of duty, presenting a very careful statement of the cost of labor here and in Chemnitz, Germany, whence came our chief competition. It was proved beyond question that the Dingley law did not give sufficient protection, the importation of certain grades having increased from 33,000,000 pairs in 1898 to 61,000,000 pairs in 1907.

The importers of foreign hosiery, like Marshall Field & Co., Lord & Taylor, Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co., and many others, had printed thousands upon thousands of petitions to which the signatures of their women customers were secured. The signers not having the remotest conception of the tariff question, were induced to sign because they were told the increase of duty would make them pay more for their stockings, and these petitions fairly swamped the committee on Ways and Means.

The fight on the hosiery rates raged in the Senate. It was shown that the hosiery industry in this country was in a very debilitated state on account of foreign competition, and that scores of mills in Pennsylvania, New England and elsewhere, had closed down, throwing hundreds of employees, chiefly girls, out of work. But of more significance was the discovery that these big department stores, which were raising all the disturbance, maintained their own establishments in Chemnitz, with a full force of help organized to buy foreign hosiery at the least possible cost. Many of these concerns not only advanced money to small foreign manufacturers to purchase yarns to make goods, according to their specifications and account, but in many instances they supplied them with the yarns. Upon receiving the hosiery it was sent to the public finishers in Chemnitz for dyeing and finishing, and shipped to this country to be sold over the counters. This was the sort of traffic which the Republicans sought to restrict through the agency of a protective tariff. As the late Hon. Sereno E. Payne, author of the Republican law, said, in speaking of the signers of these petitions :

"They toil not, neither do they spin,'

but the Republican party does not propose to deny to their 40,000 humbler sisters, who are now idle as a result of foreign competition, an opportunity to do both."

The highest increase in the duty rate was under 2 cents a pair on hosiery, but it resuscitated the industry in this country, and up to the time of the passage of the Underwood-Simmons tariff law the hosiery industry had a fine run of prosperity. The present law interrupted it until the war cut off German exports.

It is good to see Marshall Field & Co. about to establish competition of a domestic, instead of a foreign, character. This means additional work for American labor and the investment of capital at home. Doubtless they will now change their view on the tariff. The Republicans will meet them half-way and the Chemnitz mills will have to look out for themselves.

CUBA A MARKET FOR AMERICAN SHOES.

Cuba is at present the best market in the whole world for American footwear, says a report on the subject published by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, of the Department of Commerce. Although the climate is tropical, very few even of the poorest natives go without footwear of some kind, and the per capita consumption of shoes is therefore very heavy. Over 80 per cent of the business is done by American firms, as there is no competition from local manufacturers and not any of great importance from Europe. In spite of America's strong position in the market, however, the author of the report, Special Agent Herman G. Brock, asserts that there are many ways in which our hold on the market can be strengthened, as there are a number of features in the Cuban trade not well understood by the American manufacturer. These the report discusses at considerable length. Particular attention is paid to the requirements of the market and to merchandising methods and commercial requirements and practices.

AMERICAN SHOES IN PORTO RICO. Porto Rican markets for American

shoes are also discussed in a report by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Although low wages have always been the rule in the island, there has recently been a growing market for medium and high-grade shoes. American manufacturers get practically all of the trade and probably will continue to do so. Chapters of the report are devoted to the importance of the Porto Rican market, to the methods of merchandising shoes, to the requirements of the market, to the retail shoe trade, and to the principal methods of advertising. It is the second of a series of reports on the shoe markets in Latin America.

ENGLAND'S EXCESS PROFITS TAX.

Taxation is one of the subjects under constant discussion in England, by reason of the heavily-increasing burdens which that country is bearing. In reply to the complaints of some of the companies heavily taxed, the Statist, in an editorial, points out that these corporations, notwithstanding the large excess profits tax, are paying dividends varying from 10 to 70 per cent, citing the ship-owning companies and the rubber companies as instances of this.

The Statist states the first great canon of just taxation to be, that the indispensable industries, food, clothing, and housing, for instance, should be spared as far as the necessities of the Government make possible. The next rule essential to just taxation is that even where concerns or individuals are able to pay heavily, taxation should impose the same proportion of sacrifice in every case, and recalls that equality of sacrifice means, not the same amounts in money, but an equivalent curtailment of enjoyments and comforts of those who pay.

