The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-30
OUR DEPENDENCE UPON THE
 uDnITCC

OUR DEPENDENCE UPON THE
 TROPICS.
 l The increasing contributions of the
 tropics to the comforts and require
 ments of daily life among the people of 1 the United States must have been op-
 served by every thoughtful individual who compares the well supplied table
 of to-day with that of quarter Of q
 century ago, or contrasts the surround
 ings of his home or the conveniences of
 daily life with those of earlier years.
 Tropical and sub-tropical fruits are now ! the ordinary accompaniments of the ta- | ble and in the hands and mouths of the | very urchins upon the streets. Sugar l and coffee and tea and cocoa, which by earlier generations were considered lux
 ures are now necessaries of daily life everywhere. The average consumption of sugar, which in the year 1870 was thirty three pounds per capita, was in 1901 sixty-eight pounds per capita; and the quantity of coffee consumed has in
 creased from six pounds per capita per annum in 1870 to nearly twelve pounds
 per capita in 1901; that of cocoa is six times as great per capita as in 1870;
 while that of tea is still as great per
 capita as in 1S70 despite the great in-
 crease in the use of coffee and cocoa.
 Silks and satins, which were luxuries only a generation or two ago, are now considered a necessary part of the
 wardrobe of a large share of the popu-
 lation. India rubber. which a genera tion ago was almost unknown is now utilized everywhere, for clothing, for. household requirements, for machinery, and even for the tires of our various carriages.
 The great railway lines, having made their way westward across the conti- nents and connected city with city and the interior with the seacoast, have turned at right angles and are now forcing their way toward the equator from both the north and the south tenn perate zones, bringing from those sec tions where nature produces with such lavish hand the sugar, the coffee and cocoa. the fruits and nuts, the spices and gums and dyewoods, the silks, the flores, and the rubber, or transferring them tol the rapidly multiplying steam- ships for transportation to our doors and distribution among the whole peo- pile The effect of this upon our daily life and upon the habits and health of our people is readily observed Not only is there greater comfort among all the people in the matter of clothing and personal and household conveniences, but the variety of food supply has greatly increased, and with these changes have come improved health and a lengthening of the span of life Students of vital statistics assure us that the average life of man has ger ceptibly heightened in the past half century, especially In the countries that have made much advancement in ma terial conditions; and there can be DO doubt that the increase in the variety and quality of our food supply, in bet ter clothing and in other comforts and of life has contributed to. | If not actually produced, this lengthen- ing of the span of life.
 This increase in the contribution of the tropics to the daily life of man has | been general throughout the countries | where prosperity or activity in manu | 'acturing and commerce is the rule; but | 1t seems to be especially marked In the United States, which now imports more l han million dollars worth of tropical md ub-tropical foodstuffs and raw | materials every day in the year. The increased reliance upon the tropics is probably greater, approximately, in the | United States than in most other coun- ries, since a much larger share of our ugar is drawn from the tropics than Is he case with other and especially the European, countries, which in most 'ases now produce their own sugar rom beets.
 The United States has during recent ears consumed nearly one-half of the ane sugar of the world which enters nto International commerce, and more han one-half of the coffee of the world n the year just ended the importation f goods usually considered as of trop- 3al or sub-tropical production amount q to S400 000, 900, or considerably more han S1,o00, 900 for every day in the year Sundays and holidays; while hirty years ago they amounted to but l43, ,000,000 or less than $400 900 per day. o. P. Austin in the Forum