FOREIGN COMMERCE IN SEPTEMBER.

The official summary of imports and exports for the month of September, issued by the Bureau of Statistics, United States Treasury Department, shows that imports to the value of $66,822,532 were received in the various ports of the Republic, the dutiable imports being valued at $37,761,749, while $29,060,783 represents the value of those admitted free. Exports for the month amounted to a valuation of $106,896,864, of which $1,796.793 represents foreign goods reexported, the remainder covering the value of domestic products sent abroad. The total volume of trade for the month was therefore $173,719,216.

For September of the preceding year (1900) the imports were worth $59,568,600 and the exports $115,901,722, or a total volume of trade amounting to $175,470,322. Thus an increased import valuation of $7,731,805 is shown for September, 1901, while the export valuation decreased by $9,006,448. The excess of exports over imports in September, 1901, was valued at $39,594,869, against an excess of $56,333,132 for the same month of the preceding year. Of the im

ports during September, 1900, $22,942,364 worth were admitted free. of duty and on $36,626,236 duty was collected. The gain in imports, therefore, noted for September, 1901, was nearly all in free imports.

The imports of gold in September, 1901, were valued at $11,905,431, as compared with $7,861,553 for the corresponding month of the previous year. Gold exports for the periods in comparison were $163,362 and $806,572, respectively. Imports of silver for September, 1901, were valued at $2,195,227, against a valuation of $4,171,935 in September, 1900. Exports of this metal for the two months in question were $4,834,683 and $5,723,708, respectively.

The classification of imports and exports for the month was as follows, the values being compared with those reported for the same month in 1900:

1901.

1900.

IMPORTS.

Articles of food and animals..

$15,304, 528

Articles in a crude condition entering into processes of domestic industry. Articles wholly or partially manufactured for use as materials in the manufactures and mechanic arts..

22,775, 325

$15, 553, 240 18,505, 980

7,296, 683

6, 433, 859 10,945, 790 8, 129, 731

59,568,600

PLAN FOR INTERNATIONAL

AGREEMENT OF THE AMERICAN

REPUBLICS FOR THE SANITATION OF CERTAIN SEACOAST

CITIES.

OFFICE OF SURGEON-GENERAL U. S. M. H. S.,

Hon. HENRY G. DAVIS,

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., October 6, 1901.

Chairman United States Delegation to the

International Conference of American States.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the request of the members of the United States delegation to the International Conference of American States, to be held in the City of Mexico October 22, for a memorandum and such suggestions as I may deem proper relating to the possible establishment of an International Health Service. In response thereto I inclose herewith a provisional plan entitled "International sanitation-Pan-American Republics." As will be seen, the plan contemplates an international agreement for measures relat

ing to but one disease, namely, yellow fever, but if put into operation it could not fail to be effective against many other diseases.

At the inception of an undertaking so new and demanding the support of so many nations it is believed that greater effectiveness will be attained if efforts are concentrated against one disease, particularly when that disease is one in which more than 25,000,000 of people in the Pan-American Republics are directly interested and which more than any other ties up commerce, stops trade, and throws cities and towns into commercial isolation and social desolation-a disease that by its mildness may lure into a false feeling of security to be changed into alarm and grief by a fearful mortality, which imposes restraints upon travel by ship and rail, which causes occasional depopulation of populous centers and financial distress or ruin. The elimination of this disease from one city becomes but a palliative and temporary measure of relief to commerce if no efforts are made to eliminate it from other communicating cities at the same time. It is therefore necessary to wage a general and cotemporaneous warfare against this common enemy.

The first question which naturally arises is, Will the measures indicated in the memorandum produce the desired results? And, in reply, I would point out the wonderful results consequent on the sanitary improvements in the cities of Havana and Santiago, Cuba. Under the vigorous sanitary administration of General WOOD in Santiago, the cleaning of the city, the burning of dead bodies, the laying of sewers, and the paving of streets, this city, formerly recognized as one of the chief yellow-fever foci of the Western Hemisphere, has become absolutely free from this disease. Practically, the same may be said of Havana. The official records with regard to these and other cities of Cuba have been published, demonstrating the effectiveness of the measures taken, and showing a condition in striking contrast to the times when her ports were considered a source of constant danger to every vessel within her harbors and to every southern port to which these vessels sailed during the warm season, when, in the language of one well-known writer, the island disseminated annually to other lands, "as from a central hell, disease and death."

The recent discoveries with regard to the conveyance of yellow fever by the mosquito serve only to emphasize the necessity and encourage the belief in the effectiveness of measures of sanitation.

Commenting now on the memorandum submitted in the list of measures advocated it may be noticed that no mention is made of water supply. This omission is made advisedly because an imperfect water supply is not one of the chief causes in the maintenance of a yellowfever focus, and most of the cities and towns afflicted with this disease are supplied copiously with pure water, frequently from neighboring mountains or hills, and where such source of supply is unavailable, arte