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THERE is no feature of the manufacturing side of HERE is no feature of the manufacturing side of Worcester's life so important and so capable of development as its export trade. We say this advisedly. The domestic market, for reasons that are perfectly obvious to everybody, has been demoralized for months, and is probably as badly disorganized to-day as it has been at any time during the past fifteen years. And the worst of it is that the outlook grows blacker all the time. Instead of co-operating in the development of our industrial system, as Germany does, for example, in the most efficient possible manner, at home quite as much as abroad, the United States appears to be bending every energy towards the destruction of the commercial and manufacturing greatness of its people.

Under the circumstances, the wise man in Worcester, as well as in every other great manufacturing centre, will scrutinize as he has never scrutinized before the opportunities open to him for trade development in his particular line in the foreign field.

At the close of the fiscal year ending June 30 last, the exports of this country reached the enormous figures of more than two billions of dollars, a gain over 1910 of more than three hundred millions of dollars.

This tremendous increase in exports can be credited directly to our new commercial policy, sneeringly called "dollar diplomacy" by the enemies of the present administration. However, it now seems that the plan of the Department of State to foster and build up the foreign trade of the United States is a very great success, and the idea that "dollars substituted for bullets" will bring not only peace but prosperity seems to work out to the satisfaction of all genuine friends of America.

It is, of course, difficult to determine just what proportion of this tremendous increase in the foreign trade is directly due to the efforts of the Department of State, but there is no doubt that the new methods employed in the management of the diplomatic and consular service have proved the greatest possible factor in the result. The United States authorities have made it clearly evident to the ambassadors and ministers of this country that it behooved them to put forth most strenuous efforts to promote the commerce of the United States, and the ambassadors who objected to such a course, on the ground that it was not in the province of the higher diplomacy to care for such sordid things as commerce,' were promptly invited to follow out orders or resign; and rumor has it that no less than three American ambassadors have resigned within the year for that

one reason.

Immediately following the enactment of the PayneAldrich tariff the work of the State Department along the lines of extending our commerce abroad began in the shape of the promulgation of maximum and minimum tariff rates with other countries. This was a difficult, delicate task, but difficult and delicate as it was it was accomplished without any trade disturbance whatsoever. The manner in which this matter was negotiated is estimated to have added at least forty million dollars per annum to our foreign trade, and to have occasioned the loss of not one cent. Since the promulgation of these maximum and minimum rates, trade in the exports so covered has reached a volume of close to

$75,000,000 per year, a pretty thorough-going demonstration of the business acumen characterizing the present administration.

Some notable things have been done in securing better rates for our exports. The old rates to Greece, for instance, have been renewed, and business with that country is increasing rapidly as a result. The prohibition upon cotton-seed oil into Bulgaria has been removed, and important concessions have been secured in Servia and other countries.

American machinery for certain factories in Smyrna, Turkey, was exported to the amount of more than $250,000 last year. The annual export trade to Turkey of a large American company, amounting to more than half a million dollars yearly, which was threatened by litigation fostered by other nations involving patent rights, was saved solely through the efforts of our embassy at Constantinople. Our manufacturers sold to the Ottoman navy machinery to the value, last year, of more than $150,000. Further, the Ottoman Parliament has voted to give immediate consideration to an American railway project in which there is involved an expenditure of more than $100,000,000, and this money will be expended for the purchase of equipment and supplies made in America. That ought to be pleasing news to every American machine tool builder and manufacturer of railroad equipment.

American capital is being sought by Russia to the amount of more than $500,000,000 for the construction of grain elevators, irrigation works and railways, with the understanding that American material will be used in the construction of these works.

Again, through the Department of State the finances of Persia have been placed in the hands of Americans, at the head of whom is Mr. W. Morgan Shuster, well and favorably known in this city, and the activities of himself and his colleagues will give Persia not only a sound financial system but an A-1 American manufacturing equipment.

Much attention has been given to Latin America, and the result is shown in our greatly increased export trade with that part of the world. A preferential tariff of 30 per cent. has been accorded American flour by Brazil, and a 20 per cent. preferential advantage has been secured on nineteen other articles of American production.

