The total of agricultural products exported fell $19,679,809 below that of the preceding year and formed a smaller percentage of the total domestic exports than in any preceding year, while exports of manufactures were the largest ever recorded, exceeding by $44,889,762 those of the preceding year and surpassing by $18,564,165 the high record established in the year 1900. Manufactures formed, in 1904, 31.52 per cent of the domestic exports of the country, against 21.14 per cent of those of 1894, 18.81 per cent of those of 1884, and 14.58 per cent of those of 1874. The reduction in exports of agricultural products already noted was chiefly due to the small exportations of breadstuffs, which amounted during the year to $149,050,378, against $221,242,285 in the year 1903. This reduction, which occurred in all classes of breadstuffs, but especially in wheat, was due in part to a shortage in the wheat crop of the United States in 1903 as com pared with that of the immediately preceding year, in part to unusually large crops in other wheat-producing countries, and in part to the growing home demand.

The imports of the year were characterized by the maintenance of the high record of manufacturers' materials in a crude condition brought into the country for domestic use. They aggregated $306,524,755 in value, against $126,643,273 in 1894, $138,496,741 in 1884, and $85,095,889 in 1874.

Our commerce with all of the various parts of the world shows a steady and satisfactory growth. To Europe the total exports amounted to $1,057,930,131, exceeding by $28,673,474 those of 1903, and by $49,896,150 those of 1902. To North America the total exports amounted to $234,909,959, exceeding by $19,427,190 those of 1903, and being much larger than those of any earlier year. To South America the total exports were $50,755,027 in value and exceeded those of 1903 by $6,617,155, and were also greater than those of any other year. To Asia and Oceania the total exports of the year were $93,202,028, a reduction of $2,625,500 as compared with 1903, due apparently to the temporary disturbance in trade conditions incident to the hostilities in Asia. The chief reduction occurs in the exports to China, which amounted to but $12,862,432 in the year 1904, against $18,898,163 in 1903 and $24,722,906 in 1902.

The value of the commerce of the United States with its noncontiguous territories-Porto Rico, the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippine Islands, Guam, Midway, Tutuila, and Alaska-was $103,562,804 in the year 1904, including in that statement $6,328,524 of gold received in the United States from the mines of Alaska. The value of the total shipments of merchandise from the United States to all of these noncontiguous territories was $38,096,528, and of the merchandise received from them $59,137,752. The sales to these territories consisted

chiefly of manufactures, breadstuffs, and provisions, and the merchandise received from them, sugar, tobacco, hemp, and other tropical products from the islands, and furs, canned salmon, and other products of the fisheries from Alaska.

The value of merchandise shipped to the United States from Porto Rico, in 1904 was $11,722,826, against $2,181,024 in 1897; and the shipments from the United States to Porto Rico, $11,210,060 in 1904, against $1,988,888 in 1897. The value of merchandise shipped from Hawaii to the United States in 1904 was $25,157,255, against $13,687,799 in 1897; and that of the shipments from the United States to the Hawaiian Islands in 1904, $11,683,393, against $4,690,075 in 1897. The value of merchandise received from the Philippine Islands was $12,066,934 in 1904, against $4,383,740 in 1897; and the value of merchandise shipped from the United States to the Philippines was $4,832,900 in 1904, against $94,597 in 1897.

The Bureau of Statistics, which presents the record of the foreign commerce of the United States, reports a remarkable increase in public interest in the foreign and internal commerce of the country and in the trade opportunities offered by the markets of the world. The transfer to the Bureau of Statistics, by the act creating the Department of Commerce and Labor, of the duty of publishing the commercial reports of the consular officers of the United States, and the privi-` lege of calling for information especially relating to the foreign and domestic commerce which it records, has largely increased the field of its operations.

In addition to the monthly statements of imports and exports formerly issued, the Bureau now publishes a daily bulletin containing reports from the consular officers of the United States, a semiweekly statement of commercial information for distribution to the press, and monthly as well as annual statements of imports and exports by articles and countries. A monthly statement relating to the internal commerce of the United States is also prepared and published, comparing movements in the leading products forming the internal and foreign commerce of the country with those of earlier years, and much valuable information is thus given to those interested in the production, transportation, and domestic consumption of the country, as well as to those interested in its foreign trade.

These studies of the internal commerce of the country include details of the movements upon the Great Lakes by articles and ports, the concentration at the great interior ports of the leading articles of domestic commerce and their redistribution from those centers, and certain data regarding the coastwise commerce of the United States. It is the desire of the Department, however, to enlarge this work, especially that relating to the coastwise commerce on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts.

