PUBLICATION OF TRADE OPPORTUNITIES.

The Bureau of Manufactures makes known in the Daily Consular and Trade Reports opportunities for the sale abroad of American products, as reported by consuls and others, and such reports have led to a considerable increase in exports. In many cases the lack of time to enable manufacturers to take advantage of such opportunities is a handicap which might be overcome by a limited use of cable and telegraph lines.

The foreign "trade opportunity" service of the consular reports has been greatly extended. From the time that this was inaugurated, in February, 1906, until June 30, 1907, or about sixteen months, there were published 1,166 announcements of special openings for American goods abroad, the names of the inquirers being withheld and furnished only to such American merchants and manufacturers as are entitled to the information. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, the number of "trade opportunities" published amounted to 1,221. It is also noted that as this system of putting the foreign buyer and American manufacturer or producer in communication becomes more widely known throughout the world, more important inquiries are received. The American consuls have for the past year been especially active in sending details of railroad requirements, accompanying their reports with complete sets of blueprints.

ANNUAL REPORTS OF CONSULS.

The decline in the aggregate exports of all the leading nations during the fiscal year makes the efforts to secure markets more aggressive, and emphasizes the need of assisting as far as possible our own exporters. A step in that direction was taken by the Bureau of Manufactures in the publication of the annual reports of consuls. Heretofore they have been issued in a volume called "Commercial Relations of the United States; " but as this had to be delayed until all of the reports were received, its publication was nearly always a year or more later than the period covered by the reports. Under the new method, as soon as the reports from a country are received they are assembled and issued in a pamphlet covering that nation, and distributed among manufacturers and others much earlier than under the old way. More prompt reports from some of the consuls and an increased force in the Bureau of Manufactures will permit further progress in meeting the wants of our exporters along this line.

DAILY AND MONTHLY CONSULAR AND TRADE REPORTS.

The development of Daily and Monthly Consular and Trade Reports into consulting compendiums for practical use by manufacturers and exporters who are seeking foreign markets has been com

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prehensively carried out. It has been the endeavor to compile and present the most valuable information obtainable, stated concisely in plain business language, and with all the reports on kindred subjects from the various consular officers and special agents grouped together. This systematic compilation of the contributions of consuls entails several times as much editorial revision as in former years.

Information secured from special agents, consuls, and other sources should be made promptly available to manufacturers and others. This work is retarded now by lack of sufficient help to prepare the material promptly for publication. The consuls are doing better work than formerly, and their reports show a greater knowledge of what is needed to promote American mercantile interests. In the last fiscal year 10,000 reports were received by the Bureau, through the Department of State, from consuls, as compared with 8,600 in the preceding year, while the number of items contributed under the heading "Trade opportunities" nearly doubled. There are frequent calls for commercial information concerning other countries which can be met only by the possession of facilities that will enable the Department to secure and promulgate it. The exports of completed manufactures were in the last fiscal year the largest in the history of the country, but the total is far behind that of some other countries, and greater results may be reached by guiding our exporters to a realization of the possibilities of foreign markets, by improved transportation facilities, and by other means.

How great is the need of foreign markets for American goods may well be illustrated by exports of cotton manufactures, which aggregated in the last fiscal year but $25,177,758, whereas the imports of such goods were in value $68,379,781, although the United States supplies 70 per cent of the raw material for the cotton products of the world. Our exports of such goods are a mere fraction of the total exports of even such other nations as obtain a large share of their raw material in this country. In some countries with which we have good trade facilities we supply the major part of the cotton products. consumed, which would seem to show what can be accomplished with proper efforts and facilities for carrying on the trade. And the same thing can be said of other industries.

DIRECTORY OF FOREIGN BUYERS.

The compilation of a commercial directory of the world, in so far as lists of foreign merchants and importers are apt to be of value to the American export trade, has proceeded slowly. The consular officers have supplied a large amount of material for this purpose, knowing that its classification and distribution through a central clearing house at Washington would relieve them of one of their most arduous duties that of complying with requests from the United States for

names of merchants and importers in their respective districts. This work will prove highly valuable to the intending exporter if he can. procure at one central bureau at home the commercial lists for which he now must address several hundred consulates. The new system will also effect great economy for the Government. To make the information effective and available it is essential that several competent clerks be engaged for the work. The plan is urged by both the consular officers and the business public, and only awaits the action of Congress for its fulfillment.

COLLATING AND PUBLISHING FOREIGN TARIFFS.

