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Conservative * 5
GItEAT TRADE I1ALANCE.
October , which is always a great
month in the export trade , surpassed its
record this year. The merchandise ex
ports reached the enormous total of
$163,000.000. an , ' , as the merchandising
imports fell off i little the excess of mer
chandise expoits was $02.475,226 , or
nearly $8 000,000 per day during the
month. There was an excess of imports
of gold of $9.800,000 and an excess of
exports of silver of $3.126,000 and the
balance of trade on these items for the
month was no less than $86.220.000.
For ten months the excess of merchan
dise , gold and silver exports , was $527-
235,112 , which was larger than in the
same period of any other year. All the
figures for the mouth and year make
new records. The tremendous volume
of our export trade is not the only re
markable fact which these figures ex
hibit. It is interesting to note that
though we have sent abroad $499,667.000
more merchandise than we have re
ceived from abroad , we have also ex
ported an excess of $7.000.000 gold and
$20.400,000 silver since January 1. These
figures indicate that our credits abroad
must be exceedingly large , though just
what the amount is no one can say.
owing to the fact that there are no avail
able statistics covering the movement
of securities.
Apparently the foreigners sold a con
siderable quantity of stocks and bonds
in the first half of the year , but recently
they have been taking them bank. This
country has invested $86 000 000 in for
eign obligations since the first of January
but , supposing the movement of securi
ties to have balanced , there is yet to be
accounted for more than $440,000 000 in
the first ten months of the year.
The increase in merchandise exports
in October was chiefly in cotton. The
foreign consumers for many months did
not buy cotton and stocks ran down in
Europe to an unusually low point. The
expectation was that the new crop of
cotton would be a very large one and
that prices would fall. Exactly the op
posite proved to be the truth and the
foreign consumer has been compelled to
buy cotton at the highest price for
many years. In October the value of
cotton shipped was more than $60,000,000
as compared with $28,000,000 in the same
month of 1899. The cotton exports are
still large and will be for some months ,
during which time wealth will literally
pour into the hands of the southern
planter.
The large credits of the country abroad
have suggested the placing of more
foreign loans here. Europe is not in a
position to pay for her bread , meat and
cotton in gold. Recently the small sum
of $15,000.000 has been sent to this
country , and the cash piles of the world
have been scraped in order to get it to
gether. It is perfectly apparent that
the Bank of England is not in a strong
iii i iiiHMMniriFFn j i ITT i ii ML ; >
enough position to forward more gold
this season , and as the chief creditor this
country has not insisted on it , but stands
ready to help the bank out if necessary
next mouth. The total favorable balance
on the visible items of our export trade
for ten months this year is large enough
to test the capacity of the world's ability
to pay for some months. Philadelphia
Press.
ENGLAND POINTS TO US.
It is estimated that if automatic sig
naling were introduced at the interme
diate signal boxes between Waterloo and
Southampton , the London & Southwest
ern Railway company would save be
tween $85,000 and $40,000 a year on that
part of their system alone. By inter
mediate signal boxes is , of course , meant
places on the line other than railway
stations and positions from which points
are controlled at which semaphores are
now raised or lowered by human agency
for the safe working of the traffic. The
distance between London and South
ampton is seventy-nine miles. If so
great an economy could be effected on a
comparatively short stretch of line ,
what saving might not be obtained on
the 15,000 miles of railway in England
and Wales ? On the basis of the London
and Southampton estimate the calcula
tion works out at over five million dollars
lars per annum.
In the United States automatic sig
naling Is in force over long distances by
means of what is known as the electrical
track circuit system. There is a signal
post with three arms which show auto
matically the state of , not one section of
the line ahead , but three. For instance
you may see the top arm "off , " the second
end "on , " and the third one "off. " That
tells the engine driver that the first and
the third sections ahead of him have no
train on them , but that the second one
has. Thus the driver knows as he goes
along what the state of the line is in ad
vance of him. For miles he has nothing
but these automatic signals to guide
him. No sooner does his train get past
one of these posts than up goes the sig
nal of danger , and there it remains
until he has got clear of that section
and entered the next , which , of course ,
he will not do unless the signal ahead of
him shows the next section is clear.
The automatic signal , in fact , presents
the block system in perfection , and
without the rink of human error. Really
our American cousins are very clever in
the manipulation of their rail ways. We
cannot hold a candle to them in many
respects. On the other hand , their in
genious arrangements for insuring
safety sometimes go side by side with
what would seem to us the most risky
of enterprises. For instance , given four
tracks two up lines and two down it
is no uncommon thing to see all four
used on occasion for traffic in one direc
tion. Nothing short of an invasion and
the necessity of concentrating troops at
a moment's notice would induce our
railway managers to think of following
such a practice , which is undoubtedly a
survival of the old days of single tracks.
London Telegraph.
"WINTER IS ON BIY HEAD , ETERNAL
SPRING IN MY HEART. "
The greatest French author of the
century , one of the greatest minds of
the world's history , Victor Hugo , near
the close of his life wrote the following
beautiful thoughts :
"I feel in myself the future life. I
am rising , I know , toward the sky. The
sunshine is over my head. Heaven
lights me with the reflection of unknown
worlds.
" You say the soul is nothing but the
result of bodily powers ; why , then , is
my soul the more luminous when my
bodily powers begin to fail ? Winter
is on my head and eternal spring in my
heart.
" The nearer I approach the end , the
plainer I hear around me the immortal
symphonies of the worlds which invite
me. It is marvelous , yet simple. It is
a fairy tale , and it is a history. For
half a century I have been writing my
thoughts in prose , verse , history , phil
osophy , drama , romance , tradition ,
satire , ode , song I have tried all. But
I feel that I have not said the thous
andth part of what is in me. When I
go down to the grave I can say , like so
many others : ' I have finished my day's
work , ' but I cannot say ' I have finished
my life. ' My day's work will begin the
next morning. The tomb is not a blind
alley ; it is a thoroughfare. It closes
in the twilight to open with the dawn.
I improve every hour because I love this
world as my fatherland. My work is
only a beginning. My work is hardly
above its foundation. I would be glad
to see it mounting and mounting for
ever. The thirst for the infinite proves
infinity. "
THE MENACE OF A SURPLUS.
The Nicaragua Canal , new battle
ships , increased coast defences , the huge
demands of the army and navy , pen
sions , the interest charge on the national
debt , the civil and miscellaneous list ,
and many other demands upon the
national resources contain possibilities
of treasury depletion , which will be
realized unless prudent and patriotic
economics are practised in the appro
priations. The prosperous condition of
the treasury offers irresistttle tempta
tion to scores of logrolling enterprises ,
which the approach of the presidential
and congressional elections and the un
certain political future had postponed
to a more convenient season. A pliant
congress if it so wills , can easily find
prelects for the maintenance of the war
taxes , though the war for which they
were devised , has long since ended.
Philadelphia Ledger ( Rep ) ,