world's farmer; but now, amidst general
consternation, she comes forward as the world's manufacturer. In 1888
her manufactured exports amounted to $130,300,087; in 1896, to
$253,681,541; in 1897, to $279,652,721; in 1898, to $307,924,994; in
1899, to $338,667,794; and in 1900, to $432,000,000. Regarding her
growing favorable balances of trade, it may be noted that not only are
her imports not increasing, but they are actually falling off, while her
exports in the last decade have increased 72.4 per cent. In ten years
her imports from Europe have been reduced from $474,000,000 to
$439,000,000; while in the same time her exports have increased from
$682,000,000 to $1,111,000,000. Her balance of trade in her favor in
1895 was $75,000,000; in 1896, over $100,000,000; in 1897, nearly
$300,000,000; in 1898, $615,000,000; in 1899, $530,000,000; and in 1900,
$648,000,000.

In the matter of iron, the United States, which in 1840 had not dreamed
of entering the field of international competition, in 1897, as much to
her own surprise as any one else's, undersold the English in their own
London market. In 1899 there was but one American locomotive in Great
Britain; but, of the five hundred locomotives sold abroad by the United
States in 1902, England bought more than any other country. Russia is
operating a thousand of them on her own roads today. In one instance the
American manufacturers contracted to deliver a locomotive in four and
one-half months for $9250, the English manufacturers requiring
twenty-four months for delivery at $14,000. The Clyde shipbuilders
recently placed orders for 150,000 tons of plates at a saving of
$250,000, and the American steel going into the making of the new London
subway is taken as a matter of course. American tools stand above
competition the world over. Ready-made boots and shoes are beginning to
flood Europe,--the same with machinery, bicycles, agricultural
implements, and all kinds of manufactured goods. A correspondent from
Hamburg, speaking of the invasion of American trade, says: "Incidentally,
it may be remarked that the typewriting machine with which this article
is written, as well as the thousands--nay, hundreds of thousands--of
others that are in use throughout the world, were made in America; that
it stands on an American table, in an office furnished with American
desks, bookcases, and chairs, which cannot be made in Europe of equal
quality, so practical and convenient, f