Attention is again called to the inadequacy of the appropriation for the work of collating and arranging foreign tariffs, which is rapidly expanding with the growing interest in foreign commerce and the appreciation by the business world of this branch of the Bureau's service. The number of requests for information with regard to rates of duty in foreign countries, customs regulations, treatment of commercial travelers, port charges, etc., has greatly increased during the last fiscal year, many of the requests calling for considerable research work. While the original appropriation for this work implied the use of the publications of the International Union for the Publication of Customs Tariffs, of Brussels, Belgium, it has been found in practice that these publications are unavailable for that purpose, owing to the inaccuracy of the translations as well as to their tardy appearance. Foreign tariffs, as well as the different decrees modifying them, which are published in the Consular and Trade Reports, are therefore drawn for publication almost entirely from original sources, namely, foreign official gazettes, of which the Bureau is now receiving a considerable number, and reports sent in by American diplomatic and consular officers, which must be verified and edited before publication.

The work of reading, clipping, and filing foreign publications, and translating the various decrees, which is absolutely essential if this important service of the Bureau is to be of any value, is much greater than can properly be accomplished by the limited staff of three men now employed. As a result, the publishing of foreign tariffs lags behind the demand the Department is called upon to supply. Since the last annual report was submitted the tariffs of France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, New Zealand, and the islands of the British West Indies have been published, together with a number of supplements to the tariffs previously issued, and reports from diplomatic and consular officers covering tariff legislation in forty-five countries were published in Daily Consular and Trade Reports. The tariffs that have been published so far are inadequate to meet the numerous. inquiries received for rates of duty in foreign countries, and it

therefore frequently becomes necessary to compile extensive lists of rates of duty on various articles in response to inquiries from manufacturers and exporters, which takes more time than would be the case if all the tariffs had been published.

An additional reason for strengthening this branch of the Bureau's work is afforded by the proposed revision of the tariff by Congress, in connection with which the Bureau of Manufactures has been called upon to furnish considerable information on foreign tariff legislation to committees of both Houses of Congress, and will in all probability be required to do so to a larger extent when the subject is taken up by that body.

To enable the Department to meet the demand for information from the business world, as well as from the legislative and executive branches of the Government, an appropriation of at least $10,000 for the next fiscal year should be made. This amount would be barely sufficient to provide for the increase needed in the clerical force, which would still remain far below that employed by the governments of the leading foreign countries, whose publications must be largely depended upon by this Department for prompt and accurate information on the subject of foreign tariff legislation.

Attention is specially invited to the report of the Chief of the Bureau of Manufactures, which sets forth in detail the work performed and the results accomplished during the year by that Bureau.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF COMMERCE.

As an aid to the extension of commerce, closer relations should be established between the Department and the commercial organizations of the country. Steps have been taken in that direction, and unquestionably in time the benefits of such a course will be duly recognized and made available. There is hardly anything that could be of more service in extending trade relations than that the Government should have the benefit of the counsel of the men engaged in trade, and whose experience could best point the way for extending exports. The United States is behind other great nations in that respect, and no time should be lost in making use of this valuable means of extending our commerce.

With a view to establishing intimate relations between the Government and the organized business interests of the country, and with a view to promoting foreign and domestic commerce, a circular was addressed October 23, 1907, to boards of trade, chambers of commerce, and similar organizations in the principal cities of the United States inviting them to appoint committees to meet in this city December 5, 1907, for conference with the Department. This invitation was gen

erally accepted and the conference resulted in an organization under the name of "The National Council of Commerce."

The object of that organization is to supply a connecting link between the government departments and the business community, for whose benefit much of the work of these departments is directed. It was felt that with the exception of the correspondence between the departments in Washington and individual business firms there was no medium by which regular interchange of opinion and active cooperation on a comprehensive scale could take place.

It was realized that the Government in carrying out certain lines of activity was frequently without reliable information as to the desires and needs of those for whose special benefit this work was intended; and, on the other hand, that a large proportion of the business people in the United States had but a vague idea of what the various government departments in general, and the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor in particular, are doing in their behalf. It was felt that a central organization composed of representatives chosen by the various commercial and industrial bodies of the country, meeting from time to time in the city of Washington and having a permanent bureau under a competent head, coming in direct touch with the officials of the departments whose work affected their interests, would be able to furnish the departments with valuable information of a practical character and to advise with the officials of the departments and aid in directing their work along channels of the greatest practical value to the business world. At the same time the departments, through such an organization, would be able to convey to business people information of a character which often, on account of its confidential nature or for other reasons, could not be handled through the usual channel of departmental publications.

This step was taken with the expectation that through the agency of the commercial organizations the country would have an organ such as most of the leading commercial nations of the world already possess to great advantage. Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and other countries have such official or semiofficial bodies, through which the commercial interests of the country are able to make their needs and desires known in a proper way, and at the same time to help the respective governments to convey such information as is found helpful to those interests.

That this newly created council of commerce can promote the business interests of the country by bringing about a closer cooperation between them and the Government there can be no doubt. A few instances as to objects to which cooperation can be directed with a reasonable assurance of beneficial results may be cited. The question of evolving some method of organization for better representation of American manufacturers at foreign industrial expositions is of