Arizona republican., 1909-07-26
DUR |NSULAR POSSESSIONS Extent OfOuP Commerce Last
 Year TREBLED IN TEN YEARS
Porto Rico Leads as a Buy CT From the Unit e d States The Character of the Trade With the Is lands and Alaska.

Washington. July 25.-(Special Cor respondence of The Republican)- | Trade of the United States with it's noncOntiguOus territory in the fiscal year 1909 exceeded that of any pre- vious year and was more than three l times as much as a decade ago. The | term 'noncontiguous territory in cludes Alaska and all the insular area under the control of the United | States-Porto Rico, the Hawaiian Is lands, the Philippine Islands, Guam, Midway, Tutuila, etc. While the de- tails of the trade for June, the final 1 month of the fiscal year, are not yet at hand, sufficient information re- garding the years business is in pos | session of the bureau of statistics to justify the statement that the total trade with the noncontiEuous territory in the fiscal year 1909 will amount to about S16O,0OO,OOO, against approXi- mately $50. 900, 900 in 190S
 This trade of approximately s16O,- O0O,OOO with the noncontiguous ter ritories consists of about S9O,OOO 900 worth of merchandise sent from the ttlA AAblit III NAt1Aihli Ab NAielN Ao us ualIy known as continental United States" and about $7O,OO0, 00O worth of merchandise sent from the United States to those territories. In both imports and exports to those territo ries the figures of 1909 exceed those of any earlier year. the increase over last year being about S2.OOO,O00 on the import and about $2,000,000 on the export side, this statement being based upon the existing record for II months for which detailed figures are now available.
 Porto Rico is the largest purchaser, among the noncontiguous territories, of American goods, The shipments of merchandise to Porto Rico in the eleven months ending with May were in round terms S22 1000, ,OO0, and should the June figures equal those of May, the total for the year will approXi- mate $24,000,000, against less than g., O0O, 900 a decade ago. Hawaii ranks next to Porto Rico as a purchaser Of merchandise from the United States, amounting for the eleven months to $16, 900, ,00O, indicating that in the full year the total will be about ST 100000, against $5,750, 900 a decade ago. Alas ka comes next in the list, the value of the merchandise sent thereto in the eleven months referred to being $l5, GOO, 900. indicating that for the full year the total will be slightly in ex- cess of SIG, ,OOO, 900. To the Philippine Islands there was sent in the eleven months ending with May. merchandise valued at s10,0O0,OOO, these figures in no fu11 year will be about $11,000,000. To Tutuila, Midway Islands and Guam the total will be approximately SS5,OOO dollars. Thus the figures of the az gregate value of the merchandise shipped to the noncontiguous terri tory in the fiscal year ending June 30, 19G9, will stand about as follows: To Porto Rico $24,0OO,0OO, to Hawaii ST. 800, 900. to Alaska s16,OO0,000 and to the Philippine Islands $11,O0O,OOO.
 As sources of supply for the mar kets of the United States the Ha- waiiap Islands take first rank in this group of noncontiguous territories, the value of merchandise shipped there from to continental Europe aggregat- ing in the fiscal year in round terms $40, GOO, 900; from Porto Rico, about S26. 100000; from Alaska, over S13,- OOO,OO0, and from the Philippine Is lands, about S9,000,O00.
 Sugar is the most important arti- cle received from Hawaii and Porto Rico, with tobacco ranking second in the case of Porto Rico; hemp is by far the most important article receiV- ed from the Philippine Islands; and canned salmon, furs, and copper the most important articles of merchant disc received from Alaska. Of gold, however, the value from Alaska is considerably greater than all of the merchandise which it sends, the total for the eleven months of the fiscal year 1909. for which figures are avail able amounting to $17, 800, 900, against $11, ,333, 900 in the same months of last year, indicating that the total gold receipts from Alaska during the fiscal year will amount to approximately SIS. 5OO, 900, or about two and one-half times as much as was paid for the territory originally, these figures of gold receipts relating only to that produced from mines within the terri tory, while some $2,50O,000 or S3,O0O,- 900 worth of foreign production, pre- sumably that of the Klondike region adjacent to that of the American ter ritory, also reaches the United States from Alaska.
 Sugar sent from the Hawaiian Is- lands to the United States is slightly less in quantity and value in 1909 than in 1908 the total quantity for