REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



507 



Oar cotton is exceptional. We produce nearly two-thirds of all grown 

 in the world, and find it profitable to supply fiber for the spindles of 

 Europe. We consume a third, and shall, ere long, manufacture one- 

 hall', and should ultimately use two-thirds in domestic manufacture. 

 But in cotton, in food products, and all other exports, the exportation 

 is but one-twelfth of the production. 



We can produce a surplus by neglecting production in other direc- 

 tions, but we cannot sell, if produced beyond a limited quantity, and 

 then only by accepting the prices that our customers choose to give. 



The importance of home supply of home wants can scarcely be over- 

 estimated. 



The domestic trade of a country [as I have heretofore written] is always the prin- 

 cipal commerce. In this country the foreign trade probably represents scarcely $1 to 

 $2U of the grand volume of mercantile transactions. It might be less without the 

 slightest inconvenience to a human being, the importer alone excepted. With an area 

 bounded by the two great oceaus of the globe, and touching the domain of everlast- 

 ing ice on one side and that of tropical tomperaturo on the other, there is little need 

 to go beyond its boundaries for anything. This continental area includes a range of 

 elevation occupied in agriculture of 7,000 feet, giving variety of climate and produc- 

 tion without regard to latitude. North Carolina and New Hampshire have a range of 

 6,000 feet, and California still greater difference of altitude. North Carolina produces 

 ricefand wheat, figs, and apples, and can supply both ice and sugar for its insidious 

 yet popular potations of peach brandy. The productions of the United States range 

 from lichens to lemons, and include the fruits of all zones, from gooseberries to guavas. 

 With these resources of soil and sun, of coal and iron, of gold and silver, of water for 

 transportation and for power, of mind and muscle, of skill aud genius, how stupid the 

 folly of desuetude, how abject the shame of inanity, how injurious the crime of idle- 

 ness. To go thousands of miles for that which we can produce from our surplus labor 

 would be burning the candle at both ends and drifting into the darkness of national 

 poverty. 



Our population doubled in twenty-seven years from 1853. It is esti- 

 mated that it will double again in thirty years from 1880 to 1910. Then 

 100,000,000 of people will be fed and clothed. Will there be no further 

 increase ? It may not be practicable to indicate the time when popula- 

 tion shall again be doubled, and again. The probability is strong, how- 

 ever, that 400,000,000 people may exist within the present limits of the 

 United States, if not within one hundred years, quite reasonably within 

 two centuries. Where will American production then find a market 

 for its crude products of agriculture if not at home ? 



INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMERCE. 



Compared with the domestic demand, the foreign is utterly insignifi- 

 cant, either for agricultural or manufactured products. The foreign 

 trade has received a recognition in the public mind far beyond its rela- 

 tive importance. Until recently our exports of merchandise failed to 

 yield money enough to pay for imports, and the production of our mines 

 went to pay the balance. In forty years of the last half century only 

 nine had a balance in favor of imports ; in the last ten, owing to crop 

 failures in Europe and extension of crop area on millions of acres of 

 land given away to native and foreign-born citizens, the balance has 

 favored exports. The comparison is as follows : 



18:r>-1874— excess of imports $1, 579, 829, 80C 



1875-1884— excess of exports 1, 360, 482, 467 



During the fifty years exports were in debt to imports $219,317,339. 

 So we have failed by that amount to produce enough for home con- 

 sumption. But our deficiency is far greater, because the values of im- 

 ports are known to be understated, and they are always the value at 

 foreign ports, upon which the cost of freights and commissions must 

 accrue. 



