The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-04-26
IMPORTATION OF SILK INTO THE
 UNITED STATES

Raw silk at s5 per pound has ap- barently no terrors for the people of the United States or the manufactur- CTS who supplied them the $5OO,O0O,- 900 worth of silk goods which they consumed in 1917. A lecture recently delivered before a class in the educa- tional department of the National City Bank of New York showed that the value cf raw silk imported into the United States in the calendar year 1917 was double that of 1915 and far exceeds that of any earlier year.
 Never before has so much raw silk been imported; never before has So high a price been paid for it, and never before has so great value of silk manufactures been brought in from abroad. The quantity of raw silk imported in 1917 was 36,5OO,OOO pounds against 32,455,OOO pounds in 1916 and 3O,979,OOO in 1915 and the value, including 6,SOO,OOO pounds of waste" $19O,0O0, 900 against $15O,- OOO,O00 in 1916 and 95,000,00O in 1915. The average price of the raw silk imported in 1917 was over $5 per pound against $442 per pound in 1916, the former high record year, and $3.53 per pound in 1915. Dur ing the second half of the year 1917 the import price ranged as high as $5.75 per pound in certain months.
 This importation of nearly $20O,- poo worth of raw silk suggests that the value of the silk goods turned out by the manufacturers of the country In 1917 was probably about $5OO,- 000,000, since a comparison of the census figures of the silk manufac- lures of the country in 1914 and 1909 with the stated value of silk import ed in these respective years, shows that the factories turned out about $25O worth of finished goods for each $1 worth of raw silk imported. Should this relation of the value of output to the value of raw material imported hold good for the calendar year 1917, value of the silk product of the coun' try for that year would approximate $500, ,OO0 at factory prices against S254,00O,00O in 1914; $107, 100000 in 1899; $S7,O00,OOO in 1899; $41, 1,OO0,- 900 in 1879 and $12,0O0, 900 in 1869. The value of silk manufactures i'm ported in 1917 was $39,z18,000 and
 
 None of the textile manufacturing industries of the country has shown as rapid an increase as has that of silk, for which the entire raw ma terial is imported. The value of the manufactures of silk as reported by the census grew from S41, 1000, 900 in 1879 to $254,O0O, 900 in 1914, the latest census; that of cotton goods
 
 100000 in 1914 and that of woolens from $23S, S,000,0 900 in 1879 to $464,- 100000 in 1914 Thus silk manufac- lures in 1914 were six times as much in value as in 1879; cotton goods three and one-half times as much, and woolens only twice as much as in 1879, these figures being in all cases factory valuations of outturn, sup piled by the census reports.
 All of the raw silk used in our man. ufacturing industries is brought from abroad, chiefly from the other side of the globe. Of the 36,500,000 pounds of raw silk imported in 1917, 29,369,- n 900 came from Japan; 6,934, ,000 from China, and 72,0o0, 900 from "other countries" chiefly Italy and France. Raw silk production has been disturb ed by the war, that of Europe which formerly produced about 20 per cent of the worlds output, having been practically suspended by war activi. ties, and this is also true to a con. siderable degree of the production ot Turkey in Asia. European produc. tion fell from 11,000,000 pounds il 1912 to a little more than 5000, 900 ir 1916; Asiatic production, chiefly iron China and Japan, advanced from 43, 500 900 to 45,3S0, 900 pounds; all O these figures relating necessarily t the silk entering international trade since no figures are available as t. actual quantity produced. Japan which in recent years hHs made highl, scientific studies of the silk producinj industry now supplies fully two-third of the silk entering internationa trade more than three-fourths of ou own importation in 1917 having beel drawn from Japan and the remainde chiefly from China.
 The manufacture of artificial sill fibre as 8 substitute for that produc ed by the silk worm, which had mad considerable progress prior to tn war, has been interrupted not only b the demand for labor for other line! but especially because of the fac that the materials from which arti ficial silk was produced are now re quired for the manufacture of hig explosives, nitric acid, and sulphur acid, transforming cotton or woo pulp into nitrated cellulose, which, the addition of alcohol and ether be comes collodion, which, in tur when pressed through capillary tube forms threads similar to those pro duced by the silk worm, and is utilii ed both for mixing with natural sil in the various manufacturing indu! tries and as substitute for silk cotton industries. The manufactul of artificial silk was making sue