The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-06-21
MANUFACTURED
 EXPORTS OFFSET THOSE OF FOOD

The shortage in our exportable surplus of food. to which British Ambassador Geddes has just called attention, is evidenced. says a, state cent by The National City Bank of New York, by the figures of our ex- port record, both present and pre- war. Of course, the stimulus of war demand, coupled with guarantee of high prices, somewhat increased pro duction during the active war, but aside from this exceptional period, our surplus of food products for ex- portation has been gradually but steadily windling for several years. Foodstuffs, continues the Banks statement, formed 56 per cent of our exports in 1880; Az per cent in 1890; 40 per cent in 1900; dropping to 27 per cent in 1910, and IS per cent in the year immediately proceeding the war, 1914. Of course, the demands of the war, and especially when the United States became a. party to it, intensified our willingness to 1tskimp' at home for the sake of supplying Europe's requirements, and especially those of the men in the field, and our recorded exports of foodstuffs jumped from s43o, 100000 in the fiscal year 1914 to $980,00O,000 in 1916; ST.
  900 in the fiscal year 1919, (half of which fell within the war period) and even this high figure did not in clude certain material sent on gov ernment transports for our army abroad.
 This wartime increase was, how ever, temporary. The quantity of fresh beef, for instance, exported from the United States, which jumped from 6,oo0,000 pounds in the fiscal year 1914 to 231, 100000 pounds in 1916, and 514,O00,000 pounds in the calendar year 1918, dropped to 174,- 00O,000 pounds in 1919, and is now running at the rate of about 150,- 000,000 pounds per annuna, as against 514, ,000, ,000 pounds in the closing year of the war. Of bacon, for which the foreign world still clamors, the ex- ports in the 10 months ending with April 1920 are only about two-thirds as much as in the same months of last year; corn in the 10 months of the fiscal year 1920 only 13000, 900 bushels against 62,0o0,000 in the same period of 1918; and oats a lit tie over one-third as much as the an- nual average of 1919-1918. In the month of April 1920, the latest for which detailed figures of exports are available, foodstuffs form only 21 per cent of the exports, against 43 per cent in April 1919, and practically 40 per cent in the corresponding g month of 1918.
 This falloff in exportation of food stuffs, both in quantity and in the percentage which they form of the total exports, is offset, says the Bank S statement, by a corresponding increase in the share which manufactures form of the total of outgoing merchandise Manufactures formed in April 1920 52 per cent of the total value of mer- chandise exported from this country against 43 per cent in April 1919; AT per cent in the full year 1914: 45 per cent in 1910; S5 per cent in 1900; 21 1 per cent in 1890; and IS per cent ir 1880. The value of manufactures ex- | ported from the United States in the year which ends with this month vii l approximate $3,750, 0,000,0O0 as agains SLIGO, 100000 in the year preceding | the war.
 Thus while our surplus of foot ! which can be spared for the outside l world is declining, manufactures ar. taking the place of the food in thu I export trade of the country whici l will total about sS,o00,000,00O in 192, against $7,000,000,o0o in 1919, an. $6,290, 100000 in the highest war yea 1 1917. manufactures more than off setting the fall off in value of food | StuffS eXported