BUREAU OF MANUFACTURES.

Since the organization of this Bureau, in February, 1905, each year has been marked by progress that has been logical and closely related to the increasing interest of manufacturers and merchants in the export trade of the country. This interest is plainly indicated by the volume of correspondence with the Bureau, which during the last fiscal year exceeded that of the preceding year by 20 per cent, over 36,000 letters and 10,000 miscellaneous papers and circulars having been received. This correspondence embraces every field of industrial activity and every avenue of commercial development.

PUBLICATION OF TRADE OPPORTUNITIES AND CONFIDENTIAL
BULLETINS.

The various methods which have been developed by the Bureau for fostering and extending trade continue to broaden in scope and expand in usefulness. The publication during the year of 1,567 foreign-trade opportunities in the Daily Consular and Trade Reports and the issuance of 119 confidential circulars transmitting special information to interested firms in regard to demands abroad for products as various as war ships and harness or locomotives and shoes have been undoubtedly valuable factors in a material extension of our foreign trade. The value of this confidential work would be further increased, however, should provision be made by Congress for the acquisition of photographs, blueprints, drawings, specifications, and samples in sufficient numbers to make it possible for the Bureau to transmit such material promptly to classified firms. At present the meager facilities of the Bureau compel a system of distribution of this confidential information which causes delay, often defeating the purpose of the work and inviting serious criticism

WORLD TRADE DIRECTORY.

An important part of the equipment of the Bureau has been the development in its files of a directory of the names of business houses in foreign countries handling imported merchandise. The authority of Congress for the publication of this directory was granted in the sundry civil appropriation act for the current fiscal year, and the volume will be issued early in 1911. The price of the book was fixed at $5, and subscriptions to the number of 2,300 have already been recorded. The publication of this directory will place at the service

of American firms a collection of names of the utmost value in their foreign trade, and will relieve the Bureau of a burden of correspondence which contains urgent requests for the material embodied in the book. It has heretofore been impossible to comply with many of these requests when they implied the copying of long lists of names, the clerical force of the Bureau being inadequate to the task.

COMMERCIAL AGENTS.

The special agents of the Bureau, who are now designated as "commercial agents," have been active in investigations in Europe, Central and South America, and the West Indies, their work covering general trade and industrial conditions and the special subjects of cotton, wool, and jute manufactures, laces, flour, the shoe and leather trade, cotton seed and its products, the Argentine Exposition, and other important matters. Recommendation is made for the extension of this work in scope and in the number of agents employed. Attention is invited to the fact that in 1906 Japan had 85 foreign agents investigating trade conditions abroad.

Furthermore, the need is now felt for the use of such agents here in the United States to consult with individual manufacturers and merchants, and with trade organizations, chambers of commerce, and similar bodies. The time has come when it is necessary to preach the doctrine of trade expansion and to make clear the essential present need of such expansion. The Bureau has already in its possession a volume of useful and pertinent facts in regard to foreign markets and the theories and principles which affect foreign trade, and it is plainly apparent now that a campaign of education and exposition by specialists through personal relations with American traders and manufacturers will supplement the work abroad in the most effective way. The present period is a most significant and important one with respect to the extension of our foreign trade in manufactured products. As our population increases the volume of exports of raw materials and foodstuffs is relatively materially reduced, and unfavorable trade balances, if they are to be avoided, must be prevented by the continued extension of our sales of manufactured products abroad. A study of statistics indicates that the relations between raw and manufactured exports are changing and a gratifying relative increase in manufactured exports is shown. To keep and extend this trade it will be necessary to fortify and promote it by every legitimate method, and a liberal support of the activities of the Bureau of Manufactures is strongly recommended. An appropriation of $60,000 is asked to continue the work of commercial agents for the coming fiscal year.

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TARIFF DIVISION.

The Tariff Division has carried on its important work of publishing translations of customs tariffs of foreign countries, a labor which is not duplicated in any other branch of the Government. This Division is essentially a publicity bureau of facts relating to tariff rates and to changes, either recent or impending, in such rates. It has no function of criticism or the development of theories of customs regulations, and it supplements in a very important manner the other lines of investigation in the Bureau. A wide field is open for the exercise of the technical knowledge available in this Division. A voluminous correspondence is maintained in supplying inquirers with information in regard to numberless details connected with tariff matters. hoped to further develop the service in this branch of the Bureau. by the publication of special bulletins containing tariff facts relating to selected industries or products, and reports comprising current regulations affecting foreign trade, including such matters as port charges, tonnage dues, methods of handling cargoes, and similar factors in relation to exports.

