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Show WHERE WE FAIL. A lon. protracted revolution in uba would have an injurious effect upon t':e tcmiiipKe of the United States, lor we buv more than four-fifths of Cuba's exports and sell more than half of all the goods Cuba buys abroad. It is sad to relate, however, that it is the war in Europe, and nof American eu-terprife, eu-terprife, that has brought us to the front in some lines. Apparently our i-otton manufacturers have niado little or no effort to sell their products in Cuba, for in the year 1914. vrhich was normal, Sl.l:i per cent of the $10,300,-imiO $10,300,-imiO worth of cotton goods which the Cubans purchased abroad came from lluland and only 21.47 per cent from the United States. When we take into consideration, tho fact that the tariff on cotton goods from the United States is 30 per cent less than from other countries our failure to secoTO more of this trade seems astounding. The United States produces the principal prin-cipal part of the cotton gTOWn in the world and the wages paid factory em-ployeeshave em-ployeeshave always been pitifully small. Yet we to not seem to be able to compete com-pete with the European manufacturers for the trade of Cuba and South America Amer-ica in. normal times, , while Japan is supplying tho wants of the orientals to a considerable extent. There is something some-thing wrong somewhere in connection with the trade in cotton good? and we are inclined to lay it at the door of the manufacturers. We should have all the Cuban trade with a 30 per cent discrimination dis-crimination in our favor. TVe also make a poor showing when it come3 to supplying Cuba with, woolen goods. The total imports ef the Cubans in this line amount to only about 10 per cent of the imports of cotton goods. England supplies by far the largest share; France in normal times is second, Spain third and the United States a poor fourth. ' "Whije an effort is being made to arouse the people of this country to a full realization of the importance of foreign trade, and congress is being called upon to enact beneficial legislation,- it might be well to shake up the cotton manufacturers and find ont what is the matter with them, for it is worse than useless for tie government to remove re-move all the obstacles to foreign trade and then discover that the manufacturers manufac-turers lack the enterprise to do their share. It is a crime to give such people peo-ple entire possession of the home market. |