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The increase of exports was, as already indicated, in manufactured articles and articles of food, while naturally the decrease in imports was in precisely the same classes of articles. Chemicals, chinaware, glassware, manufactures of cotton, iron and steel, leather, silk, wool, wood, and fiber all show a decrease in importations compared with 1897 and 1896, while in breadstuffs, provisions, fish, fruits, wines, sugar, tea, and coffee there was also a marked decrease in the importations. On the other hand, in articles required by manufacturers for use in manufacturing there was an increase in nearly every case over both 1897 and 1896, the chief exception being in wool, of which the importations in 1897 were unusually large.

The following table shows the importations of all general classes of articles which exceed five million dollars in value, comparing the importations of the fiscal year 1898 with those of 1897 and 1896:

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Exports of mechanical inventions during the year ending June 30, 1898.

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The movements of domestic exports show a peculiar sensibility to the influence of parties. From 1881 to 1897, a period of sixteen years, embracing two Democratic and two Republican Administrations, the exports of domestic merchandise show a steady rise under Republican power and a steady decline under Democratic. The Garfield-Arthur Administration was in power from 1881 to 1884, inclusive. The exports ranged as follows:

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Cleveland was elected in 1584, and during the four years of his Administration we exported:

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Comparing the footings for these two periods, the election of a Democratic Administration cost the producers of this country in four years the round sum of $319,340,637.

Cleveland was succeeded by a Republican Administration, that of President Harrison, and for the four years ensuing the exports again rose:

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Cleveland succeeded Harrison, and again, under a Democratic Administration, the demand for our home products fell off:

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Fiere is a loss in four years to our producers of $84,111,268. In other words, the two Democratic Administrations since 1885 have cost American producers, in loss of exports, a total of $403,451,905.

DOMESTIC EXPORTS FOR CALENDAR YEARS 1896 AND

1897.

President McKinley had been installed but ten months at the close of the calendar year 1897, and the Dingley act been operative less than six months, but under the stimulus of Republican

success and the wise legislation of the extra session of Congress, the domestic exports for 1897 rose to the then unprecedented figure of $1,079,863,018, or a grand total, including exports of foreign merchandise, of $1,099,743,554, while the excess of exports over imports was $357,112,204, and the total value of exports in 1897 exceeded those of 1896 in the sum of $93,906,313, the exports of 1896 being themselves phenomenally large, owing, unquestionably to the impetus given to the business enterprise of the country by the result of the election and the exceptional demand for our bread-stuffs abroad. These figures are taken from the Monthly Summary for December, 1897, page 828, prepared by the Bureau of Statistics under the direction of Mr. Worthington C. Ford, a hold-over from the Cleveland Administration.

For the seven months ended January, 1898, our exports of merchandise amounted to $718,435,950, an increase of $63,258,823 over the same period of 1897, while we imported $340,620,389, or $22,657,628 less than for the same period of 1897, the exports for the seven months exceeding the exports for the seven months of the preceding year by $85,916,451.

Exports and imports for the single month of January, 1898, compared with January, 1897, were as follows:

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57,686,546

Excess of exports over imports, January, 1898......

EXPORTS OF MANUFACTURES.

The following statement shows the imports and exports into and from the United States of manufactures from 1888 to June 30, 1898:

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