It is

The present appropriation of $8,000 is inadequate to permit this very advantageous extension of service, and the Department recommends that for the coming year $12,000 be made available. This sum can be judiciously expended to secure full return for the amount involved.

The tariff publications during the year include the French tariff, both as originally proposed and as amended in the Chamber of Deputies, the Customs Tariff of Mexico, Consular Regulations of Foreign Countries, and an extensive supplement to the compilation of the rates of duty on machinery and vehicles in foreign countries. To the above should be added a number of smaller supplements to the customs tariffs of Bahamas, Australia, Germany, and Italy. In addition to publishing separate tariffs and compilations, the Tariff Division made public, through the medium of Daily Consular and Trade Reports, much information bearing upon the subject.

CONSULAR DIVISION.

The editorial work of the Consular Division is becoming more exacting and increases in volume with the increasing interest shown by consular officers by their more frequent reports in regard to our foreign trade. The small increase in the personnel of the Division asked for by the Department is fully justified by the growth of the work. The appropriations for our consular service are now over a million dollars, and the Bureau of Manufactures affords the principal outlet for the reports of the consuls. It is obviously good business policy to equip this Division adequately so that the valuable material received from abroad may not be delayed in publication.

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS.

The existing law requires the presentation of the annual reports of consular officers in the form of a yearly volume known as "Commercial Relations of the United States," a limited edition only being published, with the result that the work is little known and comparatively unnoticed by the public. The prompt publicity which is now given through the pages of the Daily Consular and Trade Reports to the fresh and valuable information contained in these annual reports by consuls renders the issuance of this work in its present form of doubtful value.

PUBLICATIONS.

Fifteen monographs were issued by the Bureau during the year in addition to tariff publications. The question of the advisability of abandoning the gratuitous distribution of these publications has been considered in previous reports, and attention is again invited to this matter.

POSSIBILITIES FOR THE BUREAU.

The work performed by the Bureau of Manufactures, although little more than well begun, is considered one of the vital functions of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and no branch of the Federal Government offers a more promising opportunity for the useful extension of the public service. It should be developed to a standard which shall challenge favorable comparison with similar governmental activities in foreign lands. There is ample evidence

of the value which our trade rivals ascribe to such work. Our expenditures for this service so far are almost trifling when we consider the vastness of the field which should receive attention if our foreign trade is to be increased rapidly and in a manner to retain in world commerce our proper relative position.

BUREAU OF STATISTICS.

FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

The foreign commerce of the United States in 1910, while showing a larger total than in any earlier year except 1907, exhibits certain characteristics which call for serious consideration. While the imports were the largest in the history of the country, the value of exports fell below that of 1908 or 1907 despite the fact that prices, especially of natural products, were especially high in 1910. The total value of merchandise imported in 1910 was $1,556,947,430, against $1,434,421,425 in the former high-record year, 1907. The total value of domestic and foreign merchandise exported in 1910 was $1,744,984,720 against $1,860,773,346 in 1908 and $1,880,851,078 in 1907, the high record years in exports. The imports thus exceeded by $122,526,005 the largest total of any earlier year, while the exports fell $125,827,492 below the annual average of 1907 and 1908.

While the increase in imports occurred chiefly in manufacturers' materials, which exceeded in 1910 those of any earlier year and thus suggests unusual activity among the manufacturers of the country, the decrease in exports occurred chiefly in foodstuffs, which formed a large share of our export trade in those years in which the United States was the world's greatest exporter of domestic products. The total value of foodstuffs exported in 1910 was, despite the unusually high export prices, but $369,087,974, against $545,473,695 in 1900, ten years earlier, and formed but 21.59 per cent of the total domestic exports, against 39.80 per cent in 1900, 42.21 per cent in 1890, and 55.77 per cent in 1880.

DECLINE IN EXPORTATION OF FOODSTUFFS.

This decline in the exports of foodstuffs occurred in all the important articles forming that great group. Wheat exports, including those sent in the form of flour, aggregated but 87 million bushels, being little more than one-half the average annual export of the past twenty years and actually less than in any of the past thirty years, save the exceptional year 1905. Corn exports aggregated but 38 million bushels, being little less than one-third the average annual exports of the past twenty years. The value of meat and dairy products and food animals exported was but 143 million dollars, against 254 millions in 1906 and an annual average of 222 millions in the past ten years.