The Statist believes that it is a very much easier thing to deal justly with the money-earning world by employing an income tax rather than by, as it says, "any such new-fangled system as that of excess profits. A man, let us say, who is in possession of an income, free of debt, of something closely approaching $40,000 a year,

is clearly possessed of somewhat more than $100 a day. And few people will dispute that at a time like the present, when taxation is so heavy, when the Government is spending at the rate of six or seven millions a day, and when we are warned that the poor are in danger of serious distress unless we all economize stringently, a man possessed of a clear income of nearly $40,000 a year, can bear a serious burden of taxation. Even if he loses a tenth of the income he is exceedingly well off, most people will admit. Therefore, there is some point in a method by which the taxation may be considerably increased without injustice, and that limit can be fixed more easily by employing the income tax than by means of an excess profits tax."

The Statist concludes that when heavy taxation cannot be avoided and when those of the fighting age are bound to fight, then those above the fighting age are bound to contribute what they can afford, and the richer a man is the juster it is that he should contribute very handsomely. Consequently, as taxation ought to be so levied as to exact from all tax payers an equivalent sacrifice, and as, moreover, the sacrifice is measured by the amount of free income the taxpayer can dispense with, the true canons of taxation demand that it should be apportioned by an income tax which shall vary in strict accordance with the increase in income.

GROWTH OF OUR CHEMICAL INDUSTRY.

The steady growth of chemical industries in this country is shown by the investment of $16,375,000 in them during the month of May. This makes a total of about $210,000,000 of new capital authorized since the beginning of 1915. Reports from the new British dyestuffs industry say the manufacturers expect not only to supply the home demand after the war but also to export considerable quantities of their product. In France and Canada, and even in Russia, there is notable activity in making chemicals of which Germany three years ago had almost a world monopoly.

While reports from Germany disclose

anxiety as to economic alliances in opposition to her interests after the war, there is no evidence that she realizes how her trade must be affected then without any resort to hostile combinations. Germany has been indirectly creating and building up great industries in the countries of her foes and in neutral lands, industries whose survival and further development in the coming days of peace will greatly reduce her exports. She has lost for many years to come, and probably forever, the greater part of her important and profitable foreign trade in dyestuffs, drugs, and other chemicals. Our own output of many of these is now so large that exports of them exceed $100,000,000 a year. A short time ago we could not have dyed the 30,000,000 yards of khaki which an army of 1,000,000 men will require, but now in this we need no help from abroad. Germany's loss on account of new industries where her sales were great will be enormous and per

manent.

CENSUS SHOWS SHIFT IN MANUFACTURES.

GROWTH IN RUBBER AND OIL.

AUTOMOBILE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES ALSO ASSUME PROMINENT PLACES, WHILE

CLOTHING DROPS IN IMPORTANCE.

An analysis of the Abstract of the Census of Manufactures, just issued by the Bureau of the Census, which covers the year 1914, is important as representing the condition of manufactures in this country in the last normal year before the outbreak of the war.

The period from 1909 to 1914 was not one of great industrial growth. The value of goods manufactured in the United States in 1914 amounted to $24,246,434,724, an increase of only 17.3 per cent over the product of the year 1909, as against 39.7 per cent increase for the period between 1904 and 1909, and 29.7 per cent increase for the period between 1899 and 1904. Two changes of significance may be noticed during the period from 1909 to 1914. The 3.9 per cent decrease in the number of proprietors and firm members shows an increase in the corporate form of ownership

In addition to the above industries there were twenty-eight others, each with products valued at more than $100,000,000. The relative importance of the chief industries of the country changed greatly between 1909 and 1914. The most remarkable change being that of the automobile industry, which advanced from twenty-first position to eighth, although the automobile body and parts industry, which was included in the automobile industry in 1909, was listed separately in 1914. The manufacture of automobile bodies and parts ranked forty-seventh in 1914, showing a gain of 134 per cent over its importance in 1909.

Petroleum refining advanced from twenty-fourth position to sixteenth; the production of electrical machinery changed from twenty-fifth to nineteenth place, and there was a 74 per cent increase in the manufacture of rubber goods. The products of steel works and rolling mills and of flour and grist mills, both decreased in the period from 1909 to 1914, but, nevertheless, these ir lustries advanced from fourth and fifth places to second and third places, respectively, because there greater decline in the value of foundry and machine shop products, which held second and third places in 1909.

was

tobacco manufacture

an even

The manufacture of men's clothing dropped from eighth to eleventh place, woolen and worsted goods from tenth to sixteenth, from eleventh to twenty-seventh, iron and steel blast furnaces from fourteenth to twentyeighth. The leading ten cities with the value of their products were as follows:

Considering all cities with a population of over 10,000, the average number of female workers in factories is practically one-third of the total number of employes, and the proportion has remained about the same since 1914. In Troy, N. Y., 51 per cent of the workers are females, while females form more than one-third of the wage-earners in eight important cities, including New York.

