Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-02-09
APPROPRIATIONS
LARGE DESPITE
SOARING PRICES
American People Are Buy
ling ReCkIeSSly the Pro-
ducts of Foreign Coun-
tries; Shipments Heavy.
Especial Correspondence to The JournaI)


Especial Correspondence to The JOurnal)
New York, Feb. S.--High prices
of the products of foreign countries
Fave apparently no terrors for the
people of the United States. Does
coffee double in price? The peo-
pie of the United states calmly in
crease the quantity imported and
treble the sums paid for it. Does
sugar advance so to 100 per cent
in price? They increase the guam
tty imported and consume a larger
total than ever before, the guam
titles brought into the country adj
vancing from 100000. 600 pounds
in 1918 to 10000, 100000 pounds in
1919, and the wholesale price paid
therefor from 1915, 100000 to
$500 100000. Do hides and skins
show an increase of so to IS per
cent? The quantity imported
doubles and the sums paid for the
grand total trebles. Do diamonds
and other precious stones increase
in price per carat? The quantity
sttll further increases and the total
imports jump from $50, 200, 600 in
1913 to 500, 100000 in 1919.
These are some of the facts re-
Vealed by an analysis by the Ma
tional City bank of New York of
the latest import figures-figures
which show an increase in stated
values of our imports from 1,71S,-
000,0 00 in 1915 to $3,904, 000, 900
in 1915 to $4,000. 100000 in 1919,
an increase of about 1870 per cent
in n short four-year period.
Prices abroad, says the banks
statement. of many articles have
doubled since the close of the war, !
but this fact has not deferred the |
people Of the United States in their !
importation of these higher price |
articles but apparently has rather
stimulated consumption than |
otherwise. Coffee, as everybody |
knows, has more than doubled in |
the Import price in the single year
1873, advancing from less than II |
cents per pound in November, 1913,
to "a cents per pound in Septem-
her, 1919. yet the quantity of cot |
fee brought into the United States
in the year Just ended Is greater |
than in any earlier year in the his
tory Of the trade, and the import |
value III 1919 tAtttuS 9LDVt ubutOUV,
as against $99,000,000 in 1918. The |
price Of cocoa jumped from 10 I
cents per pound in November,
1918, to 90 cents per pound in
August, 1919, yet the quantity inn
ported in 1919 exceeds that of the /
preceding year. and the sums paid
in 1919 are practically SO per cent
greater than in 1918. Sugar, as
everybody knows, has reached
price hitherto unheard of at least
in the memory of the present gem
Grafton, and hard to get at that,
yet all the sugar authorities now
agree with the statement that the
quantity consumed in the United
States in 1919 is 1.-The biggest ever"
while official figures of the gov
eminent show that the sums paid
for that entering the ports of the
United States in 1919 Gncluding
that from our own islands, is APP
proXimately $40. 700, 600 against
approximately $350,O0O,O00 in 1918
and $157,000,000 in the year pre-
cedng the war
In manufacturing materials the
advance in prices has been as
great as that of foodstuffs, but this
has not deferred the purchases
from abroad. Raw silk. for ex-
ample, shows an advance in i'm
/ ort price from $3.50 per pound
in December, 1918. to an average
Of 1910 per pound in November, II
1919, and yet the quantity import
ed in 1919 Is one-third more than I
in the preceding year, and the
value of the importation about
5000, 600 in 1919 against $194,- ,
coo, 900 in 1918. Calf skins, for
which the leather consuming pop
ulation seemed to have suddenly ,
developed special taste, have adj !
vanced in price from IS cents per !
pound in November, 1918, to 81 ,
cents per pound in November, 1919,
and Notwithstanding this quad /,
tupling in price. the quantity inn
ported has jumped from less than
: 100000 pounds in 1918 to 65,-
100000 pounds in 1919. and the !
lalue of the imports from $4,000
100 in 1918 to approximately $35,- {
100, 900 in 1919. Goatskins more 1
han doubled in import price, adj o
ancing from an average of AZ
,ents per pound in Decem Der, 1918, Il
o SO cents per pound in November. t
919, yet the quantity imported c
umped from 62.000,000 pounds in
91S to 125,000.000 pounds in c
919, and the value of the import j
tions from 100000, 900 in 1918 to S
80, 900, 900 in 1919. C