Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1898 — WHAT IT IS TO LIVE [ARTICLE]

WHAT IT IS TO LIVE

Under a Protective Tariff— Paragraph* ' Showing Benefit* of a Dingley Law. | The secretary of agriculture, Mr. Wilson, has prepared a statement to show the beneficial effects of the Dingley tariff bill on farm products. The totalagricultural exports for the fiscal year of 1897, he says, amounts to $683,471,139, while for 1898 they aggregated $854,627,929, an increase for the year of $171,156,790. For the fiscal year of 1898 the total domestic exports were $1,210,292,076, an increase of $178,284,494 over those of the previous year. The value of the three principal articles of imports in the agricultural line, coffee, sugar and wool, shows a wonderful decrease in 1898. In 1897, we paid $81,544,384 for coffee; the following year, $65,076,561. Last year we paid $60,472,703 for sugar, which was $39,193,478 less than what we paid in 1897. The amount of wool imported in 1897 was 350,852,026 pounds, as against 132,755,302 pounds in 1898, the decrease in value being $36,459,499. The heavy decrease in these products. Secretary Wilson says, is owing to the heavy importations made before the Dingley bill was made a law. The exports of domestic merchandise for the month of August were valued at $84,580,475, an increase of $3,755,425 over the month of August last year, when .they amounted to $80,825,050. For the eight months from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31 they reached $778,645,726, an increase of $136,948,396, the exports for the eight months of 1897 amounting to $641,697,330. For the eight months from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31 United States imports amounted to $426,923,597, against $546,325,777 for the same period last year. The imports for the month of August, 1896, amounted to $49,468,194. For the eight months ending Aug. 31 they amounted to $471,232,299. The manufacture of silk in the United States, in 1860 amounted to $6,607,771 in value. Since 1890 the rate of increase has even accelerated, making it probable that the silk production of the United States today amounts to nearly or quite $150,000,000 per annum in value. Meantime the importation of manufactured silks has fallen rapidly, that of 1890 being $38,686,374 and that of 1898 only $23,523,110.