The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-28

tistcs were received which show that in
 the F months, beginning with September l. last year, the money value of the ex- ports from the United States was over three billion dollars. In round numbers, 1t was three billion, thirty-five million dollars That is record which the Uni ted States could not IS months ago have
 expected to make until five or six years
 had passed. In 1911 the money value Of our exports was for the first time in excess of two billion dollars. There had been gradual and on the whole regu- lar or proportionate increase in the money value of the our exports of manufactured articles from the time when some of the corporations were unified and established
 world encompassing selling agencies.
 In one of his addresses which President
 Farrell made to those who are engaged
 in foreign trade, he spoke of the begin
 ming of the increase in cur exports Of
 manufacturing commodities, identifying the date at about two years after the organization of some of the great com binations which used to be called trusts. The intimation was clear in his address that had 1t not been For the exploita- tion of foreign markets by some of the large manufacturing industries of the United States it would not have been pos- sible to report the gradual increase in our exports.
 Manufactured commodities began to climb toward the record made by the export of agricultural commodities about 1 10 or F sears ago. In London sooner than in the United States there was rec ognition of a phenomenon which few years earlier England would not have be- lieved possible. Sir Felix Schuster and one two others, great bankers Of Lon don, called attention to the fact that the export of manufactured commodities in the United States seemed likely to in | II Rnxr an extraordinary and unexpected record
 would be made by the United States which would show that the money value l of her exports of manufactured commodi- | ties was equal to and promised to be- come greater than the money value of her exports of agricultural commodities. Twenty years ago. the leaders in affairs in Great Britain and upon the continent of Europe would not have dreamed of | the possibility of the United States sur 1 passing her exports of agricultural com | modities by her exports of manufactured articles.
 l Nevertheless the late Abram s. Hewitt
 intimated 30 years ago. in an address | which he made before the British Iron and Steel institute, that the day was near at hand when the United States would
 take supremacy in the iron and steel in- l dustry, and that when this triumph was gained we would begin to capture no ! small part of the markets of the world
 Gradually and with proportionate yearly increase, the able salesmen and the ad-
 mirably organized selling agencies which
 the large industrial com mbinations estab- I ished in many parts of the world began l to show gratifying results. In 1911, the | money value of our exports was some what in excess of two billion dollars and our total foreign trade. outgoing and in-
 coming, was a little in excess of three Ay<<x~x Co. y-k>
 ports alone for 12 months are some mill i lions in excess of three billions. or sub l, stantially equivalent to our total foreign l trade in 1911. A
 Of course this is in great part explained
 by the magnitude of the purchases other
 nations have made In the United States l in the past 12 months. Nevertheless the trade has come and President Farrell is | understood to believe that no small part
 of 1t can be maintained after the war is
 over. He knows, as do some of his asso- ] ciates-lilze George w. Perkins, who has
 recently made public statement of this
 knowledge-that as soon as possible after the war is ended Great Britain. and also 1 Germany will try very hard to regain the
 foreign trade which the war had caused
 them to lose for a time.
 There is one curious, perhaps oninous certainly highly suggestive item in the official report which tells of our foreign
 trade since September of last year. In
 the year 1914, the money value of our | imports was greater than the like value ! of imports of any other year. 1t almost
 reached the wo-billion-dollar mark.
 There has been an almost cyclonic change
 in this respect in the past 12 months, for the money value of our imports is
 far below that of the imports of 1914.
 The commodities which other nations sold
 to us in 1914 so greatly as to make a l new record were brought here through
 the operation of the new tariff law.