Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-07-23
SEARCHING WORLD
FOR RAW MA ER|AL
American Manufacturers Spend
Huge Sum Annually in Other
Countries

AotNHN thPOit HS VI CS WHICH md,
cate that the value Of manufactur.
ing material imported in the fiscal
year which ended in June, 1928. ag-
gregated nearly pa billion dollars
as against an annual average of less
than billion dollars in the wears
Immediately preceding the war.
While higher prices are in part
responsible for this increase. it is
quite apparent that the quantity
of manufacturing material coming
from abroad constantly increases,
!. Compilations made by the Trade
! Record of The National City Bank
y of New York show that the total
value of imports of raw material
for use in manufacturing totaled
about $l,500,000000 in the fiscal
year which ended with Tune 30
while manufactures for further
use in manufacturing aggregated
about %50,000,000. The very high
est record made in the pre-war
period was $63S,0O0,000 of raw ma
terial imported and $350O00000 of
manufactures for further use in
manufacturing, so that the record
OF the fiscal year 1928 is about ~
times as great in stated value as
in the highest pre-war year.
Even this high record of nearly
~ billion dollars of imports in
the fiscal year 1923 does not fully
measure the sums paid by the
manufacturers for foreign ma
terial, for the figures which mea-
sure our imports represent the
cost in the foreign countries from
which they are sent to the United
States, and when we add the
freight across the ocean, the duties
paid on entering the country. the
protts of the importers and the
treights from the port of entry to
the door of the factory, it is quite
apparent that the manufacturers
of the country have paid in the
fiscal year just ended consider
ably more than $3.000,000000 for
the manufacturing material
brought from other parts of the
world. The total cost to the man
facturers of the manufacturing
material imported in the past
decade is approximately $4,000
100000.
The material which we draw
from other parts of the world is
chiefly the product of climatic and
labor conditions different from our
own. The importations for fac
tory use include rubber, distinctly
a tropical product; jute, manila
and sisal, also tropical; raw silk,
chiefly from China and Japan with
large supplies of cheap labor; cot
ton from Egypt; wool from Ar
gentina and Australia; goatskins
from India, China, Africa and the
Latin American countries; coconut,
oil and copra; gums from the
tropical forests; tobacco, grown
chiefly in the tropical and sub
tropical climates, and in addition
to these products of the soil and
tropical climates it so happens
THAT the minerals and metals
which we import are from mines
%fthin the tropical or sub-tropical
belt.
Fortunately, adds the Trade
Record, our manufacturers are
able to pay Sin kind" for this
enormous quantity of manufac-
turing materials which they must
have, for the very countries pro-
ducing this character of material
are not producers of manufactures
The tropics find it more convent
ent to develop production of
their fruitful soil and climatic con-
ditions than to give their atten-
ton to manufactures and as con-
sequence they take n exchange for
their natural PRODUCTS manufac-
lures producedS trough the activ.
ity of the capital md labor Of the
north temperate zone and thus our
manufacturers are able to ex-
change the products of their shops
for the raw material which they
must bring from the tropics
Manufactures form from 1915 to
800 of our exports to the tropical
countries of the world, and the in
terchange thus established and
maintained between the tropics
and the manufacturing section of
the United States makes it appar-
ent that the proportion which
manufacturing material forms of
our imports will continue to in
crease. The share which raw ma
:erial for manufacturing forms
of our imports is now prac-
ticaliy 409o as against 312%o
century ago. 1917 in 1865, 200 in
1880. 500 in 1900 and $3.50 in the
,ear Immediately preceding the
war: while on the other hand fin
ished manufactures formed in
May of the current year 4296 of
our exports as against 6fo cen
fury ago, l5Go in 1870 1919 in 1890,
249o in 1900 and 329o in the year
preceding the war.
Our ability adds the Trade Rec
ord, to buy the worlds raw ma
terial and send II back to the pro-
ducers in manufactured form is
due in no small degree to the will
ingness of capital to cooperate in
the interchanges between the
great climatic and industrial sec
tons of the world The census
figures of the capital of the manu-
featuring industries of the country
show an advance from S5330OO 600
in 1850 to $44 779000000 in 1919
The stated caRa iization of 1919
is IS times uch as that of
1880 while the factory output OF
MIplo was 65 times as much as that
1850