The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-04-28

The United states exports over 3O0,-
coo fountain pens per annum, or APP
proXimatcly one fountain pen for each
gross of ordinary pens exported. Last
fiscal year we exported 309,200 foun-
tain pens ana i9,5O0,OO ordinary pens,
sales in each case having been made
i'm about lfty countries. In the TWEEN
ty months since the record of foun-
tain-pen exports began the sales
abroad have amounted to a half mil
lion pens, with an average wholesale
value of $l.05 each.
More than onc-half of the fountain
pens, according To the official statis-
ties of the Bureau of Foreign and Do
mcstic Commerce. department OF com
mcrcc. were sent 10 England. out Of
10000 exported in the last fiscal year
$4,000 were consigned 10 England,
$500 to Canada, ana 10000 To France
Next i'm Importance as markets for
this class Of American manufactures
are: Germany. the Netherlands and
Austria Hungary in F'.ropc; cuba. the
British West Indies, and Panama, in
North America; Brazil. Argentina, and
Chile, in South America; india and
Japan, in Asia; and Australia and the
Philippine Islands. Singularly. the
same countries are in most cases, the
largest purchasers of our metallic
pens.
The fountain-pcn industry, while rel
n.t
Importance, and it may therefore he
expected that the exports will greatly
expand i'm the near future. In the ten
years from 1899 to 1909. according to
the Official figures of the census bu-
reau, the value of products turned out
by the fountain, stylographic, and gold
pen industry almost trcbled, while the
output of steel pens doubled. Nearly
all the domestic product is consumed
in the United States. me figures of
production having been, i'm 1909, 3d.
100000, and the recorded exports of
that year. only $4,000, in compare
son with 100000 last year. English
and Swedish steel are largely used by
our manufacturers i'm t;Ie production
of pens by reason of the special adap-
liability of that steel to this peculiar
use
Imported Pens Not Popular.
Imported fountain pens are making
but little Roadway i'm our domestic
markets, but other classes of pens. ex-
ccpt those of gold. are bought in con-
siderable quantities from foreign
countries. Last year. for example, the
value of fountain and stylographic
pens entered for consumption at do
nestle ports was only $4,000, or about
one sixth the value of those which we
sold abroad. In the same year. how
ever. we bought over 625. 900 gross of
other metallic pens from foreign coun-
tries, with a total value of nearly
$lj5 900
The proportion of our steel pens
supplied by foreign countries is much
smaller than IN earlier years. In 1860
nearly all of those consumed were
made abroad. now three out of every
four. IL is stated, are of domestic pro-
duction, and the facilities for manu-
lacture have so improved that their
cost has fallen from 81 each i'm 1903.
when steel pens began to suppIant
1ullls. to less than % cents per gross
IN 1913. Practically all the imported
steel pens are from Birmingham Eng
land, whore articles or this class were
iirst made. That city sends to our
ports steadily increasing number of
sleel pens, despite the rapidly grow
ing domestic product and the wider
use OF fountain pens. or the s75s.Sf7
worth OF metallic pens imported for
consumption in the fiscal year 1919,