Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1899 — MORE THAN A BILLION [ARTICLE]

MORE THAN A BILLION

EXPORT TRADE THE LARGEST IN OUR HISTbRY. she Year 1898 Beata All Previous Records in Sales Abroad of Domestic Products, While Imports Are the Smallest Since 1885. The manner in which our national wealth is being increased as the result of an economic policy which stimulates the use of domestic products while at the same time enabling the producers of the United States to reach out after foreign markets is set forth in the figures furnished by the Treasury Department Bureau of Statistics. From these figures it is certain that the calendar year 1898 will be a record breaking year in the matter of export trade. Only twice in our history have the exports in a calendar year passed the billlon-dollar line; in 1898 they will be a billion and a quarter. During the eleven mouths of 1898 ending with November they are greater than in any full calendar year preceding, the total for the eleven months being $1,117,681,199, and it is apparent that the December statement will bring the grand total for the year above $1,250,000,000. The November exports were $129,783,512, the largest in any month in the history of our commerce. Of breadstuffs the exports for the eleven months ending with November, 1898, are the largest in our history, being $277,135,341, against $223,211,617 in the great exporting year of 1892; provisions are for the eleven months

$148,417,850, against $125,297,007 In the eleven months of 1892. Cotton for the eleven months amounts to $192,323,391, a figure slightly below that of 1896, though the total number of pounds exported by far exceeds that of the corresponding months in any preceding year, being for the eleven months 3,436,032,504, or, measured In bales, 6,722,283, a larger total in bales or pounds than that of any full calendar year preceding. Equally gratifying is that portion of the showing which relates to the largely diminished purchase of articles of foreign production and the correspondingly Increased consumption of domestic products. It is herein that the American policy becomes effective In piling up national wealth to figures so vast as to startle the financiers of Europe, who are growing more and more solicitous as to the enormous credit balances which are being accumulated by this country. The Import record of the year 1898 will be as remarkable as that relating to its exports, but for opposite reasons, the total imports for the year being less than those of any calendar year since 1885. For the month of November they were $52,109,560 only, which was slightly less than those of November, 1897, and less, with three exceptions, than those of any November since 1885. For the eleven months ending with November they were $579,844,153 only, while those of the corresponding months of 1897 were $691.089,266, and those of the eleven months of 1896. $622,598,896. It is thus apparent that the imports for the full calendar year 1898 will not exceed $640,000,000, a sum less than that of any calendar year since 1885, and fully a hundred milllo'i dollars less than that of the calend I r year 1897.

The year 181 CT xitt naturally show the largest balance' of trade in our favor ever presented in any calendar year. The figures for the eleven months show an excess of exports over imports amounting to $537,837,046, and the December figures will bring the total excess of exports for the calendar year above the $600,000,000 line, making an average exceis of export* for the year more than $50,000,000 a month. The highest excess of export* in any preceding calendar year was $357,090,914 In 1807 and $324,263,685! in 1896. The gold imports for the eleven months ending with November are $149,396,370. No full calendar year, save 1896, ever reached the hundred-million-dollar line, and in that year tke total for the twelve months was $104,731.259. The effect of this large importation of gold, in conjunction with the Increased production from our own mines, is plainly visible in the increased circulation of that metal. The gold In circulation on Dec. 1, 1898, was $658,986,513, against $544,494,748 on Dec. 1. 1897; $516,729,882 on Dec. 1, 1896, and $456,128,483 on July 1, 1896. The total circulation on Dec. 1. 1898, was sl,§86,879,504, against $1,721,084,538 on Dec. 1, 1897; $1,650,223,400 on Dee. 1, 1896, and $1,509,725,200 on July 1, 1806. Shipping Subsidies. It makes no difference what we think of the policy of paying (shipping) subsidies in the abstract. While other nations pay them we must, just as each of the nations of Europe must keep up its armament so long as the others do. For years now we have been talkii<g about this matter, and It is high time that Congress and the President should

take it up and act The acquisition o»a new territory toward which we havsjM already agreed to establish the policy*]] of the ‘’open door,” makes it more fraft portant and necessary than ever, and® points out the present as the time, til adopt and to carry out an effective an«n vigorous policy, that shall give us, not® merely equality with other nations, that superiority which of right to us in our own trade with the worid® —Poughkeepsie (N. Y.) Eagle. ‘Ji 1 Value of Experience. <3 1 Soon after the enactment of the ley tariff bill was completed it wm||B attacked from Democratic oiMrtenM because of its assumed favor for tW® sugar trust. Experience has provdflE that the Dingley bill contained no sack® favor. Since the Dingley bill becaj®K a law two great competitors to sugar trust have appeared in the mC®H ket, and the home manufacture of gar from beets will soon destroy (kfl power of all the trusts and comhlj®B| tions in the sugar market. There w® more value in one year of experteM®! under a Republican tariff law all the Democratic free trade and. silver theories ever formulated. 1 — iliac iMich.) News and Express.Ul| i Position We Should Occupy, x |g There seems to be no reason whvtj|®f| United States in the near future shovd#S not occupy the portion in the sbippinll world it ought ta occupy. Nation® policies at tbo-rwsent time are tainly in that direction.—Peoria llStfl Journal. '\S|||| The Dingley bill is proving.. revenue producer despite smaller t ‘jg porations and irrespective of thfj .. ■ tariff. The conclusion from whMk that it should be let discreetly aloamw Chicago Evening Post.