Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 60.djvu/537



HE commercial reports of diplomatic and consular officers for the-'-calendar year 1901 record continued growth in the sales of many lines of manufactures from the United States in foreign markets and the increase of the general concern in Europe as to the possible results of our industrial competition. Although the figures of our exports compiled by the Treasury Department show a considerable falling off in the total value of manufactured goods sent abroad, there seems to be a steady and uninterrupted spread in the popularity of what may be termed American novelties all over Europe. By the word 'novelties' are meant not only labor-saving implements and machinery to which most Europeans were strangers, but a great variety of articles of merchandise, such as boots and shoes, leather goods, hats and clothing, rubber goods, furniture and household utensils, hardware and cutlery, canned goods, glassware, clocks and watches, scientific apparatus, electrical supplies, and cotton, silk and woolen textiles—all of which possess distinguishing points of excellence and relative cheapness, new to Europe, which commend them to purchasers there in preference to similar articles of home manufacture. In other words, while the aggregate of our exports of manufactured goods has shrunk, the variety of our sales in Europe is being extended and the territory upon which they are encroaching is being steadily enlarged.

A striking example of this is seen in the case of Austria-Hungary, the country in which originated the idea of a European combination against American goods and where the hostility of the industrial forces continues to be most pronounced. Notwithstanding this, the imports from the United States, according to Consul-General Hearst, of Vienna, are increasing rapidly, although American exporters have not until recently given general attention to that part of Europe, 'which is considerably removed from ports in closest touch with trans-Atlantic commerce.' So formidable is the growth of American imports, in fact, that 'Austrian manufacturers and agriculturists are making