Arizona republican., 1903-08-24
Business Between the U.
 $. and Its Colonies.
THE FIGURES OF A YEAR
An Increase of $62, 1000 a Year Within the Same Territury as Compared With the Trade of Ten Years Ago.


 tween the United States and it's non contiguous territory amounted to over 100 million dollars in the fiscal year just ended. This figure of 100 millions in cludes about S5,000000 worth of gold bullion produced in Alaska and brought into the United States. Even excluding this, however, and including only mer- chandise in the calculation. the total amounts to s95,51S,OoO.
 This is the first opportunity which has been offered for an accurate meas urement and analysis of the commerce between the United States and it's non- contiguous territory since the annexa- ton of the Hawaiian islands and Porto Rico- The Hawaiian islands were made a customs district of the United States when they were annexed, and as the law did not require the collection of statistics of commerce between the GUS toms districts a part of the people en- gagged in that commerce refused to supply such information to the bureau of statistics. When Porto Rico became customs district of the United States a similar condition developed, except that the information was voluntarily supplied for publication by the steam ship companies engaged in that trade. As a result, a special law was enacted which applied to the commerce be- tween the various ports of the United States and the non-contiguous terri tory, the regulations which were ap- piled to foreign commerce, as far as relates to statistics of such commerce. This law went into effect at the be- ginning of the last fiscal year, and therefore the result of the fiscal years operation is just available. The law, when enacted, was made broad enough to include all non-contiguous territory belonging to the United States. As d result it gave the statistics of the com merce between Alaska and the ports of the United States, as we'll as that of Hawaii, Porto Rico. Philippines. Guam, the Samoan islands, etc This record has been completed for the fiscal year, under the new law, and the re- suit is indicated by the department of commerce and labor through its bureau of statistics as follows:
 Shipments from the United
 States to it's non-contiguous
 territory. 1903 ...............S .S36, 72seI Receipts of merchandise from
 non-contiguous territory,
 1905 ...-...-..........-.. 5S,S94, IT. Gold bullion received from
 Alaska (dcmestic produc-
 tion) ...................... 4,7195i3
 Total ..-..................s s100, 23T, ,25I
 While these annual figures are the first of any official nature which the country has had of the commerce with Porto Rico and the Hawaiian islands since tneIr annexation, it is practicable to compare these with the figures of the commerce with these islands in any year prior to annexation because of the fact that commerce with them was all ways measured and reported when they were foreign territory. This is true also with the Philippines. In regard to Alaska no accurate statistics of the commerce were gathered prior to the last year, but estimates were made for former years, which give a fair basis for comparison. It is practicable, then, to compare the commerce of 1905 with that of 1893, for all of this territory which has now become a part of the United States. This comparison shows that the imports from these various ter rtories aggregated. in round numbers. 29 million dollars in 1893 and 59 mill lions in 1903, and that exports to that territory amounted to less than mill lions in 1893, and over 36 millions in 1905
 The following table shows the value of merchandise passing between the