The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-28
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
INTEREST,"! G FIGURES FROM
 MANUFACTURERS RECORD.
This ecction Now Producing in the Neigborh pod of 40 Per Cent of the Total Exports of
 the Nation.

Baltimore, Nov. 27.-(Special. "A sug- gestive reflection of the generally recog- nized importance of Southern ports in American commerce is given in a study in this weeks issue of the Manufactur- ers' Record of the imports and exports at those ports, together with the figures of their respective population, in compari- son with similar facts about other ports of the country
 The South is now actually producing in the neighborhood of 40 per cent of the total exports of the country, although it embraces but about 30 per cent. of the total area of the country and contains less than one-third of the population. During the past fiscal year, too. Southern ports handled more than S5 per cent of the total exports of the country, while of the $3S, AIS, ,613 increase in the value or exports over the preceding year, sS5, 342S95 was at Southern ports. It IS thus seen that tne South is doing much more per capita in the production of material flor American commerce and in the handling Of It than the rest of the country. When compari- son IS made of individual ports upon similar basis, using the latest figures available of population, those of 1900. and of commerce, those of 1903, the striking exhibit of Southern ports in comparison with those of the rest of the country is made.
 Of the seventeen typical ports, Calves ton has the heaviest commerce per each of it's inhabitants, s 795, followed by Newport News, sl,5lS; Savannah, NM7; mington, s727, and New Orleans s619. New York. with $327, is less than all of these and also less than Mobile, $436, and Portland. Maine. $S7s. San Francisco. with $2Oi, is close to Norfolk's $2OO and less than Tampa's $24S and Baltmores $215. Of the selected ports, Charleston has the least weight in the South per in-
 habitant SPA. and Philadelphia the least ! in the rest of the country, $103 while B0s-
 tons $310 is less than the weight of eight , Southern ports.
 To be sure. when it is borne in mind
 that comparatively little of the commerce actually originates in the ports which | handle it, this per capita idea is merely suggestive. How suggestive 1t is. though, is apparent when it is realized that Savannah, with d,00O inhabitants, 1 has a commerce annually of $55. 900 900, while Portland, Maine, with 5000 inhabi- tants, has a commerce of $1S,000,O00 that New Orleans, with 2S7O00 inhabitants, has a commerce of SIT, 100000, while Boston, with 560 600 inhabitants was $3,OO0,O0O less than Charleston's weight per each inhabi- tant is greater than Philadelphia's, and that Galveston, with S7,OOO inhabitants, does a foreign business of $le5, ,632. .206, while New York, with 3,437 900 inhabitants ninety times the population of Galveston, does $1, ,124 556,S02 of foreign trade, less than eleven times as much as Galveston.
 That many of these Southern ports are destined to be of far greater importance is shown by the figures of their commerce during the past twenty years compared with those for other ports.
 Between 1883 and 1908 the value of the exports and imports increased from $1,- 547 O2O, ,316 to $2445 9.552. or $S9S. .S69, 236, equal to 5S per cent. This rate Of in- crease was exceeded by Newport News. which had an advance of 1850 per cent: Pensacola, 6O5 per cent; Brunswick, 452 per cent; Mobile. 422 per cent; Galveston. | 5S9 per cent; Wilmington. POT per cent; I Savannah, 136 per cent; and New Orleans, | 69 per cent. of the Southern ports, 1 Tampa making an advance in ten years of 6T7 per cent, and by two of the other ports-Philadelphia, which. had an ad-
 per cent. The rate of New York, which
 handled 55 per cent. of the total com
 merce in 1883 and 46 per cent in 1903, was
 31 per cent, which was exceeded by Balti-
 more's 57 per cent, and was slightly greater than Bostons % per cent. Two