can trade. But we now manufacture all the tin plate we need, and the Welsh have recently imported tin bars from us.
There are, indeed, surprisingly few of the articles which used to be obtained exclusively abroad that are not now produced in the United States. The woolen as well as the silk industry of France and the hosiery industry of Germany are said to be suffering severely from our competition, and the Bohemian glass industry is feeling the effect of the increase of glass manufacture in the United States. Our cottons are steadily gaining in taste and finish, and are now sold in England in competition with the Manchester product. Says the Leipziger Tageblatt of April 10, 1901: "Even in fancy articles, in which the European market has set the styles for the entire world, the American manufacturers are beginning to compete with the European. British calico prints are also already receiving competition from America. As we hear, travelers of a well-known American house have offered American cotton stuffs in England with much success, and the London authorities declare them to be tasteful and worth their price." A New York company manufacturing cotton stuffs intends to found a Paris house which shall introduce its fancy woven stuffs for women's dresses, and trimmed women's hats are being exported from the United States to Europe. "The reversible cloths which are made in the United States," said Consul Sawter, of Glauchau, in a report sent in 1900, "are now the style in high-priced goods in the German capital." In agriculture, as in manufactures, we are constantly widening the sphere of our production. The orange and lemon growers of southern Europe are feeling the effect of California's competition. "It is ridiculous," says a Spanish newspaper,[1] "to think that fruits and vegetables raised on the slopes of the distant Pacific should compete at the very doors of Spain with those produced in this country. . . . Shall we live to see American oranges on the Valencia market itself?" We are producing our own raisins, our prunes, our wines, our olive oil, and are sending them abroad. California prunes now compete in Europe with Bosnian prunes, once a staple export to New York.
In the busy manufacturing district of Liege, Belgium, according to the annual report of Consul Winslow, more American goods are consumed than ever before, in spite of business depression. Our sales in general, says Mr. Winslow, have doubled in the past three years, and it is now common to see articles marked 'Americaine' in the shop windows. Spanish journals complain that steel rails are imported from the United States, notwithstanding the production of iron is one of the important industries of Spain. Vice-Consul Wood, of Madrid, says our goods are to be seen everywhere, and include such American
- ↑ 'Advance Sheets,' No. 1043.