Our exports to Brazil of the articles accorded this preference in tariff rates show an amazing increase. The Argentine State Railroad has placed a contract with American manufacturers for supplies to the amount of close to $2,000,000, and the Post Office Department of the same country has placed an order with American engravers for 120,000,000 stamps. A contract has also been secured to supply the newspapers of Buenos Ayres with print paper amounting to $200,000 annually, and the government of Argentina has just placed a contract for powder with an American company amounting to more than a million dollars. Each of these contracts was secured through the direct efforts of our diplomatic service in Argentina. In addition, artillery to the amount of more than $1,000,000 has been sold to the Argentine government by American ordnance firms.

The soap monopoly in Haiti was broken up through the representations of our diplomatic representatives, and since then we have built up a large trade in soaps with that country.

It may also be of interest to learn that no less than 193 franchises for railroad concessions, applied for by American companies, are pending in Latin America, and that of the applications for concessions of various kinds more than 60 per cent. are backed by American capital. Even in the far East the new diplomacy has shown splendid results. Our exports to Japan have increased from $16,045,605, in the year ending June 30, 1910, to $28,808,083, in the first three quarters of the present fiscal year. By a treaty negotiated with Japan the favored nation treatment will be continued for American trade, as a result of which American imports will be entitled to the benefits of any and all reductions from the statutory tariff of Japan that may be granted by convention to other powers.

Our cotton trade with China is again on the upward trend, showing a most gratifying increase during the past year, and the tobacco trade with Manchuria is increasing as rapidly as has the trade in oil with that country. The greater part of the equipment for the new Chinese railways will be purchased in this country, and the $50,000,000 being spent by China for currency and industrial reform will greatly facilitate commerce with that country. The industrial reform already outlined in China will call for many millions of dollars' worth of American machinery in the next few years.

While American commerce is thus growing rapidly, with the government of the United States clearing the way, there is no reason to expect that business of this kind will ever come to those who do not go after it in the proper way. This advice the Worcester Magazine has iterated and reiterated to our manufacturers until it has become an old story. Perhaps at this moment when our business life is being threatened, our manufacturers may be induced to look with a kindlier eye on these opportunities for money-making abroad than they have ever done before.

If they do the space devoted to this article will not have been wholly wasted.

September Sailing Dates in Foreign

Commerce of the United States.

"Sailing Dates from the Principal Ports of the United States to the Principal Ports and Countries of the World" is the title of a publication about to be issued by the Department of Commerce and Labor through its Bureau of Statistics.

The publication, which is to be issued in the form of a monthly bulletin or poster, is intended to place before the commercial public advance information as to the dates at which merchandise may be exported from the various ports of the United States to the various ports or countries of the world, the period to be covered by the current issue being the month of September. It will be issued sufficiently far in advance of the month which it represents to enable merchandise or passengers from the interior to reach the seaboard at the dates named.

The preparation of this bulletin is the result of numerous calls received by the Bureau of Statistics for information of this character. That Bureau published, several years ago, a list of the steamers leaving each of the ports

of the country and their regular or approximate sailing dates, and while it was not then found practicable to continue it as a monthly statement, the calls upon that Bureau for this information have continued to the present time.

This "Sailing Dates Bulletin," while occupying only a single sheet and designed chiefly for posting in the meeting places of commercial bodies, freight offices and business houses, contains some general facts of very material interest. It shows, for instance, that more than 100 different steamship lines or companies have regular sailings from the ports of the United States, and that the fixed dates for sailings during the month of September, as reported to the Bureau, alone, number nearly 700. The ports of the country from which there are regular sailings number about 20, and the ports in foreign countries for which sailing dates are named number about. 75, to say nothing of the hundreds of intermediate ports, or ports of call, which serve in some cases as places of transfer and in others as "way stations."

