The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1899-12-07
OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE.

From the National Rural: I want
to make vigorous protest against his
way of stating the condition of our
foreign trade. When at that great
iron center, Joliet, ILL.,, he boastfully
and truthfully said, as reported in one
of our leading Chicago newspapers:
For the first time in our history, we
sent more American manufactured
products abroad than we buy abroad"
Then he adds: "The balance of trade
is, therefore, in our favor, and it is
paid in gold" 1 fear this last state
nent is misleading to many people
who may read it. l have such conf
dence in the honor of President Nc
kinley that doubtless he would admit
that the following statement bearing
on this issue would be a more explicit
one, and at the same time l do not
think he would question one word. as
l quote only from official reports pub
lished under his own administration.
Let us examine the figures.
During the fiscal year ending June
30, 1898, the balance of foreign trade
IN merchandise, in our favor, was $685.
924.791, and for the year 1SsS-99 it
was $530,OSS,565. The balance of trade
In our favor, in silver, for 1898 was
s24,1S0,65S, while for 1S9S-99 it was
$25,643,9O9, thus making for merchan-
disc alone $1.145,413,356, and for sill
yer, which in this case was nearly all
merchandise, it was s49,S34, 567, or
total of $1,195, 237,921. The balance Of
gold received in 1898 was $1O4,9S5,-
283, while for 189S-99 it was $51,432,-
517, making the total amount of gold
received as a balance or our foreign
commerce for these two fiscal years
Sl56, All, 800. Putting these official fig
ures In round numbers, it can be seen
that the value of the merchandise and
silver We exported for these two fiscal
years exceeded what we imported by
$1,195,O00,000, and the entire balance
of gold that reached us, as officially re-
ported, as having been paid us and
brought here, was only $156, $780,
This would leave balance due us Of
nearly $1,039,0O0,000. Please note that
large proportion Of this vast sum
represents the products of American
labor sold at decidedly unremunerative
prices. If this vast business had been
closed up at the end Of these two won
derfully active years, this amount
would have to be settled on the So
called existing gold standard"
His statement, ut is paid in gold"
should be received with more consid-
Grafton than is generally given to the
question Of how we make the settle
ments of our immense foreign COM
merce. A disposition on the part of
those engaged in the task of securing
the so-called gold standard on this
nation tends to cause them to impress
on the minds of our people that we
have enough gold in the world. and
that plenty of it is coming our way, so
that we can dispense with silver as
one of our two agents of valuation,
for full legal debt paying. Please spe-
cially remember all the gold that is
officially reported to have been re-
ceived as our balance, in these two
fiscal years. from foreigners, was the
$156,417,S00. The remainder Of this
vast sum due us was expended in liq-
uidating' the interest due to foreign
ers, paying foreign debts, lifting our
bonds and mortgages, paying the ex-
penses of our travellers abroad, and
paying foreign ship-owners for carry
ing our freight and nasseneers.