PROPERTY, INDUSTRIES, AND PRODUCTION.

Property, both personal and real, shows a higher percentage than population in the gold standard States. The farm lands (column 12), though the disproportion is less for these than for other real estate, show an excess in the same direction, while the total of agricultural products (column 13) gives for this territory a percentage somewhat lower than that of population, this not very large difference being all that the census tables have to tell us of the relatively greater devotion of the free silver States to agriculture. Notwithstanding the fact that they are less agricultural, the gold standard States exceed the others far less in value of personal than in that of real property, showing that real estate values are relatively lower and not higher, as a rule, among agricultural peoples.

On the average, for each inhabitant of a gold standard State there are $37 worth of agricultural products, and for each free silver inhabitant $44 worth. The total value of manufactured products per inhabitant is $52 in the free silver States, while in the gold standard States it rises to $206. The latter States, as the table shows, produce almost seven-eighths of the manufactures of the country, the scope of manufacturing being extended far enough in the census to cover grist-mill, bakery, dairy, slaughtering, and masonry products.

The ratio of wage rolls is nearly 72 to 1 in favor of the gold standard States, showing not only a concentration of manufacturing industry, but a higher average proportion of wages to total product.

MORTGAGE INDEBTEDNESS.

Of the total amount of real estate mortgages, the percentages in the gold standard region greatly exceeds that for population, showing a far higher mortgage indebtedness per inhabitant. It considerably exceeds the percentage for real estate, showing a much higher ratio of indebtedness to value of property mortgaged. New York, alone, owes on real estate 43 per cent more than all the free silver States combined.

Column 15 presents a comparison of the rate of interest in the two areas. Not only is the general average for the free silver area more than one-third higher, but there is a definite limit, 72-3 per cent, above which are found but three gold standard States, while but two free silver States fall below it.

Of the many factors by which the prevailing rate of interest is affected, the most important is credit. As the one rises the other falls. Defining interest as the difference in value between a dollar

in hand now and the prospect of a dollar in hand a year hence, it directly follows that nothing can operate more powerfully to increase it than enfeebling that prospect.

COMPARISON OF SILVER PRODUCT.

The production of silver shows a proportion of 42 to 1 in favor of the free silver States. But one of the gold standard States, and that a close one (California), produces more than an insignificant amount of silver. The free silver territory is made up, as is shown by comparison of column 6, of (1) twelve States in which the ratio of native white illiteracy is higher than the average for all the States (higher, also, than every State but two in the gold standard series); (2) of the five States of largest silver production, and (3) of States immediately adjoining the last, and doubtless influenced by sympathy with them.

SAVINGS-BANK DEPOSITORS.

Reports of savings banks are made annually by the Comptroller of the Currency, who endeavors in some measure to fill out incomplete returns by estimate, and offers his figures for all institutions not under the national system as "such information as the Comptroller has been able to obtain,” from the courtesy of State officers and the banks themselves. If the institutions reporting may be accepted as representatives of those that fail to report, it is to be inferred that the depositors in the savings banks of the gold standard region outnumber those of the free silver States by 75 to 1.

The free silver movement was sometimes characterized in the campaign preceding the election as a crusade against all credit, and particularly against such credit as is embodied in savingsbank accounts. The figures in colums 19 and 20 of Table I, imperfect though they doubtless are, furnish emphatic testimony as to the views of the depositors themselves.

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.

Enormous Increase of our Export Trade for 1898. The fiscal year ended June 30, 1898, closed the most eventful twelve months in the history of the United States as regards the volume of exports. It surpassed the record of 1897 by $180,336,394. These figures were never before reached, and dispose effectually of the argument that protection acts as a check upon the extension of our foreign commerce. In direct contradiction of this argument, the official Treasury records show that while our imports from foreign markets fell off from $430,192,205 in 1897 to

$306,091,814 in 1898, our export trade rose from $807,538,165 in 1895 under the Wilson act, to $1,231,329,950 in 1898, the first year under the Dingley act and our balance of trade with the nine principal countries of Europe was $675,297,242 in our favor.

The phenomenal development of our export trade for the twelve months of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1898, by comparison with that of the fiscal years since 1894, is shown in the following table:

1894-95

1895-96

$807,538,165

1896-97

1897-98

For the same periods our imports were as follows:

1894-95

1895-96

1896-97

1897-98

Excess of exports over imports:

1894-95

1895-96

1896-97

1897-98

882,606,938

1,050,993,556

1,231,329,950

$731,969,965

779,724,674

764,730,412

616,005,159

$75,568,200

102,882,264

286,263,144

615,324,791

We exported and imported gold ore, bullion and coin, twelve months ending—

For the twelve months ended June, 1898, compared with the same period of 1897, we exported and imported in gold and silver:

Our exports to Europe for the twelve months ended June 30, 1898, and to other sections of the world for the same period were as follows:

Our exports to the principal countries for twelve months ended

Compared with the amounts imported into the United States, the excess of exports over imports with the leading nations of Europe

The story of the foreign commerce of the United States in the year of her greatest exports shows that the exports to all parts of the world increased, both in manufactures and products of agriculture, and that while there was a great falling off in imports, the reduction was almost exclusively in manufactured articles and food products. Manufactured articles ready for consumption fell from $134,375,126 in 1897 and $145,274,039 in 1896 to $82,570,687 in

1898; articles of food and live animals fell from $245,166,197 in 1897 and $237,025,045 in 1896 to $181,480,011 in 1898, while "Articles of voluntary use, luxury, etc.," fell from $83,098,970 in 1897 and $93,323,154 in 1896 to $77,452,561 in 1898. On the other hand, articles required by the manufacturers and classified as “Articles in a crude condition for use in manufacturing," of which the 1897 imports were $214,916,625, and those of 1896 $209,368,717, amounted in 1898 to $204,543,917, forming in 1898 over 33 per cent of the total importations, while in 1897 they were but 28 per cent and in 1896 27 per cent of the total imports, showing a large relative increase in the proportion which these articles used in the domestic industries bore to the total importations. Manufactured articles for use in the mechanic arts formed in 1898 about the same percentage of the imports that they did in 1896 and 1897.

The exportations of manufactures, which amounted to $288,871,449 in 1898, exceeded those of 1897 by $11,586,058 and those of 1896 by $60,300,271; while the products of agriculture exported amounted to $854,627,929 in 1898, against $683,471,131 in 1897 and $569,879,297 in 1896, the chief increase in agricultural exportations being in breadstuffs.

The exportations of the year increased $180,336,694 and the importations of the year decreased $148,725,253, the comparison being made in each case with the preceding fiscal year, 1897.

To Europe the exportations increased $160,313,645, while the im、 portations from Europe decreased $124,100,391. To North American countries the exportations increased $14,676,828, while the importations from the North American countries decreased $14,752,130. To South America the exportations increased but $53,325, while the importations from South American countries decreased $15,295,879. To Asia the exportations increased $5,549,363, while the importations from Asia also increased $5,300,440, Asia and Oceanica being the only grand divisions from which we increased our purchases during the year.

The following table shows the total imports in the fiscal year 1898 compared with the preceding year: