532 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



specialties as hair-clipping machines, dental supplies, typewriters, 

 electric motors, etc. 



Decline in Exports of Manufactures. 



The people of Europe, it may be assumed, therefore, are not less 

 but more favorably inclined to goods of American origin, and the fall- 

 ing off in our exports, so far as they are concerned, is to be attributed 

 to temporary causes, such as business depression, reducing their pur- 

 chasing power, with the natural result of falling prices, or to dis- 

 crimination against our products. The reduction is also found to be 

 due, in part, to the elimination of the Hawaiian Islands and Porto 

 Eico from the Treasury tables of exports to foreign countries, and to 

 trade conditions in the United States, such as those affecting the 

 exports of copper, which have checked the outflow of manufactured 

 goods. 



The Treasury statement of imports and exports of the United 

 States for the calendar year 1901 (subject to revision) shows that the 

 total imports amounted to $880,421,056, an increase of $51,271,3-12 

 over the year 1900; and that the total exports were $1,465,380,919, a 

 falling oft of $12,565,194 compared with the previous year. The 

 exports of manufactures amounted to $395,144,030, against $441,- 

 406,942 during the same period of 1900— a falling off of $46,262,912. 

 The percentage of manufactures in the total of exports declined from 

 30.38 in 1900 to 27.48 in 1901. On the other hand, the exports of 

 agricultural products rose in value from $904,655,411 in 1900 to 

 $940,246,488 in 1901— a gain of $35,591,077, thus largely offsetting 

 the loss in manufactures. The percentage increased from 62.26 to 

 65.38. The decline in the exports of copper, not including ore, 

 amounted to $24,007,711; and in manufactures of iron and steel, to 

 $27,093,683. 



Has Expansion been cheched? 



Notwithstanding the continued spread of our goods in Europe, 

 and the deductions to be made from the Treasury figures on the score 

 of accidental or natural causes of decline in manufactured exports, it 

 is evident that the 'American invasion' of Europe has ceased, for the 

 time being, to be of the sweeping character that distinguished it at 

 first as an economic phenomenon. Our advantages in industrial com- 

 petition in the abundance and cheapness of raw material and fuel, in 

 the superior efficiency of our skilled labor, in the unexampled fecun- 

 dity of our people in the invention of labor-saving machinery, and the 

 advances we are constantly making in economies of production are 

 still the subject of much anxious speculation in the great industrial 

 centers of Europe ; but there are some foreign observers who are encour- 

 aged by recent developments to hope that conditions may be more 



