The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-01
Our BIGGEST TRADE YEAR.

Details of eleven months commerce of
the year 1903 are just made public by
the department of commerce and labor
through its bureau of statistics. They
show an increase in practically an of
the great groups into which the bureau
of statistics divides the exports and in
all Of the groups into which it divides
the imports. Agricultural products, as
a whole, show an increase of IA million
dollars; products of the forests, 10 mil
lions; products Of the mines, millions;
manufactures, millions, and nliscel-
laneous articles, millions In the
single group, fisheries, is shown a slight
decrease of a little more than 81, 600, 000
The figures for the month of Novem-
Der show a. marked growth in exports
of manufactures, the total for the
month being $34, 093, 639, against $780,
513512 in November of last year Agri-
cultural products also show a marked
increase in the month, the tgures for
November, 1908. being S114,172, 255,
against $S3,035,S50 in the same month of
last year. The increase in agricultural
exports occurs chiefly in cotton, of
which the value of the months exports
IS unusually high.
The increase in exports of nlanufac-
lures is. distributed through many arti-
cles, but does not occur, as mad been
expected, in iron and steel. Discus
sions IN trade circles and in the press
during the past few weeks have pre-
dicted a revival in the export trade of
Iron and steel manufactures, but the
November figures Of exports of this
class Of merchandise do not justify this
prediction. The total value of iron and
steel manufactures exported in Novem-
Der, 1903 was s7,9SS,415 against IS, 119, -
924 in November of 1902, $3.50 1913 in
November, 1901, and S10,112, 721 in No
vember, 1900. For the eleven months
ending with November the total ex-
ports of iron and steel manufactures
are ss9.6S5, POI in value, against $50 1885,
124 in the corresponding months of 1902,
and $94.112, 782 in the corresponding
months of 1901. Notwithstanding the
eight decrease in exports of iron and
steel, the total of all manufactures ex-
ported during the eleven months ending
I with November 1903, is 1892, 76S, 127
against sS77, 576 in the corresponding
months of last year.
Imports for the month show a de-
crease of over $S.0OO.O0O compared with
November of the preceding year. This
decrease is divided between manufac-
turers' materials, food stuffs, and the
group designated as articles of vo1un-
tary use, Iuxuries, ETC." The largest
decrease occurs in the group articles
wholly or partially manufactured for
use in manufacturing" the reduction in
this class being about $4,000. 900, as
compared with the corresponding month
of the preceding year. This reduction
occurs largely in iron and steel, of
which the impOrtations for the month
are less than half those of the CORE
spending month of last year, the figures
for November, 1903 being 81. 3O9, 233
against $4,77s,O93 in November, 1902
For the eleven months ending with No
vember articles wholly or partially
manufactured for use in manufacturing
show an increase of $4,000, 900 over the
corresponding months of last year
while articles in a crude condition for
use in notwithstanding show an increase
of Sill 100000 in 1903, as compared with
the corresponding months of 1902.
Summarizing the story told by the
Figures for the nenth of November and
the eleven months ending with Novem-
Sber, they indicate a growth in exports
% manufactures, but the expected in.
rease in experts Of iron and steel
pufactures has not developed. In