The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-21
FOREIGN COMMERCE SHOWS A BIC GAIN Imports VIII for First Time Ex-
 ceed Billion Dollars BUREAU ISSUES FIGURES 1t Is Quite Apparent That Total Im- ports of Present Fiscal Year Will
 Exceed Those of Any Pre-
 ceedIng Year.
BUREAU ISSUES FIGURES

Washington, June 2O.-(special) )-Eleven
 months figures of the treasury bureau of statistics, now completed, show that the foreign commerce of the United States will be, in the year about to end, the largest in the history of the country. Imports will, for the first time, exceed
 billion dollars and exports will be larger than in any preceding year ex- cept 1901. The eleven months figures
 which justify this assertion show that the
 imports of the eleven months ending with May were $943,5s7,1 ,194 and the exports H,- S24, 49S, ,293. For the twelve months ending with May the imports are s1,016 712,24S and the exports $1,41S,7S 7S9,Ts
 As the largest imports in any earlier fiscal year were s9O3, 32O, ,94S, in 1902 It is quite apparent that the total imports of the present fiscal year will exceed those of any preceding year and that they will also exceed a billion dollars, since they have not fallen below $73o00.00O in any month of the past year and are in the eleven months within $57,OO0,00O of the bnlion-dollar line. As the largest exports of any preceding year except 1901 were S1, ,S94 4S3 0l2, In 1900, and those of the eleven months ending with May were | $1, ,324 493. .293 and the smallest exports of any month in the year were $sS,OOO,OOO 1t is apparent that when the month of June Is added the export total for the year
 will exceed that of 1900 and will pass the s1, ,4O0 GOO, GOO line. The largest total conn merce (by which IS meant the Imports and exports combined) of any earlier year was that of 1901, s2,S10, 937 t5S. As
 the total imports and exports for the
 eleven months ending with May were $2, ,26S, ,090, 4S7 and the combined imports of the lightest month of the present year
 were s162 O00,0OO, 1t is apparent that the commerce of the twelfth month added to
 to the total already shown by the eleven
 months will make a grand total exceed
 ing that of 1901, which showed the larg- est total of Imports and exports com bined.
 It was only In the year 1872 that the total commerce first touched the one | billion-dollar line, and in 1900 1t first touched the -billion-dollar line. Run
 ming back through the century, 1t may
 be said that the total Imports and ex- ports of 1900 amounted to $162, 0OO. GOO; in 1890, sl44, ,000, 900; in 1850. $3lS. 900, ,000 In
 1s60 $8s7 00O 900; in 1S70 $S2S, 900 900. In 1872 the total commerce for the first time
 crossed the bilion-dollar line, being for
 that year $l,070, 772 663. In 1880 it was H,-
 5OS, GOO and in 1890 $1,647 .0O0.00o. In 1900 l 1t first crossed the -bllion-dollar line,
 being in that year s2.244,O0 900; in 1901, $2 311, ,000 OOO in 1902, 2,2S5 GOO. 900, and in
 1903 seems likely to exceed g. 400, GOO. | Of the more than one billion dollars
 worth of imports for the full year, manu- facturers' materials will form nearly
 $500, 900, 900 value. In the ten months whose l figures are completed by the treasury bu-
 reau of statistics manufacturers ma
 terials formed 471k per cent of the total imports, and in the latest month avail able, April, they formed 49.T per cent The percentage which these materials for
 use of the manufacturers form of the grand total Is larger in that part of the ! fiscal year whose figures have been com- pleted than of any preceding year. In | 1902 manufacturers materials formed
 46.1 per cent of the total imports; in 190O
 45.7 per cent; in 1898, 42 per cent; in 1885, | 37.1 per cent; in 1890, 345 per cent; in
 1885, 3S1 per cent; in 1870. 2S.2 per cent; in
 1S6O 26.4 per cent, and In 1S40. PIP per l cent of the total imports.