The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-04-17
f and Gentlemen:

l high culture and keen intelligence of | a New England State.
 1 When I was unable to attend your meeting last year, I felt very great
 regret indeed but the circumstance was | such unavoidable one that I had
 only to deny myself the honor and | pleasure of being your guest. I was, | however, pleased to know that you | fully understood it and all the more so to see that in spite of my absence | from your meeting. you showed me a | mark of unusual friendIiness by send l ing interesting samples of the manu- l facture of this great industrial capital | of your State. I now desire to take this occasion to express my warmest thanks again for your generous and friendly action.
 STATE OF THREE CAPITALS. 'tConnecticut has two capitals in ad- dition to the seat of government. One is educational and. the other industrial. I mean, of course, New Haven and l us ill the making of many useful men of Japan and largely contributed to the advancement of the country, is a well known fact and I fully appreciate it. As a. result of such friendly con- tribution, Japan has been enabled to develop herself in many important branches of life, especially commercial and industrial, and we feel deeply in- debted to the educators of this coun- try. In this respect, however, there is a certain circumstance which I par ticularly desire to make known to the commercial and industrial section of this great friendly people.
 GROWTH OF SILK INDUSTRY.
 ''To begin with our commercial re- lations, the United States also largely shared in their growth They were opened, practically speaking, by your importing our staple goods to this have virtually begun with the Centen- nial Exposition of Philadelphia in 1876. Before that time only a few bales of Japanese silk were exported annually to this country. We wanted to en- courage our silk trade with the United States and took special care in exhibit ing our staple goods in that exposition. They attracted much attention from result of it the expOrtatiOn of Japan csc silk to this country which was in the year of the Centennial only about 100 bales or 14, ,000 pounds, increased in 1885 to II, 900 bales or about 1,000, ,00O pounds, and in 1895 to the much larger amount of 2S 900 bales or nearly 3,000,- 900 pounds. and finally in 1905 to the still much larger amount of about 65,- 900 bales or nearly 5000, GOO pounds; that is. about one-ha1f of the whole inn portation of the goods from all foreign countries. This shows a steady and comparatively enormous increase Of the importation of silk from Japan, and you are, of course, aware that this increase had been made in proportion to the wonderful growth of the silk manufacturing industry as attained in this country.
 JAPAN'S LARGEST CUSTOMER.
 'Tt is interesting to see what rela- tions such increased consumption of raw silk in this country had to the condition of the general trade between the United States and Japan During the last thirty years our foreign com merce has grown from petty begin nings to quite important proportions the imports from the total valuation of 27, 100000 yen in 1877, to 494, ,000,0 900 in 1907, and exports from g, GOO, 900 to 432, ,000. 900 yen. The Financial and Economic Annual of Japan in it's last issue is very clear as to the proportion trade when it states that if we look at our trade relations with the various countries as shown by the trade re turns for 1907. we shall find that the country which does the largest trade with us is the United States whose ex- ports and imports exceeded 211, ,000. 900 yen, followed at almost equal distances Britain with 13s, ,00O, 900 yen, etc. It also states that next if we take the exports and imports separately our largest customer we find is again the United States whose imports from us reached 131, 100000 yen, followed by China with 85,00O,000 yen, etc With respect to imports Great Britain takes as usual the first rank with the sum Ol llOUVO,VVO yen, lOIlOWGQ py II0 OIA- ted States with 80,OO0, 600 yen.'
 AMERICA BUYER OF STAPLES.
 sYou will see from the above that the country which does the largest trade with Japan-putting exports and imports together-is the United States cred the United States takes the first rank in the export trade and is only preceded by Great Britain in the inn port trade. It is gratifying to note the large share which the United States thus takes in this total and to |. reflect that the increase of ties of ma terial interest which this fact betokens cannot fail to strengthen the tradi- tional friendship of the two countries. But, what I wish to tell you particu- larIy, is how our commerce with this country grew. In the first year of the period referred to. that is in 1876. our | import from the United States was only a little more than 100000 yen and it rose to the handsome amount of nearly S0,000, 900 yen in 1907, which amount must be taken as significant when it is considered that only ten years before it was about 16, ,00O, 900 yen. The reason of this steady growth of your export for Japan is gratifying as it can largely be contributed to the fact that, during the last thirty years America has been always our principal customer as a buyer of our staples and | in that way constantly fostering our purchasing power until in late years
 
 many articles we used to buy else where; thus showing that as we had gainedt by selling you raw silk, tea and other things. so we were enabled to import from your country rails. To- eomotives, plates, machinery, wheat flour, etc.
 "In regard to these items our statis- 1 tics show that during the seven years ending 1907 the importation of electric motors and electric dynamoS increased from less than 100000 yen to more than 2,500, 900 yen; locomotive engines and steam boilers from about 2,750.000 to | about 4,00O, 900; spinning machines from about 1,2S0000 to nearly 4,000, 900; wheat flour from less than 5000, 900 to more | than 6.000.000; iron of various kinds, pig and ingot. bar and rod, rails, plate and sheet, pipes and tubes, nails, etc, from less than 14,O00, 900 to nearly 3D. 900, ,000 and raw cotton from about CO., e00,OO0 to 114,0OO,0O0 In this trade