New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-31
OUP OUTL1Y IN MARCH,

A statement of our imports and exports OF
merchandise for the month of March, 1880, and
for the nine months ending with that month
has Just been published. There are one or two
noteworthy points in these statistics to which
we ask the careful attention Of readers Of
THE TRIBUNE. Our imports of foreign mer-
chandise in Marsh 1879, both free of duty and
dutiable, amounted to Sal, 1865 In the
same month of the present year the amount
was nearly doubled reaching the sum of
$40, 90S,504. This very nearly equals the
amount expended by us on foreign merchandise
in any month of our largest initiation after the
war. Nor is this increased outlay a sudden out
break of transient extravaganza referable to
any given cause. 1t has gradually grown dur
ing the last year, beginning with the first hint
of our revviDg prnspe ity. For the nine month
ending March, 1879, our expenditures for for
elgn merchandise amounted to $3293 7J,177.
For the nine months ending with the March
just past, tho amount had increased to
$4G8,213,G 22.
The increased expenditure is, Of course, n graf
flying indication OF a renewal of prosperity, but
the fact that it exists ut all is an indication of
something else quite as significant and not SO
agreeable. It must be remembered that Amer
lC1llb ltbS buhu any bNlibi ptOIlb uNDCuu upOh
other nations for the necessities of life. They
are more amply provided than any other with
food, clothes, fuel, and minerals. Even during
q civil war which tore the Nation into frag-
ments, or during the worst seasons of CONNER
cial depression we have ever known, there has
never been any hint of actual want We have
been always well-fed, well-clOthed, we'll
warmed. When we 20 to foreign nations for
their wares, we go, with but one or two
EXCEPTIONS for luxuries. These are du-
table articles and it is in dutiable articles
that tho enormous increase of our imports has
occurred. 1t is the costly silks, foreign wines,
high-class dress goods, brc-a brac house fur
nishing and equipages which have drained the
country of this enormous additional sum. Our
Weather classes have forgotten the lesson of
economy which the Nation set itself to learn in
1873, or rather they never accepted it, During the
lowest depression which followed Jay Cookies
failure there always remained large class
of salaried officials and men who, having incomes
invested in mortgages, benefited instead of
suffered by the hard times and lowering of
prices. They had more money to spend than
before, simply because more could be bought
with the money. 1t was noticeable fact that
INC bIlOpb WnObC llhuC luCClb luC VI
this class doubled their attractions in that season
and made higher profits than before, at the very
time when the streets of our great cities were
crowded with eager, unemployed wOrkmen. 1t
is not, however, to meet therre requirements alone
that the present enormous increase in the i'm
portatiOn of luxures has occurred but the de-
mands of classes whose incomes depend on the
fluctuatiOn of every change in the currents Of
trade. If our millionaires chose to fling their
money wastefully into the sea instead of into
tile hands Of foreign purveyOrs of luxuIies, the
effect upon the condition of the country would
be bad but slight. But the imitation of them
by every other class down to the very lowest, in
habits of prodigalty and headlong imprudence,
will yet bring about another crash Of ruin as
it did before as heavy and more irremediable.
If the wife of the bonanza king or ruling pol
itician outbids kings for her diamonds in Am
sterdam or pictures in Paris, her neighbOr,
whose income is just One-eighth as large, also
shops abroad and the wife Of her husbands
labOrer must dress IN sleazy silks instead Of
clean cOttons. We all remember this condition
Of frantic extravaganza few years ago, and we
all have good cause to remember how it ended.
1t is not the absolute fact of our increased
outlay which is important, but the condition of
society Of which it is the index and warning.