Arizona republican., 1899-05-16
What the United States is Doing
 in Bicycles.
GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE
The Excellence of inc products Of inc Factories of This Country AffeSfed by inc Constantly In- CreaSIng Orders from inc Great est Manufacturing Countries or Europe.

Washington, May 15.-(Special) )-- l The opening of the wheeling season
 gives especial interest to some figures just prepared by the treasury bureau of statistics. These tables, which pre- sent the statistics of ttcycle exports
 during the past few years, show that
 American wheels are now being rid den in all parts of the world. In the wilds of Mexico and Central America,
 under the blazing skies of Cuba, Porto
 Rico, and other West Indian islands;
 across the pampas of Argentine, Bra
 gil, and other South American states;
 amid the densely populated areas Of
 China, British East Indies and Japan,
 and in the jungles of Africa, the
 American wheel is making it's way.
 Even in the great manufacturing
 countries of Europe, where workshopz
 and skilled workmen abound, millions
 of dollars worth of American bicy- cles are sold each year. During the four fiscal years, 1896, 1897, 1898 and
 1899, the expectations of American bi- cycles amount in round numbers to
 twenty million dollars.
 That such large numbers of ma chine requiring such high grades of
 workmanship in its production should be continuously and successfully ex- ported in competition with the work shops of the most successful manufae-
 turing countries of the world IS a fact
 of which American workmea and Americans generally may Justly feel
 proud. Four millions dollars worth of American Bicycles will, during the fiscal year about to end, go 10 Euro pean countries, countries in which the manufacturing industries autedate by generations those of the Unite.I States. To France, with all her skilled workmen and inginuity. ex- portations of American bicycles in the fiscal year 1899 will be more than double in value those of 1897, while the fact that there has been a general lowering of prices indicates that in numbers the increase has been very much greater. To Germany the ex- portations of bicycles in 1899 will be 60 per cent in excess of those Of 1897, though something less than those of 1898 To other countries on the con- tinent of Europe the bicycle exports of in r.E of last year or the year before To the United Kingdom the bicycle ex- ports of the year are materially iesS than those of 1898 as measured by values, though the fall in prices prob- ably accounts for much of the ap- parent reduction as shown by the fig ures which give values exclusively and do not indicate the number of ma chimes exported.
 One curious and Interesting fact in regard to the exports of bicycles H. Illustrates the general tendency of our export trade in manufactures. This is the fact that a very large proportion of our exports of manufactures go to manufacturing countries. Two-thirds of our bicycles go to countries which make a speciality of manufacturing and this export to manufacturing countries increases rather than other wise. It will be remembered that pre- dictions were made a year or two ago that the exports of bicycles to Japan csc had obtained sufficient numbers as models for their own factories and es- themselves in the manufac- ture of wheels. This prediction, how ever. has not proven true. The ex- ports of bicycles to Japan which in the fiscal year 1897 amounted to S52.- 179, were in 1898, sSS,S05, and in the fiscal year which ends next month will reach fully S130,OOO
 The islands which have been brought into closer relations with us 1y the events of the past year evident y appreciate bicycles as among the good things of the United States. Cuba, which in the nine months of 1897 bought but S1,469 worth, has bought in the nine months of the present fiscal year SS.101 worth Of bicycles. The exports of bicycles for he full fiscal year 1898 to Cuba mount to $9,214, to Porto Rico $3.359, 70 the Hawaiian islands S52072, hough~to the Philippines there seems
 lave been no direct exportation Of cycles.
 The largest single buyer of our bi- ,ycles in the fiscal year 1898 was the United Kingdom wlr.ch took S1,S52.-