Arizona republican., 1898-12-17
STARTLING FACTS PRESENTED
The Islands Adjacent to a Volume of Trade Worth Billion Year a Con-
 siderable Part of Which is x" >a = Within Our Grasp.

Washington, Dec. 16.-(Special j.
 More than a billion dollars worth of
 goods are every year imported into the
 countries commercially adjacent to the
 Philippine islands, and more than half
 that amount is composed of the class
 of articles produced or manufactured
 in the United States and offered for
 sale by her people. Two tables just
 prepared by the treasury bureau of sta tiSticS present. some startling facts as to the consuming power of the coun- tries in easy reach of Manila as an en- trepot and distri putting point. From
 Manila to Hong Kong and Canton. the
 gateway to southern China, is but half the distance from Now York to Ha-
 vana, and from Manila to Yok kahama,
 Port Arthur. Shanghai, Bangkok or the Strait settlements is in each case a dis tance but little, if any greater than . that from New York to Havana. The great ports and cities of British India and Australasia, while somewhat more distant are much nearer to Manila than to any other general distributing point for the great classes of merchandise which the countries in question pro duce.
 The importations into these four countries, Japan, China, British Aus tralasia and British India and Strait Settlements, as above indicated, amount to nearly a billion dollars year. Those of Japan, which a decade ago were less than fifty million dollars are now more than 100 million dollars, and steadily increasing. Those of China have increased 20 per cen. in the last decade and now amount to nearly 200 million dollars a year, and those of British India and the Strait Settle mentS, which show an increase of about 10 per cent in the decade, are 300 mil lion dollars annually.
 More than half this enormous sum of the imports of these four great coun- tries are, as above indicated, classes of articles produced in the United States and offered for sale by her people. Of cotton and cotton goods alone, the inn ports into these four countries amount in round numbers to 1S0 million dol lars per annum, and of this amount but little over ten million dollars worth is from the United States, the great cotton producing country of the world. I'm ports of iron and steel into the four cuntries in question amount to over thirty million dollars and of this seven million dollars worth comes from the | United States. The imports of leather l and manufactures amount to seven mil | lion dollars, and less than one million | dollars of that sum from the United | States; wood and manufactures there | of to about eight millions annually, and | less than two millions of it from the l United States; machinery, not includ- | ed under the head of iron and steel | to twenty million dol lars, of which less than two millions were from the United States; chemi- | d n& han ten million dollars, with less than one million of it coming from this Of the seventeen million dol arS' worth of mineral oils imported in O the four countries in question, we furnished over one-half last year. Of he thirteen million dollars worth of furnished to those coun- ries, our share was less than five mil ion dollars worth, and of the six mil ion dollars worth of coal, we furnished ess than 1 per cent. Of The three mil ion dollars worth of provisions, we lt furnished but little more than quar- CT of al million dollars worth.
 Of the eleven great classes of articles, manufactures of cotton, iron and steel, eallner, wood, machinery, chemicals, mineral oils, breadstuffs, provisions, oal and raw cotton, China imported in S97 ninety million dollars worth, and If that sum eleven million dollars vorth came from the United States.
 Japan imported in 1897 fifty eight million dollars worth, and of that sum, welve million dollars worth came rom the United States; British Aus -alasia imported sixty-four million ollars' worth, of which twelve million ollars' worth came from the United l tates, and British India ten million $ ollars' worth, of which three and a I alf million dollars worth was fur ished by the United States.
 :O.