The Washington times., 1914-02-14
FASCINATING FACTS.

There was a time, not so many
years ago, when the reports sent
home by Yankee consuls were for
midable, forbidding, and far between.
They were not always fat, because
it was rather the fashion for a
statesman to take a consulate for
the benefit of his health after a par
ticularly grueling campaign.
Consular reports are different now.
They come to the public, not in an
nual bulk, but in daily homeopathic
doses, hot and snappy. The Depart
ment of Commerce puts out a bulle-
tin every week day, and the consuls,
great and small, are kept busy send
ing in lively copy.
They are terse and versatile. Run
ming through some recent bulletin
which is an issue of average quality
one may, in ten minutes, CLEAN the
following information:
Our imports from Germany fell off
about $S,Oo0,000 last year, the con-
sular agent at Lubeck reporting a
decrease of $4,000 in shipments of
old rubber shoes! "But there are
unusually large shipments of sauer-
kraut," he adds consolingly, sowing
to the crop failure in the United
States"
Now a grievance: ''It is COM
planned that Russian caviar import
ed into Germany and re-exported to
the United States is made dutia5le
in the United States at the Russian
value, plus the cost of shipment to
Germany, plus the German duty"
Consul General Skinner, writing this
from Hamburg, explains that the
Germans are very anxious to keep
their markets, and it seems impos-
sible for Americans to order their
own caviar from Russia. However,
as the stuff costs $1.50 a portion in
the New York restaurants, who
cares? Let the middleman grind the
faces of the rich!
Germany imported 24,497 tons of
dried prunes from the United States
in 1913 tremendous gain. At the
same time our sales of refined pc
troleum to the Germans were re-
duced. So, if you read between the
lines, Germany is trying to meet the
high cost of living. The motor-car
is left in storage and the cheap and
theoretically delicious prune takes its
place as pleasure.
Another luxury, the bathtub, fell
off forty-nine tons in the years
trade. Let US leave Germany for the
nonce, though its figures are rare
reading, and step lightly over to the
Caucasus. Here's a corking scoop
sent in by Consul Leslie A. Davis
from Batum, Russia:
Surveys are being continued for
the draining of the Mugan swamps
along the New Aras from Lake Ak
Tchal to the Tcheil post" Good
work, Leslie!
Consul Nathan, of Mersina, Tur-
key, comes next with something we
had always yearned to know:
'The Cicilian plain, in the prov
ince of Adana, annually produces
about 10000 bales of cotton"
Our consul at Leeds, Mr.. Bying-
ton, reports a disaster. The English
crop of forced rhubarb has failed
Consolation comes, however, on the
next page, where Mr.. Pontius, writ
ing from nalny, informs US that
there is seventy-foot turntable in
the shops of the South Manchuria
Railway at Shahokou.
Consul Spahr, of Breslan, brings
US back to Germany with a couple
of cracking items. An electric ma
chine used by veterinarians for dry.
ing the hair of dogs costs STA, while
an electric sealing-wax boiler may
I be had as low as $4.05.
The bulletins are out to help trade
They lay opportunities before the
American manufacturer.