The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-06-09

go
following items:
crude materials for use in our
manufactures. twelve and one-haii
millions
Crude foodstufs. over four niiiions-
Partly manufactured fooosahlIs'
nearly seven millions.
Here is an aggregate of twenty
three and one-half millions out OF q
total increase Of twenty-SeVen anu
one-half millions. which Is entirety IN
foods and materials which our manu-
~facturers use. The balanc is made
up of an increase IN flnlSned manu-
features of five millions. less a de-
crease in partly finished manufactures
| of two millions, showing a Het increase
in all imported manufactures OF three
million dollars. or about five per cent
as compared with the month or Aprll
a year
No conclusions From Single Month.
/ use round figures IN all cases Tor
the sake of clearness, and pause 10
saw that the use of any single month
las establishing the genera trend is
often misleading, especially in a total
average volume Of business of SIX mil
lion dollars a day in imports only.
The presence or absence OF an extra
Sunday or a holiday in a single month
would affect results ap~preciably.
If to be precise we look into the de-
tails Of the increased imports for
April, we find them chiefly among
crude materials, in hides and skins,
India rubber, silk, raw wool, raw
fibers, leaf tobacco, and raw cotton,
among foodstufs, in sugar and meats;
among manufactures, in fertilizers
and manufactures of wool and cotton.
Turning now to the exports for the
month of April, in which there is a
decrease of thirty-seven millions for
that month, we find ten millions Of 1T
in crude materials for manufactures;
fourteen millions Of it in f~oodstuffs:
over five millions in partly finished
manufactures; making a total OF
Twenty-Five millions. Eight millions
out Of thirty-seven million is in fully
finished manufactures, this last item
showing the smallest ratio of deere sc
for the month of any of the great
groups named. In other words. it is
in the line of fully finished manu-
features that we have held our pro-
portion of business best.
If we examine the. details of these
decreases in our exports for April, we
find them among crude materials, in
coal, and in raw cotton, which be
tween them account wholly for the
I ten millions decrease. Other decreas-
es are in agricultural implements
z manufactures of iron and steel, which
I fall off nearly seven millions; meat
4 products, nearly three millions, cotton
E seed oil and oil cake, between them
. two and one-half millions, and MANI
D features of wood, nearly two millions
0 AS against these there are actual in
a creaSeS in our exports for April ir
such items as Chemicals, drugs anC
1 dyes, fertilizers, fibers, cash registers
q locomotives, mineral oils, printing
paper, leaf and manufactured tobacco
T and hewn and sawed timber.
l repeat that to select any single
Z month as indicating any Cnacjal con.
5 cllsion is SO ABSURD a proceeding a.
( to indicate a noble ignorance on tn.
e part Of the critic who proceeds tina
Z way. My apology in using that meth
cd here is (for l feel that an apolog,
II is really needed for it before this in
II telligent audience) hat it has beer
seized by would-be economists as tn,
basis for arguments indicating tn
drift of our fiscal policy. Indeed,
Senator quoting the fact of the exces
II Of imports in April states:
Thus we are coming to a condition
which has existed under forme
Democratic tariff laws when distres
everywhere prevailed"
= Labor Is In Demand.
is On the day when this was write
the Secretary of Labor read in tn
ar Cabinet in my presence a Telegram
from the b authorities of MiSsou1
ps stating that 80, 600 men were needle
IN that State to help harvest the crop:
1T Another telegram from the Labo
Of Commissioner of the State Of Kansa
Sc calling for 10000 men for hat Stat
X for a like purpose was read, and q
~ the previous session he had read
to dispatch from the Labor Commission
ur er Of Oklahoma stating that 1916, 90
in men were needed there. TIC such me
m these authorities offered employmer
IN at from 81 to $3.50 or more per da
in in addition to board and over a ~.
Ii Rod of some months. For the puh,i
of authorities of three great States + !,
er to be calling officially for the assisr
at ance of IS, 900 men at fair wages do.
r. not seem to me to indicate that dri
toward the prevalence of distre,
ial everywhere which troubles our eoc
ut 1rlend, the Senator.
IL Yet taking his criticism at mar. ar
IN. assuming it for the m to iusti,
VS. all that he alleges for ii If seems