world, Great Britain and Germany alone excepted. Our exports are greater than Germany’s and greater than the purely domestic exports (including the foreign goods resold) It Great Britain. At the close of this fiscal year the imports of the United States will for the first time exceed a billion dollars, showing that in prosperity the American people have Money to Bpend Abroad. According to the official the imports of the eleven months ending with May were $043,597,184 and the exports $1,324,403,203. For the twelve months ending with May the imports are $1,016,712,248 and the exports $1,413,733,760. As the largest imports in any earlier fiscal year were $003,320,948, In 1902, it is quite apparent that the total imports of the present fiscal year will exceed those of any preceding year, and that they will also exceed $1,000,000,000, since they have not fallen below $73,000,000 in any month of the last year, and are in the eleven months within $57,000,000 of the $1,000,000,000 line. It was only in the year 1572 that the total commerce first touched the one billion dollar line, and in 1000 it first touched the two billion dollar line. Running back through the century it may be said that the total imports and exports of 1800 amounted to $162,000,000; in IS3O, $144,000,000; in 1850, $318,000,000; in 1860, $687,000,000; in 1870, $828,000,000. In 1872 the total commerce was $1,070,772,663; in 18S0 it was $1,503,000,000, and in 1890 $1,647,000,000. In 1900 it first crossed the two billion dollar line, being in that year $2,244,000,000; in 1901, $2,311,000,000; in 1902. $2,2£>,000,000, and in 1903 seems likely to exceed $2,400,000,000. Of the more than one, billion dollars’ worth of imports for the'iull year, manufacturers’ materials will form nearly $500,000,000 value. In the ten months whose figures are completed by the treasury bureau of statistics manufacturers’ materials formed 47% per cent of the total imports, and in the latest month available, April, they formed 49.77 per cent. The percentage which these materials for use of the manufacturers form of the grand total is larger in that part of the fiscal year whose figures are complete than of any preceding year. In 1902 manufacturers’ materials formed 46.10 per cent of the total imports; in 1900, 45.70 per cent; in 1898, 42 per cent; in 1895, 37.1 per cent; in 1890, 34.5 per cent; in 1885, 33.1 per cent; in 1870, 23.2 per cent; in iB6O, 26.4 per cent, and in 1840, 21.2 per cent of the total imports.

Oar Internal Trade. Wonderful as are these figures relating to our foreign commerce, they appear small when placed in contrast with our domestic commerce. The stupendous volume of the Internal trade of this amazing country may be judged by the fact that during the year ending June 30, 1902, the railroads of the United States earned for carrying freight alone more than $1,200,000,000 —a sum greater than the total value of our imports and nearly equal to our total exports. It is a #.irious coincidence that the number of tons of freight handled was almost exactly equal t» the number of dollars charged for hauling it—1,200.315.717 tons of freight and $1,207,228,845 freight revenue. Let any one that likes try to estimate the total value of that enormous bulk of freight, and in his calculations rlet him take into account also the value of goads going by steamers, by express, through the mails and by electric and freight lines. No other country in the world can show the fifth part of the domestic trade which the United States enjoys.