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Even this list, which presents every fixed sailing date which can be named by the collectors of customs or the steamship agents of the country, necessarily omits all that large body of steamers known as tramps," composed of vessels not a part of any general line and therefore having no fixed sailing dates. The known number of these departures, however, coupled with the exact figures given in the Bulletin itself, justifies the statement that the total number of vessel departures from the United States during the month of September will aggregate about 2000, and the value of the merchandise which they will carry approximate $200,000,000, to say nothing of the thousands of passengers whom they will transport to every part of the world.

Cotton, Woolen and Worsted Mills

in Rhode Island

A preliminary statement of the Thirteenth United. States Census of Manufactures of the cotton, woolen and worsted mills of Rhode Island, just issued, shows that the capital invested in textile manufactures in that State increased from $81,458,766 in 1900 to $89,127,392 in 1904, a total of $7,668,626, or 9 per cent.; and from $89,127,392 in 1904 to $130,305,000 in 1909, a total of $41,176,608, or 46 per cent.

The value of products increased from $65,478,335 in 1900 to $83,269,606 in 1904, a gain of $17,791,271, or 27 per cent.; and from $83,269,606 in 1904 to $119,765,000 in 1909, a gain of $36,495,394, or 44 per cent.

These figures include the reports received for cotton, woolen and worsted mills in the State of Rhode Island, and do not include the statistics for the establishments engaged in the dyeing and finishing of these products, nor do they include the manufacture of cotton small

wares.

In the light of the attacks being made on the existing tariff it is interesting to note that the value of products increased 44 per cent. in the period ending Jan. 1, 1910, in the mills of Rhode Island, and it is at least fair to assume that it will be found rather difficult, under less favorable schedules, to improve upon that record in the next half decade. What is true of Rhode Island will, there is good reason to believe, be found to be equally true of every State where textiles are manufactured, North or South, in the next five years, the wiseacres to the contrary notwithstanding.

Royal Worcester Corset Co....

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United States Envelope common.

United States Envelope pfd.

Worcester Gas Light.

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Current Events

June 20. Thirty-eight diplomas awarded at Normal School

commencement.

20. Prof. David L. Gallup of Worcester Polytechnic Institute chosen chairman of research committee of Aeronautical Society of America.

20. Trustees of Trade School vote to lease Newton Hall, State street and Court hill, for new Girls Trade School.

22. Quinsigamond Sweedish Lutheran Church celebrates 15th anniversary.

22. Rev. Thomas S. Donoghue of St. Mary's Church, Thorndike, appointed rector of St. John's parish.

22. Gov. Eugene N. Foss addresses graduating class of sixtytwo members at Holy Cross College.

23. E. Webster Allen returns from International Conference of Commercial Travelers at Edinburg, Scotland.

23. Supt. Homer P. Lewis addresses 131 graduates at South High School.

23. Mayor Logan presents diplomas to 145 graduates at Classical High School.

23. Rev. Dr. Vincent E. Tomlinson addresses graduating class of 96 members at English High School.

24. Mayor James Logan delivers address at laying of cornerstone of Trowbridgeville Chapel, corner of Knox and Clover streets. 28. Battery B secures three new escort wagons for use in war

maneuvers.

29. Gov. Eugene N. Foss invites Hon. Alfred S. Roe to deliver address at dedication of Massachusetts monument on Petersburg, Va., battlefield.

30. Stamp sales at Worcester post office for June, 1911, are $37,126.43, an increase over June, 1910, of $1,494.98.

30. Board of Trade secures 135 new members in membership campaign during month of June; J. Harvey Curtis squad wins Fanning trophy.

30. Chief George S. Coleman and six firemen injured in collision of automobile fire apparatus.

30. Alexander C. Munroe elected president of Worcester Protective department at annual meeting.

July 1. Worcester Commercial Travelers hold 17th annual outing at Edgemere.

2. Worcester heat record broken by temperature of 103 degrees. 4. Worcester observes safe and sane Fourth with parades, sports and fireworks.

9. Vernon hill section of St. John's parish made into separate parish to be called parish of the Ascension; Rev. James J. Farrell of Southboro appointed rector.

10. Miss Cleo Murtland of Manhattan Trade School, New York, chosen director of Girls Trade School.

11. George F. McAleer nominated as superintendent of money order department of post office.

12. New England Drygoods Association holds 12th annual outing at Edgemere; Mayor James Logan and Rep. Robert M. Washburn, speakers.

