Evening star., 1901-12-16
IMPORTS FROM THETRoPICS
OF &32s,s10,155 ONLY s3,Iso,Dss CAME
FROM PHILIPPINES,
Only . Snail Proportion of Our Sugar
Consumption Comes From
the Archipelago.

The prominence given to the commerce
between the United States and the Philip
pine Islands through the recent decision OF
the Supreme Court and the necessity for
legislation on that subject lends especial in
terest to some figures prepared by the
treasury bureau of statistics relative to the
present imports from the Philippines and
the constant demands OF the United States
upon the tropics for articles Of daily re-
quirement. These figures show that the
total value Of imports from the Philippines
in the ten months ending with October
1901. were s.1s0s53. OF that sum only
$222,797 was dutiable and 81 964. .156 was free
Of duty. OF the dutiable imports $1Ss, ,15y
represented the value Of sugar, the value
Of all other dutiable articles being $34. .63s
Importation OF Hemp.
OF the free importations S2.945,771 was
manila hemp. and all other free articles
$1S,3S5 The importation of hemp from the
Philippines in 1901 shows a large reduction
compared with the corresponding months of
1900, due In part to the small production
Of hemp in the islands during the crop year
OF 1900. and In part to a great reduction in
price. In the ten months of 1900 ending
with October, q 968 tons Of manila hemp
imported was valued at $5,225, ,261, and in
the same months Of 1901, 20579 tons Of
hemp imported from the islands was valued
at but $2.945,7 III, the decrease in price thus
being from $187 in 1900 to $143 per ton in
1901 for the period under consideration.
Sugar Jmportations.
The very small proportion Of our sugar
consumption which the Philippine Islands
are supplying is shown by a comparison Of
the above figures Of sugar imported from
the Philippines with those OF our total su-
gar importatfons during the year. The total
importation Of sugar into the United States
in the ten months ending with October
amounts to about 1900. 600 900 pounds, val
ued at about s1OO,OOO.OO0; and of this enor-
nous total only II, ,424 coo pounds, valued at
$1SS.159, came from the Philippine Islands.
In other words, they have supplied during
the present year about one-fifth of one per
cent of the total value of our importations
OF sugar. The October report Of the bureau
of statistics shows that our importation of
sugar from all countries except Hawaii
and Porto Rico amounted to 3,346, ,O65, ,267
pounds. valued at $72,9S5Os4. The reports
from the collector at Hawaii show that
there was shipped to the United States from
those islands in the ten months ending with
October, 1901, 645, ,095, ,290 pounds of sugar,
valued at $24.4o .076. Add to this the
amount shipped from Porto Rico, and our
total importations Of sugar during the ten
months will aggregate the figures above
named-,0OO.OOO,O 900 pounds, valued at $780,
100000.
These figures Of the sugar importations
indicate in some degree the dependence of
the United States upon the tropics for the
requirements of daily life. OF the one
hundred million dollars worth of sugar i'm
ported into the United States in the ten
months Of 1901, all but about twelve million
dollars worth came from the tropics. Dur
ing the same time the importations of cof-
fee amounted to S57 1874 3O3; raw silk. S23,-
996,6l5; rubber, So. 1863, ,76S; hemp, sisal Jute,
etc, S21 ,19O.922; tobacco. $13 SO2, 100: tea.
81. S79; cotton. $6.OO0,2 23S. and cocoa, $5,-
9,O31.
Imports of Tropical Productions.
The following table shows the value of the
importations of tropical and subtropical
productions into the United States In the
fiscal year 1901, including in the statement
all sugar, of which, as already shown, the
very large proportion is from the tropics: