FOREIGN COMMERCE IN OCTOBER, 1904. According to figures issued by the Department of Commerce and Labor through its Bureau of Statistics for the ten months ended with October, 1904, manufactures exported amounted to $412,946,036; for the single month of October the total of manufactures exported was $17,355,678. Should the November and December exports of manufactures average as high as those for the month of October, the total for the year would exceed $500,000,000 and stand $66,000,000 above the highest record made in the exports of manufactures in any earlier fiscal year, that of the fiscal year 1900, when the total value of manufactures exported was $433,851,756. Of iron and steel manufactures the exports in the ten months ended with October were $105,350,418, and those of the month of October, $12,798,481. Should the November and December exports average as high as those of the month of October the total for the year would exceed $130,000,000, against $121,913,548 in the fiscal year 1900. This increase in the value of manufactures exported is chiefly in mineral oils, copper, and manufactures of iron and steel. Of mineral oils, the value of the exports in the ten months ended with October was $62,601,566, against $52,786,863 in the corresponding months of 1903, while measured by quantity the total exports of illuminating oils (the chief item under the general term of manufactured mineral oils) in the ten months of 1904 amounted to 641,780,039 gallons, against 565,201,897 in the same month of 1903. Of copper, the value of the exports in the ten months ended with October was $60,792,375, while the quantity of ingots, bars, plates, and old copper (which form the principal articles in the group, manufactures of copper) showed a total exportation in the ten months amounting to 456,980,031 pounds, against 239,492,542 pounds in the corresponding months of 1903. Of iron and steel, the total exports, as already indicated, are $105,350,418, against $81,696,786 in the corresponding months of last year. In this group, manufactures of iron and steel, the increases are chiefly in pig iron, billets, ingots, and blooms, steel rails, steel sheets, and plates, locomotives, pipes and fittings, electrical machinery and tin plates. Of pig iron, the exports in the ten months ended with October amount to 43,354 tons, against 13,532 tons in the corresponding months of last year; of billets, ingots, and blooms, 275,615 tons, against 1,084 tons in the corresponding months of last year; steel sheets and plates, 85,370,826 pounds, against 12,698,788 pounds in the corresponding months of last year; tin plates, 14,298,411 pounds, as against 382,216 pounds in the same period of last year; railway locomotives, 439 in number, as against 213 in the corresponding months of 1903; the value of locomotive engines exported in the ten months of 1904 being $4,144,607, as compared with $2,411,515 in the same months of 1903. ARRANGEMENT OF PENDING QUESTIONS WITH PANAMA. The following Executive order promulgated by the Secretary of War of the United States, Hon. W. H. TAFT, and the letter following regarding the same, signed by President AMADOR and Señor Don SANTIAGO GUARDIA, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Panama, demonstrate the satisfactory status of relations between Panama and the United States: "Panama, December 2, 1904. "By direction of the President it is ordered that, subject to the action of the Fifty-eighth Congress, as contemplated by the act of Congress, approved April 28, 1904: "SECTION 1. No importations of goods, wares, and merchandise shall be entered at Ancon or Cristobal, the terminus ports of the canal, except such goods, wares, and merchandise as are decided in article. 13 of the treaty between the Republic of Panama and the United States, the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 26th day of February, 1904, and except goods, wares, and merchandise in transit across the Isthmian Canal for a destination without the limits of said Isthmian Canal, and except coal and crude mineral oil for fuel purposes to be sold at Ancon or Cristobal, to seagoing vessels, said coal and oil to be admitted to these ports free of duties for said purposes. "It is provided, however, that this order shall be inoperative: "First. Unless the Republic of Panama shall reduce the ad valorem duty on articles described in the act of the National Convention of Panama, passed July 5, 1904, and which took effect October 12, 1904, from 15 per cent to 10 per cent, and shall not increase the duty on the articles described in the other schedules of said act, except on all forms of wines, liquors, alcohol, and opium, on which the Republic may fix higher rates. "Second. Unless article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Panama, as modified by article 146 thereof, shall remain in full force and unchanged, so far as the importation and sale of all kinds of merchandise are concerned. "Third. Unless the consular fees and charges of the Republic of Panama, in respect to the entry of all vessels and importations into said ports of Panama and Colon, shall be reduced to 60 per cent of the rates now in force, and, "Fourth. Unless goods imported into the ports of Panama and Colon consigned to, or destined for, any part of the Canal Zone, shall not be subjected, in the Republic of Panama, to any other direct or indirect import or tax whatever. "SEC. 2. In view of the proximity of the port of Ancon to the port of Panama, and of the port of Cristobal to the port of Colon, the proper customs or port officials of the Canal Zone shall, when not inconsistent with the interests of the United States, at the instance of the proper authority of the Republic of Panama, permit any vessel entered at or cleared from the ports of Panama and Colon, together with its cargo and passengers, under suitable regulations for the transit of the imported merchandise and passengers to and from the territory of the Republic of Panama, to use and enjoy the dockage and other facilities. of the ports of Ancon and Cristobal, respectively, upon payment of proper dockage dues to the owners of said docks; provided, however, that reciprocal privileges as to dockage and other facilities at Panama and Colon, together with suitable arrangements for transit of imported merchandise and passengers to and from the territory of the Canal Zone, shall be granted by the authorities of the Republic of Panama, when not inconsistent with its interests, to any vessel, together with its cargo and passengers, entered at or cleared from the ports of Ancon and Cristobal; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall affect the complete administrative, police, and judicial jurisdiction of the two Governments over their respective ports and harbors, except as hereinafter provided in section 6; provided, also, that vessels entering or clearing at the port of Panama shall have the absolute right freely to anchor and discharge their cargoes by lighterage from and to Panama at the usual anchorage in the neighborhood of the islands of Perico, Flamenico, Naos, and Culebra, through and included in the harbor of Ancon, under the provisional limitation as amended under section 5 hereafter, and to use the said waters of said harbor for all lawful commercial purposes. "SEC. 3. All manifests and invoices and other documents in respect to vessels or cargoes cleared or consigned for or from the ports of Panama and Colon shall, as heretofore, be made by the officials of the Republic of Panama. All manifests, invoices, and other documents in respect to the vessels cleared or consigned for or from the ports of Ancon and Cristobal shall be made by officials of the United States. Bull. No. 3-04-17 sheets, and plates, locomotives, pipes and fittings, electrical machinery and tin plates. Of pig iron, the exports in the ten months ended with October amount to 43,354 tons, against 13,532 tons in the corresponding months of last year; of billets, ingots, and blooms, 275,615 tons, against 1,084 tons in the corresponding months of last year; steel sheets and plates, 85,370,826 pounds, against 12,698,788 pounds in the corresponding months of last year; tin plates, 14,298,411 pounds, as against 382,216 pounds in the same period of last year; railway locomotives, 439 in number, as against 213 in the corresponding months of 1903; the value of locomotive engines exported in the ten months of 1904 being $4,144,607, as compared with $2,411,515 in the same months of 1903. ARRANGEMENT OF PENDING QUESTIONS WITH PANAMA. The following Executive order promulgated by the Secretary of War of the United States, Hon. W. H. TAFT, and the letter following regarding the same, signed by President AMADOR and Señor Don SANTIAGO GUARDIA, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Panama, demonstrate the satisfactory status of relations between Panama and the United States: "Panama, December 2, 1904. "By direction of the President it is ordered that, subject to the action of the Fifty-eighth Congress, as contemplated by the act of Congress, approved April 28, 1904: "SECTION 1. No importations of goods, wares, and merchandise shall be entered at Ancon or Cristobal, the terminus ports of the canal, except such goods, wares, and merchandise as are decided in article 13 of the treaty between the Republic of Panama and the United States, the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 26th day of February, 1904, and except goods, wares, and merchandise in transit across the Isthmian Canal for a destination without the limits of said Isthmian Canal, and except coal and crude mineral oil for fuel purposes to be sold at Ancon or Cristobal, to seagoing vessels, said coal and oil to be admitted to these ports free of duties for said purposes. “It is provided, however, that this order shall be inoperative: "First. Unless the Republic of Panama shall reduce the ad valorem duty on articles described in the act of the National Convention of Panama, passed July 5, 1904, and which took effect October 12, 1904, from 15 per cent to 10 per cent, and shall not increase the duty on the articles described in the other schedules of said act, except on all forms of wines, liquors, alcohol, and opium, on which the Republic may fix higher rates. "Second. Unless article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Panama, as modified by article 146 thereof, shall remain in full force and unchanged, so far as the importation and sale of all kinds of merchandise are concerned. "Third. Unless the consular fees and charges of the Republic of Panama, in respect to the entry of all vessels and importations into said ports of Panama and Colon, shall be reduced to 60 per cent of the rates now in force, and, "Fourth. Unless goods imported into the ports of Panama and Colon consigned to, or destined for, any part of the Canal Zone, shall not be subjected, in the Republic of Panama, to any other direct or indirect import or tax whatever. "SEC. 2. In view of the proximity of the port of Ancon to the port of Panama, and of the port of Cristobal to the port of Colon, the proper customs or port officials of the Canal Zone shall, when not inconsistent with the interests of the United States, at the instance of the proper authority of the Republic of Panama, permit any vessel entered at or cleared from the ports of Panama and Colon, together with its cargo and passengers, under suitable regulations for the transit of the imported merchandise and passengers to and from the territory of the Republic of Panama, to use and enjoy the dockage and other facilities of the ports of Ancon and Cristobal, respectively, upon payment of proper dockage dues to the owners of said docks; provided, however, that reciprocal privileges as to dockage and other facilities at Panama and Colon, together with suitable arrangements for transit of imported merchandise and passengers to and from the territory of the Canal Zone, shall be granted by the authorities of the Republic of Panama, when not inconsistent with its interests, to any vessel, together with its cargo and passengers, entered at or cleared from the ports of Ancon and Cristobal; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall affect the complete administrative, police, and judicial jurisdiction of the two Governments over their respective ports and harbors, except as hereinafter provided in section 6; provided, also, that vessels entering or clearing at the port of Panama shall have the absolute right freely to anchor and discharge their cargoes by lighterage from and to Panama at the usual anchorage in the neighborhood of the islands of Perico, Flamenico, Naos, and Culebra, through and included in the harbor of Ancon, under the provisional limitation as amended under section 5 hereafter, and to use the said waters of said harbor for all lawful commercial purposes. "SEC. 3. All manifests and invoices and other documents in respect to vessels or cargoes cleared or consigned for or from the ports of Panama and Colon shall, as heretofore, be made by the officials of the Republic of Panama. All manifests, invoices, and other documents in respect to the vessels cleared or consigned for or from the ports of Ancon and Cristobal shall be made by officials of the United States. Bull. No. 3-04—17 |