There has been a decided improvement in the child labor situation. The number of children under 16 employed in industries has decreased from 93,635 in 1904 to 72,870 in 1914, although the total number of wage earners increased a third during the same period. Children constituted 4 per cent of the wage earners employed in eight important cities in 1914, while in 1909 there were nineteen important cities in this class. In New York City children constitute less than 1 per cent of factory wage earners.

DON'T FORGET THE TARIFF LAW.

From the Indianapolis Star.

The business interests of this country should awaken to what foreign manufacturers are planning for post-war conditions. It is practically conceded that Great Britain, the great open market of the world, will impose a tariff on practically all manufactured articles imported after the war. Nations that have had duties are preparing to increase that tax and we must take steps to protect ourselves.

Already the manufacturers of this country are receiving invitations to establish branch factories in England to cope with after-war readjustments of commerce. We, of course, can not prevent any nation from putting a tariff on imports in order to raise revenues and to protect its own industries crippled by war. We have imposed tariffs on imports and can not complain if our best customers adopt our methods.

But we shall have only ourselves to blame if we stand idly by while they not only shut us out of their markets, but invade our own. Ours is the greatest market in the world. We should see that our manufacturers are not at a disadvantage in their own field. The present tariff sched

ules are neither raising the funds needed for governmental expenditures nor are they safeguarding our own industries.

JAPAN IN THE PHILIPPINES. NOTWITHSTANDING TARIFF, KNIT GOODS OF JAPANESE MANUFACTURE GAIN ON UNITED STATES PRODUCTION.

"Japan," says a Manila correspondent of the Knit Goods Bulletin, "has been increasing her trade in cotton goods in the Philippines very largely during the past few years. There is a customs tariff in force in these islands which operates against Japan and furnishes practically the same measure of protection to the United States in the Philippines market as the United States tariff offers in the American market. Yet in spite of this advantage which American manufacturers have in the Philippines, Japanese trade here in the cheaper grades of cotton textiles is increasing steadily.

"The big demand for cotton textiles in the Philippines is represented in bleached and unbleached cloths, cloths dyed or manufactured with dyed yarns and prints. Of these the United States sold to the Philippines during 1916 a little less than $5,000,000 worth. During the preceding year the figures reached to nearly $7,500,000. The proportion of this trade that has gone to Japan is of comparative insignificance, yet the tendency is to increase. In 1915, Japan sold of these cloths $89,000 worth, while in 1916 the amount was $120,000. Thus, while the trade of the United States fell off over 30 per cent, Japanese trade increased nearly 50 per cent.

"The total sales by the United States of cotton manufactures in the Philippines for 1916 amounted to $6,173,000. In 1915 the figure was $8,600,000. The imports of cotton goods from countries other than the United States remained about the same in 1916 as in 1915. Thus the total loss in imports went to reduce the trade of the United States. The United Kingdom still furnishes a proportion of cotton imports, but the quantity coming from that source has been steadily reduced since the outbreak of the European war.

"The cotton articles in which Japan

shows the heaviest trade with the islands are undershirts and drawers, of which $613,000 worth were imported from Japan in 1916 out of a total of $680,000. In men's wearing apparel, miscellaneous, Japan contributed $212,000 worth out of a total of $242,000 imports. In towels, Japan supplied $61,000 worth in a total of $72,000 worth of imports. In bleached and unbleached yarns there was imported from Japan in 1916 over $200,000 worth out of a total imports amounting to but $279,000. In mercerized cotton goods, imports from Japan amounted to $87,000 out of a total of a little over $100,000.

"From these figures it may be seen in which branches of the cotton goods trade Japan is making the most progress in the Philippine market. It must be borne in mind that there is a comparatively small Japanese population in the Philippines and most of these imports, therefore, are consumed by the Filipinos. In the Hawaiian Islands there is a proportionately large element of Japanese in the population which consumes Japanese articles of all descriptions where they are available.

"The high prices of cotton goods tended materially to reduce consumption during 1916, and the difficulty experienced in securing transportation from the United States operated to still further reduce importations of cottons from that country. It is possible that a considerable measure of the increased Japanese trade for cotton goods in these islands was due to better transportation facilities than were available for shipments from the United States.

"It is a fact, nevertheless, that the Japanese are very active in this market, and are reaching the Filipino trade in a more direct manner than do American manufacturers."

BOOM IN COTTON BRINGS PROSPERITY TO EGYPT.

PRICE DOUBLES IN YEAR AND COUNTRY

REALIZES OVER $200,000,000 ON CROP.

Egyptian cotton has risen in price to heights unknown since the Civil War. The result is that, notwithstanding the relatively inferior yield of the present crop, it probably will realize more than $200,