Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-06-06
GROWING EXPORTS.
Trade Improving Under Democratic far
In Laws.

Trade Improving Under DemocratlC Tar.
IN Laws.
A suggestive sign of improving trade
is to be found in the treasury returns
Of the exports of domestic merchan-
disc This is particularly SO in manu-
featured goods, of which our exports
are still, relatively, insignificant
There were evidences last year OF con-
siderable gains under this head, par
ticularly in chemicals, cotton cloth
and fertilizers The gain in quantity
of the exports OF cotton manufacture
was, of course, much greater than the
gain in value. For the twelve months
ending with last December the cotton
cloth exported reached total of 1885,
900, 600 yards, agaist t59. 900, 600 for the
preceding year, while the increase in
value was only from $40, 800, 900 to Sill
100000. In other words. the gain IN
quantity was 2311 per cent, while the
gain in value was 12H per cent. The
great industries of iron and steel and
their manufactures, agricultural i'm
plements and chemicals contributed
less to the exports of the calendar
year 1894 than they did to those OF
1893.
But under all these heads, an in
crease has begun to manifest itself this
year. The exports of agricultural i'm
plements which in March, 1894, were
| valued at $591, 900, figure in the returns
| for March, 1895, at 81, 10000. Chemic-
| ais, too, have come up from $713, 900 to
| SITE, 900, and iron and steel and their
manufactures from So, 265, 600 to $685.
600. OF manufactured cottons, the
| quantity exported in March, 1894, was
| 13, 437, 900 yards, while for last March
| it was 16, 72s, 900 yards, or a gain of PAX
per cent. This is all the more remarka-
BILE when account is taken OF the tenn
porary check to the trade with China,
which took last year % per cent. of our
whole exports of cotton cloth. There
| continues to be evidence of steady
gain in the quantity of our cotton
goods exported to the United Kingdom,
albeit the monthly contribution does
not exceed 1000. 900 yards.
Our export trade in these manufac-
lures is merely beginning, promising
as the beginning may be. In cotton
manufactures we export less than 4
per cent. of the annual total sent out
| by Great Britain; in iron and steel and
| their manufactures we have not got
beyond 16 per cent. of the British
aggregate, and in woolens we do
not export enough to be worth men
| tioning. In fact, the total annual
value of all our exports of manufac-
tured goods is greatly exceeded by that
| of any one group of the manufactured
| products of Great Britain, which are
sert out of the country. But the fact
that the American manufacturer is be-
| ginning to show his ability to compete
| for share Of the worlds markets is a
| very instructive one, in view of the dis
NAL prophecies that were made of the
lower import duties on his business
prospects. He has by no means lost
| control of the home market, and he is
getting an increasing share of the for
eign one. That is quite in harmony
with the teaching of all antecedent ex-
perience as to the effect on commerce
of freeing it from protection1st trana-
mels- But it marks only the first ad-
| vance of a mdEement that before many
years are over will have attained such
a momentum that the trammels which
remain will be recognized for what
they are, and their removal demanded
by the very men who, erewhile,
thought them necessity of their ex-
| Decentralization Herald.