Fair play., 1895-08-31
OUR TRADE ABROAD.
Returns Show the Wisdom of Tariff Re-
duction.

| duction.
| The total value Of imports during the
last fiscal year was s73l,?5,,s.5, against
s654. g94. .622 the previous year. an in
crease of SO. 6.963.253. In view OF the
great industrial and commercial de
preston which prevailed last year the
value of imports was large, it having
been exceeded only five times in the
! history of the country.
On the other hard. the value Of do
mestic exports was s793, 3s5, $50, against
| ss69. 2Ci 931 the year before. decrease
of So. s01, ,0i7. notwithstanding the
large increase in imports and decrease
| in exports, the latter exceeded the for
mer bv Sol, ,4i0,0l5 The exports OF last
year have been exceeded eight times
/ in our history. and once-in lsg2-by
over S242 900. 900.
I In view of the fact that for ten
mcnths of the last fiscal year the I'M
! ports came in under the new tariff law
a comparison OF some of the principal
/ items with the same for the year be-
| fore will be Of interest.
! OF art works. which We're put on the
| free list by the new law, we imported
| to the value of 81. si3, ,o97 last year,
/ against 81. T2i.39i the year before. OF
chemicals. drugs and dyes, the duties
on which were materially reduced, we
/ imported i3,;552, 500 worth, against
| S37. DOB, l7O the year before. OF cotton
goods we imported S3a. 1876. .33S. against
/ s22. 3i6, 5i1 the year before: of earthen.
/ stone and chinaware, S, $50. .03i, against
ST, so. 49,; OF iron and steel. So, ,03., 321,
| against s2l, ,3li, is9; of leather and man
ufactures thereof, Sl3, 1909. against
/ S9,ilG,l li5. On all these goods the
duties were considerably reduced.
| But while there was n decided in
crease in the importation of all these
articles, the duties on which were
moderately reduced, there was also an
! increase in imports of goods which
were free under the old law and still
| crease from 500, 3li,6 to 500, l29, i26 in
coffee. from Sl6, ISL, l52 to SO, IL, yji in
| hides and skins others than furs, and
! from sl5. l62, 1873 to SIS, +.7.0jI in un-
manufactured rubber and gutta
| pcrcha. And, again, there was a de-
crease in the importation of some ar
| ticles the duties on which were re
duced. For example, from SlS,93i,77l
| to SIT, ,239, ,g0l in fruits, including nuts:
| from 81, 600. 500 to s., ass, tSi in lead and
manufactures thereof. and from SIS
| I5t, ,U73 to ST., ,Sl3, ,s5+ in wool and manu-
| features thereof.
| The imports of sugar and molasseS
| fell from Sl26,91 lOi to S1'i, i92, BOZ.
| This decrease of more than S5O,0oO.0O0
was dle in part to the enormous i'm
! portations in anticipa tion of the 40 per
cent. duty, and in part, and principal
| lv, tn the great fall in the foreign price
of raw sugars.
The value of wool. which was put on
| the free list, Increased from ST, l07, ,ljs
| to So, 500 i2i, and the value of woulen
| goods, the duties on which We're re
| duced about one-half, increased from
SIG, 30l, $50 to $50, ,5i2,3 39l. But the in
| crease in these articles, as in the case
of others the duties on which We're
| considerably reduced, was in no small
/ measure due to restriction of inn
ports in 1894 in anticipation of lower
| duties.
| On the whole the returns indicate
| that the reduction of the tariff has
stimulated importations, but it is too
early yet 70 make very confident de-
! ductionS. Chicago Chronicle.