Arizona republican., 1906-01-20

of the leading countries of Europe. France produces a large proportion Of the breadstuffs and provisions requir- cd by her own people and draws also large supplies from her colonies, es- peciaIly Algeria. with which she has a free interchange of products unre- stricted by tariff. Her imports of wheat amounted last year to only about eight million dollars, of which about 70 per cent was drawn from Algeria and Tunis. Her imports of flour amounted to a little over one million dollars, of which a large part was drawn from Algeria. Her imports of corn amounted to about seven million dollars, of which a less proportion was drawn from her own colonies, more than half of the imports of corn com ing from Argentina. Of provisions her imports are small, amounting last year to only four million dollars in value. Il is not surprising, then, that in breadstuffs and provisions the ex- ports from the United States to France are and have been for many years small, except in years Of abnormal conditions, such, for instance, as 1898, when the value of wheat exported from the United States to France was thir- ty-two million dollars, against only S1S5,000 in the immediately preceding year. and S1,675, ,339 in the year imme- diately following.
 The total commerce between the
 United States and France amounts in round terms to 166 million dollars, this being the figure of the fiscal year 1905,
 of which seYenty-six million dollars
 was the value of exports to France and ninety millions imports from that country. This is another peculiarity
 of our trade with France, that in many years our imports from that country
 exceed our exports thereto. This fact
 is explained in part by the fact noted above, that France is not a large ina porter of breadstuffs or provisions.
 which have for many years formed an
 important factor in our export trade,
 and in part by the fact that France is a large producer of certain high grade manufactures of which we still continue to be large importers, such
 as velvets, pIushes, Iaces and embroid- cries of silk and cotton, dress goods of silk wool, and cotton; jewelry and cut diamonds; feathers, natural or ar
 tificial, and materials for hats and honnets; china ware, wines, kid gloves
 and materials for use in their manu- fracture, etc.
 OJly two OF llIG4 or Ine OIner lT1-
 pOrtant countries of Europe show less
 of imports from the United States than of exports to us, and this in the ease of Switzerland and Turkey is due
 in part to the fact that many of the shipments from the United States des- tined for those countries are billed only to the ports at which they are trans ferred from steamship to railway and that our official records of exports to
 those countries, therefore, fail in many cases to show the entire quantity of merchandise destined to finally reach their customers; while in the case of Portugal our imports from that country exceed our exports thereto by reason If the fact that she supplies to us large quantities of india rubber drawn from her African colonies. In the case of France, however, our relatively small exports thereto as compared with | our imports therefrom are largely due.
 as above indicated to the fact that she draws most of her supplies of bread | stuffs from her own territory or that of her colonies, and that her manufac - lures of an artistic character, whether
 dress goods, jewelry, china and glass ware or paintings and statuary, find i a ready and large market in this coun- | try.
 Of our total eXportation of seventy six million dollars worth of merchan- disc to France in the fiscal year of 1905, by far the largest items were
 copper and raw cotton. France Is not