The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-15
FOR PHILIPPINES ,fidgeport Manufacturers Will Strive
 for Large Share of lEsular E Trade. IOVERNOR COUPON SUGGESTS MEANS Board of Trade Will Consider PIan Pro.
 posed by Porto RiCan Exc. Cutiye,
OYERNOR COUPON SUGGESTS MEANS

Accepting the suggestion made to
 nem by George P. Cotton, Governor of Porto Rico last night, members of the Bridgeport Board of Trade may be the pioneers ia taking advantage of free trade possibilities in the Phil ippine Islands It was decided to bring before the Board of Trade a plan to establish a selling agency for goods manufactured in this city, with the made in Bridgeport" sign over the door. The manufacturers, who were present to hear Col. Cotton, were unanimously agreed that the proposi- ton is a splendid one and all were anxious to be represented in the en- terprise. Congressman E. J. Hill, who introduced the speaker, after q few opening remarks by President Fred Enos, said that he had been all over our insular possessions and that he knew the local merchants could sthere are 7,500.000 people.
 z He urged the establishment of an exhibit of Bridgeport goods in Ma nilla such as was given in this city 2when the Philippine Commission came here.
 Col Colton said that there was nothing in the manufactures that could not be sold in the islands, as the people there will never engage in the manufacturing busine7s He said that even the straw hats worn by the natives are manufactured abroad of raw material grown in the islands. He declared that the American manufac- turers who get established right are going to make themselves and their children wealthy, as the progress of the islands shows them to be waking up, while there are thousands of square miles of the richest kind of country3 only waiting to be tapped by American railroads.
 The merchants of the islands, he said were largely Chinamen who con- ducted fine shops, but the supply houses were conducted mostly by English and Germans. The Ameri- cans have not established as many business houses as one would suppose they would with the islands under American rule.
 Speaking of the export trade of the islands he said that there had not been any Philippine sugar brought into this country since 1880 because there were no American bottoms to bring it in. Before that time, he said, that China had never used SUI gar, but since had taken the entire production of the islands in it's raw state There was no need of the Su- gar growers here having fear of Phil tppine sugar coming to this country for China will take all of the product of the islands. The sugar planters, he said are not going to send their sugar 1000 miles, with Hong Kong only two days away.
 Col. Colton assured the local manu- facturers that with good business man representing them in the islands, that they would soon have a foothold In the China trade and that China With it's 4O0000,000 people is going to be the best market in the world
 Col. Cotton, before the Spanish War, was a bank clerk in Nebraska. He went to the Philippines as a colonel of volunteers and became the insular collector of customs, which position he has held for Il years. His annual report for 1908 is a splendidly com piled volume and is the most thorough digest of the trade conditions of the island ever published. He spoke as follows:
 (Continued on page three.)