The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-01
ITALY WATCHES
 NEW CANAL WITH
 KEENEST INTEREST
Steamship Companies Prepar- ina to Revise Their Sailing Schedules With Open
 ing of Ditch.

I Rome, Dec. 1-Italy is following with
 the greatest interest everything Gon-
 nected with the Panama Canal, which
 is considered a work worthy of the ancient Romans. The opening of the Canal will affect Italy, above aIl in 1 it's principal exportation, namely, eIni- grants. In Colombia, Equador, Peru. ] Bolivia and Chilli, new fields of activ- 1 ity will be found for them and, fur | thermore the emigration to the west
 ern coast of Mexico, the United States
 and Canada will be increased. Already
 several 1talian lines are preparing | lines of navigation. Also, it is cal
 culated that once the means of trans | portation is facilitated, Italian ex-
 ports to South America will be at least doubled, while those for the western | coast of Mexico, the United States and Canada, will increase greatly.
 | When the Suez Canal was finished. | Italian emigration was very limited ! and did not reach 100,0 GOO a year, but 1 between 1876 and 1886 the annual av l craze had become 135,000. Between l 1886 and 1900 that number was dou- l bled, and from 19e0 it has reached an average of 600,000, while in 1906, Che highest year on record, the emigrants | were 7S7, ,98s. In 1912 they were 7o8,- 669. and this year they may surpass l in numbers those of 1906.
 | An average of half this emigration goes across the At1antic-the greater part being absorbed by the United States. This trans-oceanic tide in 1906 numbered 44O, 33S, of whom 310,- 976 went to America, 114,818 to the Ar genuine, Uruguay and Paraguay, and only 13,145 to Brazil, as emigration there was prohibited by the Italian Government. What remains, merely .399, went to the other countries of the American continent. The same nT 1908, occurs in other years, so that in 1912. out of 312, ,21O trans-oceanic 1eni- grants, POS, AT went to the United States, 59, 308 to the River Platte, 2S,- 48S to Brazil and the remainder, l. 568, to other countries.
 A study of Italian emigration is fn- teresting and necessary in order to follow the development and directioI1 of Italian commerce, as the commerce of Italy, as a rule, has followed the poor emigrants, the saying that trade follows the flag" can be modf- 1 fled for Italy as trade follows the | rags of her migratory sons. For 1 two years the figures of Italian i'm 1 ports and exports have surpassed s1.- 200 600, 600. The Foreign Office here, 1 at the end of 1911 published statistics 1 showing that the Italian imports and 1 exports had so increased as to surpass proportionately the increase of any other country.
 | ports of each country in 1898, it was calculated that at the end of 1910 that percentage had risen as follows:
 IMPORTS. EXPORTS. Italy, ......... 24s United States. 22e Belgium, ...... 237 Italy, PA Germany, .... POT Germany, ..... PA
 IMPORTS. EXPORTS.
 United States. 19o Belgium, ...... 2o4 England, ..... 162 England, ..... 165
 
 Therefore, Italy surpassed all other leading countries, with tffe exception of the United States, which in exports only was per cent. higher. This wonderful increase will be augmented with the opening of the new water way
 Figures will demonstrate this bet ter than words. Italian exports to the United States are $5O,OOO, 600, equal to 12.4 per cent. of her total exports, an amount which is surpassed only by Germany and Switzerland where the Italian exportation is respectively 14.7 and 13.1 per cent. In the same way, the American importation into Italy is 12.7 per cent. of the total imports with 169 and by Great Britain with 16.1.
 Italian exportation to the Argentine is $31, 100000 yearly, equal to 7.7 per cent; to Brazil, S, 200, 900, or 1.3 per cent; to Canada, g, 7S6, 600, or or 1-2 per cent; to Uruguay. $2,6O0.OOO, or or per cent; to Central America, $1,- 211, 900, or 04 per cent; to Mexico, $920, 600, or 0.2 per cent. Notwith- standing the difficulties before the opening of the Panama Canal, of reaching the coasts of the American Continent on the Pacific. the Italian exportation to Chili averages between s3. .0o0, 600 and $4,Oo03O0O, or about 1 per cent. of the whole exportation; to Peru, s1, 400. o0o, or o.5 per cent, and to the other smaller American countries, s, GOO, GOO or O.8 per cent.
 Many of the foregoing official figures are below the actual, as a large 1 amount of products is introduced in to the markets of the American con- tinent belonging to other countries. l for instance, silk appearing to come 1 from Lyons, cotton goods sold as Eng fish, etc Likewise, a number of 1 American mechanical products enter | Italy as coming from Germany or | France and American shoes as orig 1 mating from England. Italy is now | importing nearly one and half mill 1 lion hairs of shoes from ahroa6