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Show OUR BUSY MANUFACTURERS The manufacturers of the United States are apparently making a new high record in their industrial activities activi-ties in 1925. This evidence of an enlargement en-largement of .their output is found in a study made by the Trade Record of the National' City Bank of New York of increases in their demands for the classes of manufacturing material which they find it" necessary to draw from the outside world. . While we of the United States take pride in the plentiful supply of manufacturing material furnished by our large area and varied climatic conditions, it is nevertheless a fact that our manufacturers do depend to a considerable degree on certain great and important, classes of manufacturing man-ufacturing material , which they bring from other parts xf the world, and it is thus possible by comparison of the quantities of . these articles imported im-ported in 1925 with those brought into in-to the country in the preceding year to get at least a hint as to whether the manufacturers . are increasing their use of the classes of materials required in their industries are thus probably increasing the output of their factories. Wool, rubber, cotton, silk, and the new substitute "rayon", hides and skins, furs, vegetable fibres, tobacco, tobac-co, copper, and tin are drawn largely from abroad and in nearly all of these important articles the importations impor-tations of the fiscal year' 1925 show larger quantities than in the preceding preced-ing year despite the fact that the prices which the importers must pay ire materially higher than in the preceding year. ' Take rubber for instance, in which the extreme advance in the prices might be expected to minimize the ' quantity brought from abroad, the j total imports of the fiscal year 1925 were 802 million pounds against 617 millions in the fiscal year 1924, while the sums paid for: imported rubber in 1925 were 235 million dollars against 155 millions in the fiscal year 1924. Nor did the recent advance in price reduce th& .quantity imported import-ed in the period in which the advance appeared, for the total imports of i rubber in June 1925 were 72 million' pounds against only 50 millions in June of the preceding year, the value of June 1925 imports being 27 million dollars against 11 millions in June of the preceding year: This big increase ! in the quantity of rubber : imported, j irrespective1 of cost, per pound, further furth-er evidences the great activity of the manufacturers who are entirely dependent de-pendent upon foreign countries for the rubber which they use, most of it coming from the Dutch East Indies, the Malayan ; Peninsula, and from.f India and Ceylon. .'' Silk is another1 evidence of the determination de-termination of the buying public to have what it wants' and to demand that the manufacturers 'supply it irrespective' ir-respective' of cost. Raw silk import prices at the present time are about double those of the pre-war period, yet the quantity imported in the fiscal fis-cal year 1925 was 59 million pounds against 46 millions in the preceding year, and the value in 1925, 353 million mill-ion dollars against 350 millions in 1924, and of "rayon", the substitute for raw silk, 10 million pounds in 1925 against .7 millions in 1924. Hides and skins, which this greatest great-est agricultural country of the world brings from abroad in great quantities, quanti-ties, show imports of 387 million pounds in 1925 against 365 millions m the preceding year, and the import value in 1925 is 93 . million dollars against 81 millions last year. People will have their cigarettes irrespective of where the material originates, and the quantity of 'cigarette leaf" tobacco, imported in the fiscal year 1925 was 46 million pounds against 21 millions in the preceding year and the value 40 million mill-ion dollars against 18 millions in 1924. Cotton, of which we are by far the 'argest producers, showed an increase in quantity entering the country . in 1925, totaling 155 million pounds against 146 millions in the preced-! ing year, and the value of the 1925 j imports 51 million dollars against 43 millions in 1924. Wool, coming chiefly from Australia, Austral-ia, Argentina, Uraguay, and China, shows a total of 284 million pounds imported in 1925 against 239 millions i in the preceding year. Tin, which we bring chiefly from the Malayan Peninsula, the Dutch East Indies, and southern China, i shows a slight decline in quantity ; but cost very much more than in the preceding year, the value of tin imported im-ported in the fiscal year 1925 having been 77 million dollars against 68 millions in the preceding year. Other articles utilized in manufacturing, manufact-uring, which show increases in quantities quan-tities imported, are refined copper, pig iron, chicle gum, sisal, hemp, and lead ore. Still another evidence of the growing demand of manufacturers manufact-urers for material from abroad is found in the fact that the Depart-,-; ment.gf .Citsfigures show iij--. year 1925, 1,430 minion dollars against 1,200 millions in 1924, and of semi-manufacturers. 701 millions against 658 millions in 1324. |