The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-27
UNITED STATES
 BILLION DOLLAR SILK CONTRACT

The people of the United States are buying silk manufa ctures at the rate of over q billion dollars @ year. Never in the history Of our silk industry have the manufacturers been com pelled to pay as high prices for raw silk from abroad, yet they have brought into the country in the year ending more raw silk than in any proceeding year. The value of raw silk imported by the United States irl the calendar year 1919 will according to an estimate by the National City Bank of New York probably exceed S300 0o0, eco against S1S9, ,QJ1 0G5 in 1918 $156 COG. 600 in the fiscal year 1917. and S12O, ,000,00O in the fiscal year 1916, the first fiscal veal in which it crossed the 100 million dollar line. These fig ureS, it is proper to add, relate to raw silk as reeled from the cocoons'. and does not include waste silk which will proba ply add about $12. .000,- GOO to the grand total. The quantity
 imported, even at the phenomeauy high price, is greater than in any earlier year. The price of raw silk imported is the highest ever" aver aging sS.42 per pound in October as against $3.09 per pound in the fisca- year of 1915.
 This high recorI of raw silk i'm portation, and also at high record prices, says the Banks statement. probably means that the Outturn Of the silk factories of the United States in 1919 will approximate three-quarters of a billion dollars in value at the factory, as against one-Quarrer or a billion in 1914 4 comparison of the ,F entering the United States in the cen GUS years with the cencus record of value of silk manufactures turned out in these years shows that the val ue of the output of the factories in 1914 and 1909 was in each case about two and a half times as much as the value of the raw silk imported And with the present high price of labor and other requirements of the factory, it seems quite probable that the fela- ton of raw silk used to the finished manufactures turned out will nor differ radically from those of 1914 and 1909, and that therefore the manufact- urer's valuation of the output of the silk factories of the United States in 1919 will be about two and a half times as much as that of the raw silk imported or about s75G 900 G00. In ad- dition to this the imports of silk man ufactures from other countries will aggregate nearly $50 000,0G0 though against this we exported nearly S20,- O0O 900 worth of the products of our silk factories Even adding a reas- enable allowance for the advance which the consumer pays over the val uation at the factories, it seems quite apparent that the people or the L +1Sed States are paying "across the coun-
 
 over a billion EoIlars for the manu- fact1red silks of all sorts which they are buying.
 Where does this $500 GOO GOO worth of raw silk come from? Chiefly rom Japan. China, and Italy. Japan alone has supplied in the ten months end ing with October 194o03,99A worth CT raw silk out of the S251,GGo.OO0 worth imported in the ten months ending with October: China $45.G00,O0O worth; Italy S11. .00OO GOO; while the total from all o+rnr, countries is less than $1,O00.- GOO value These figures relating 10 raw silk as "reeIed from the cocoon land not the waste silk above re- rereed to.
 Where do the s25,OCO,00 00O worth Of domestic silk manufactures go? Every where Of silk dress goods alone, tAe exports in the calendar year 1918, the a+ast from which detailed figures available. went to more than 50 diff ferent countries and colonies, even including the great silk manufactur- inc countries of Great Britain ana France. with comparatively small quantities to Italy, Japan, and China; while of silk wearing apparel. the eX- ports went to more than two-score countries Canada was the. largest purchaser of our silk dress goods with a total of nearly $7,4SI.OO; Ar gentina S45O, GOO; Mexico $353,600; Aus tralia $313,OO0; Italy S236000; Cuba s215, ,0oO; Great Britain s59,O00 and France $3O, 1000.
 Our exportaiton of silk manufact- I1res made from silk brought from the opposite side of the globe amount ed in a decade ago to less than a,- o00. .0oo, advancing to S2O0O,Oo0 in 1912. s. .25o, GOO in 1916. $7,250,0OO in 1917. over $12, ,OO0, ,OOO in the fiscal year 1918, and will, as above indicated, approximate s25. 900. eco in the calendar year 1919 These figures of silk manufactures exported do not include those of arti- ficiaI silk which will amount during the full calendar year 1919 to nearly s10, ,OO0, 900.
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