14. New England Hardware Association has annual outing at Edgemere; B. M. Scott, Elwood Adams and M. J. Donahue on committee of arrangements.

14. Charles J. Wilder elected State Deputy at 16th annual Massachusetts state convention of National Association of Stationary Engineers; Mayor Logan and Pres. E. M. Woodward of Board of Trade welcome delegates.

16. Rev. James J. Farrell celebrates first masses of the parish of the Ascension in St. Joseph's Chapel, Vernon street.

16. Brotherhood of Railway Clerks have annual outing at Edgemere.

16. Worcester Polytechnic Institute receives gift for new building at hydraulic testing plant in Holden.

19. Y. M. C. A. receives gift of 100 acres of land at Washington N. H., for use as summer camp site.

City Affairs

June 26. City Council in joint convention hears plans of Board of Trade for improvement of Washington Square.

29. Lowell city officials inspect Worcester water department. July 10. Mayor Logan notifies City Council that Worcester Art Museum trustees offer to give city Bancroft Park, land bordering Salisbury pond and land in front of armory under certain conditions.

10. City Council appropriates $20,000 for construction of streets, $10,000 for land damages in connection with street work and $45,000 for permanent paving; orders superintendent of street lighting to procure 500 gas boulevard lights, 600 gas mantel lights and 75 tungsten lights to replace gasoline lights.

13. Old Colony Trust Co., Boston, successful bidders at 2.92 per cent. discount for loan of $250,000 in anticipation of taxes. 13. City Auditor draws order for $9951.60 in favor of Crompton & Knowles Loom Works for land to widen Harding street.

14. Finance committee of City Council vote to recommend appropriation of $75,000 to continue work on Asnebumskit water system.

17. City Council adopts orders appropriating $75,000 for construction on Asnebumskit water system; taking Coes reservoir for water supply at estimated cost of $30,000 for damages; loan $25,000 for sewer construction.

William H. Coughlin retires as superintendent of Worcester Electric Light Co., after 27 years service; remains as consulting July 10. Norcross Bros. Co. report structural contracts to the value of $7,000,000 in progress.

engineer.

10. Frost, Briggs & Chamberlain prepare plans for three-story brick office building, 40 x 70 feet, for Wire Goods Co., 28 Union street.

14. John J. Power secures contract to build Meade street schoolhouse at cost of $61,800.

15. Representatives of Norton Co. from United States, Canada and Europe end week's conference.

17. E. J. Cross Co. secure contracts to build Weaver Memorial Library, West Boylston; warehouse and office building for Hammond Co., Franklin street; warehouse for C. A. King Co., Hygeia

3. Horace H. Bigelow, long a leader in development of Worcester, 84 years, 1 month and 1 day old, of old age, at his home, 17 Chestnut street.

6. Hiram K. French superintendent of money order division of post office, aged 57 years, 1 month and 28 days, of cerebral hemorrhage, at City Hospital.

10. George F. Harwood, forty years a dentist in Worcester, 64 years, 5 months and 5 days old, of heart disease and heat prostration, at his home, 332 Highland street.

15. Lewis H. Shipman, aged 70 years, 10 months and 28 days, of heart and kidney diseases, stricken on an electric car; buried from his home, 1061 Pleasant street.

Its Usefulness to a Community

Perhaps no part of our land is so interested in community development as the hustling Southwest with its tremendous growth and boundless opportunities. Texas is passing from its period of freak ideas into a period of common sense. Its cities teem with civic pride and its press with public spirit. Editorial utterances in its press are becoming eminently sane and the following from the Beaumont Enterprise would read with equal logic were the name Worcester substituted in place of Beaumont:

