Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-11-03
WHAT WE BUY AND SELL
ABROAD.

|
the returns from all the custom houses
are corrected to August %, gives the
total exports of domestic merchandise
at 1923, 946, 353, for the year ending
June 30, while the merchandise i'm
ports for the same time were $685.
954,74 showing, as compared with
the previous year, an increase in ex-
ports amounting to 1925, Cos, 563, and
increased imports of 1922, l76, 9Il.
Of the imports, S459, $50, SS3 were Of
dutiable goods and $20S, sol 1868 Wen.
free of duty In the latter class the
trainers of our tariff intended, III gen
eral way, to include many articles not
produced at all here, as well as raw
materials used in manufactures, max
making goods which were largely the
product of foreign cheap labor pay
high rate of duty, in order to encour
age our manufacturing industries. A
large proportion Of the value of the
| imports free of duty is covered in the
two items of coffee and tea, which we
received last year to the value of $780,,
| I43. 800. as compared with similar re-
ceipts amounting to SCI, ,934,4 for
the year preceding OF chemicals,
drugs, dyes and medicines, about half
our imports are free and half dutiable,
the latter ammounting last year to
S5, ,764. 698, and the former to S6,738,-
S62, the free goods showing an in
crease of so and the dutiable of % per
cent, as compared with the imports of
the wear preceding. But the most re-
markable showing in the increased i'm
ports of free goods is found in the item
of hides and skins, other than furs.
| These constitute q raw material, the
bringing of which here from abroad to
be manufactured involves the use of a
large amount of capital and the en-
ployment of a great number of hands,
whether the manufacture be only so
far carried out as to produce leather,
or whether, as with the great proper
tion. it is CARED forward into the max
ing of boots and shoes. In 1888 we
had full average import, amounting
to SIS, 959, 0l7, but for 1880 our
receipts were far greater than ever be-
fore in the his ory of the country, foot
ing up $4,000, 254. In the other ar
ticles free of duty which enter most
largely into our manufactures, we lind
that the imports of India-rubber and
gutta percha have increased from S6,-
! 06S, ,OS8 to $9,606, ,239, rags for paper
makers from 2,4O2, ,457 to $5,474,737,
raw silk from $9,371 ops to $1,000,
699, and block, bar or pig tin from S2,-
3l2,297 to $6,223,176. The large
capital and increased employment Of
of labor necessitated by this larger use
of raw material requiring so much
work to fit it for the requirements of
the public will at once be evident.
When we come to the imports of
dutiable goods, however, such as are
generally brought here in competition
with the productions of our own manu-
features, we find in most branches an
increase quite as great as that noticed
In our imports of free raw materials,
fact which would tend to discredit our
general industrial prosperity were it
not tn It we have such cumulative evil
dence to the contrary, and can see that
these increased imports, bought from
the superabundant proceeds OF two
bountiful crops, are but supplement
ing demands upon our own manuiuc-
turers which the latter find themselves
unable to fill. Thus, in cotton manu-
factures, although the mills at Fall
River, Lowell, and other places, have
been producing more goods than ever
before, our imports for l879-SO were
$29.929,366, as against SIS, 928,3l0
for the year preceding. So, too, in
manufactures of wool, although our I'M
ports have increased from $24 1855, sol
in 1883, to $33, 92l, ,093 in lS79-SO,
the home industries in this line have
been remarkably prosperous In IRON
and steel and their manufactures the
business has not been so steadily pros
porous as in some other branches, be-
cause of the intense speculative fever
which dominated that market during a
great portion of the year, but there
was a great Improvement in the many
industries embraced in this line as
compared with the condition OF the
trade for the year preceding. 1t is to
be particularly noted also, in this con-
nection, that while our increased I'M
ports Of this class were enormous, by
far the largest items were OF pig and
old and scrap iron, which, considering
the work necessary to turn them into
marketable products as finished goods
may properly be considered as raw
material. In fact these two items
alone constitute more than hall our
imports of iron and steel and It's manu-
features for the past year, figuring Tor
$27, ,956, IA, as against S2,054,S 800 IN
1883, while all our other imports IN
this class, such as casting, steel and
iron rails, machinery, cutlery, files,
saws and tools, foot up to about $50,
1854 in lS79-S0, as against ST.
1872, 1868 in IS78-9.
When we turn to the other side OF
the account however, and look at the
items which make up our increased eX-
ports, it is not at all surprising to ma
that in the shipment OF manufactured
goods we have only just about held
our own, and that our larger shipments
are almost entirely in grain, cotton
and provisions OF the latter we had
an unprecedented abundance, and the
marketing thereof furnished the people
with the abundant means which has
enabled them to purchase so freely OF
manufactures. On this account the
ambition TO build up a trade in our
manufactured goods in foreign markets
has been, this year, TO n great extent
held in abeyance, in the presence OF an
active and generally more remuneratlve
home trade. OF course this has been
only temporary condition, to be prob
ably followed by more earnest ehorts
than have ever before been made to en-
large the sale of our manufactures