"The Chamber of Commerce is a hard task-master. It keeps after us all the time, and sometimes we feel like telling it to go to his majesty who fell from a very high place some time ago and has never been able to get back. Nevertheless, we know the Chamber of Commerce is doing a great, a splendid and a magnificent work. It is developing the country in every way. The great agricultural awakening in this section is traceable directly to the Chamber of Commerce and the agencies which it controls. It has held to the course wonderfully well; it has remained as far from politics as possible and has done a great deal of good which is not known, notwithstanding its self-advertising. There is a positive and negative side to the work of the institution. It keeps down hurtful things, keeps out undesirable things and helps in a hundred negative ways of which the public hears nothing. In still another way is the body misunderstood. It is charged with being a quarterhorse, that it can't go the distance. That is just what it is a quarter-horse, and a record-breaker, too. The Chamber of Commerce is essentially a starter. It never aspires to be anything else. It starts things. Incidentally it hopes and desires that things which it starts will keep going, but it is not the function of the Chamber of Commerce to run factories. It gets them. It does not operate railroad lines. It gets rates. It does not hold conventions. It persuades others to hold conventions here. The success or failure of something which the Chamber of Commerce brings here is not essentially a function to which that body directs its efforts. It is an agency to get things. Bear in mind that we are speaking by the card and we would not have it understood that the Chamber of Commerce is not interested in the success of every Beaumont enterprise and institution. It is tremendously interested and has done a great deal to build up old concerns and to carry them across thin ice. But what we desire to say is that the prime element in the work of a commercial organization is to boost, to advertise, to encourage development and to build up the community. It is an encouragement agency; it gets other people to do things and, incidentally, it does a million or so other little things, each of which is of more or less importance, but all of which constitute the sum and substance of the progress, development and growth of the community. The Chamber of Commerce is the concentrated essence of the spirit of Beaumont."

IT

is not ordinarily necessary for the Directors of the Worcester Board of Trade to come together again after they adjourn in June until the September meeting, but the exigencies seemed to demand a midsummer meeting this year, and so the governing body was called together on July 6. As it turned out, two meetings had to be held to clean up the business in hand, and the Executive Committee has also been called together several times to take action on other matters pending, particularly with reference to the decorations and furnishings of the new rooms, work on which is now going forward rapidly.

The members will doubtless find the subjoined transcripts of the meetings held full of interest, as the matters considered bear very closely on the future welfare of the Board:

Worcester, Massachusetts, Thursday, July 13, 1911.

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Worcester Board of Trade, held this evening at 8 o'clock in the Directors' Room, 11 Foster Street, Mr. Edward M. Woodward, president, presiding, there were present the following Directors: Ernest P. Bennett, Earle Brown,

Louis H. Buckley, Arthur C. Comins, Daniel E. Denny, Franklin B. Durfee, S. Foster H. Goodwin, Albert H. Inman, Charles H. Norton, Charles T. Tatman

a quorum.

The report of the Committee on Municipal Affairs with reference to the Worcester water supply was submitted by the Chairman, Mr. Earle Brown, and it wasVoted, That the report be accepted and the committee be instructed to continue its investigations of the subject, with directions to report at the next meeting of the Directors, or sooner if the President finds it necessary to call the Board together.

In connection with the report the Directors adopted the following recommendations:

1. That the inhabitants at large must be urged to reduce the waste of their daily consumption, and that a sufficient force of inspectors be added to the present meter readers to warn the people of waste, so that the total domestic consumption may be materially reduced.

2. That although an additional supply may be taken in case of emergency from Lake Quinsigamond, provided no legal entanglements interfere, by the installation of a pumping plant which would put water into Bell Pond for redistribution about the city, such expensive provision is not yet necessary, although such work should be begun at least three months before time for actual use of supplies required, and should be considered promptly on September 1 at the latest.

3. That means for detecting slow meters should be more drastic, particularly as in 1906 the estimated amount wasted by slow meters was 102,000,000 gallons, 1909 was 113,000,000 gallons, while last year it jumped to 135,000,000 gallons. This can be done by ownership of the meters by the city instead of by the consumer, so that the Water Department shall have no interference in a more frequent supervision of the meters.

4. That elimination of tariff rates, if possible, and a flat rate for 1000 gallons to users discriminated by classes and not by exact amount consumed, would remedy the large amount of needless waste.