In place of establishing a Division of Foreign Tariffs, as proposed in the first annual report, Congress made an appropriation of $3,500 for use during the fiscal year 1905, to enable the Bureau of Statistics, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, to collate and arrange the tariffs of foreign countries in form for distribution. These tariffs will be printed in the English language accompanied by a statement showing the equivalent in currency, weights, and measures of the United States of all foreign terms of currency, weights, and measures used in such tariffs. The reports of the International Bureau for the Publication of Customs Tariffs will be utilized so far as practicable. The Bureau has entered upon this work and it is believed the publication of this information will prove valuable to those engaged in foreign commerce.

The Bureau has also published preliminary editions of the Statistical Abstract of the World, authorized by Congress, showing the imports and exports of each country of the world and the countries from which their respective imports are drawn and to which their exports are sent.

A special report on manufactures in the foreign commerce of the United States has also been published, showing the share which manufactures have formed of the imports and exports, respectively, in each year from 1800 to 1904, the value of each principal class of manufactures exported, and all countries to which each class or group of manufactures was sent during the decennial period; also the importation of materials for use in manufacturing, by classes, and the countries from which each class is drawn.

STEAMBOAT-INSPECTION SERVICE.

It is the duty of the Steamboat-Inspection Service to inspect hulls, boilers, machinery, and appliances, and examine the qualifications of officers, engineers, and pilots of certain classes of vessels, for the general purpose of protecting the safety of life and property concerned in traffic upon the public waters of the United States. The details of the regular work of this Service for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, as reported by the head of the Service, are as follows:

EXPENSES.

The expenses of the Steamboat-Inspection Service during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, were, for salaries, $316,379.16, an increase over the previous year of $10,452.46; for contingent expenses, $68,647.65, an increase over the previous year of $4,830.55.

The increase in salaries was due in part to the appointment during the year of two additional inspectors at the port of New York, and two additional inspectors at the port of Philadelphia, Pa., and to the appointment near the close of the last fiscal year of two additional inspectors at the port of Norfolk, Va. These appointments were made

necessary by the exigencies of the service. The increase was also caused to some extent by an increase in the salaries of four clerks, made on the recommendation of their superior officers, on the ground of increase of work and meritorious service.

There was an increase of $6,389.14 in the amount paid for rent of offices, due to the necessity of the Service in New York vacating its offices in the post-office building and securing offices in the Whitehall Building at No. 17 Battery place.

The net increase in expenditures of the contingent expenses, including rents, etc., was only $4,830.55, and except for the large increase in the amount paid for rent, there would have been a decrease of over $1,500 in the contingent expenses of this year.

INSPECTION OF VESSELS.

There were inspected during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, 375 foreign passenger steamers, aggregating 1,821,880 tons; 8,196 domestic steamers, aggregating 3,545,526 tons; 206 gasoline and other motor vessels, aggregating 9,391 tons; and 524 sail vessels and barges, aggregating 607,926 tons.

The total number of vessels inspected was 9,301, aggregating 5,984,723 tons. Thirty-two of these vessels, with 12,389 gross tonnage, were inspected in Hawaiian waters, and 10 steamers, with 3,555 gross tonnage, were inspected in Porto Rican waters. Inspection of vessels in Hawaii and Porto Rico is made by inspectors detailed, under the authority of the Secretary, from various local districts.

There was a decrease of 25 in the number of vessels inspected during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, from that of the previous fiscal year, but there was an increase of 447,920 in the gross tonnage.

OFFICERS LICENSED.

There were 7,939 officers of all grades licensed during the fiscal year. The act of Congress approved May 28, 1896, extended the term of license to officers of steam vessels from one to five years, and the number licensed during the intervening years of the five-year period (1897-1902) are new licenses or licenses in raise of grade.

Of 1,694 applicants examined for color blindness 40 were rejected.

INSPECTION OF STEEL PLATES.

Under the act of Congress approved January 22, 1894, 3,765 steel plates for use in construction of marine boilers were inspected at the various mills by United States assistant inspectors detailed for that purpose. Of this number 386 were rejected for various defects. In addition to the inspection of these plates, there were inspected a large number of bars for stay and brace bolts of marine boilers, and many

tests were made at the request of various Departments of the Government service of material for boilers of Government vessels and for public buildings.

CASUALTIES.

The number of lives lost from various causes during the fiscal year was 1,303, the largest perhaps in the history of the Service, but the number of accidents was fewer; the great loss of life being due principally to six disasters, namely, the stranding of the steamer South Portland, on Cape Blanco, Oregon, on October 19, 1903, by which 19 lives were lost; the foundering of the steamer Discovery off the southeastern coast of Alaska, about November 1, 1903, with a loss of 30 lives; the foundering of the steamer Clallam in the Straits of San Juan de Fuca, on January 8, 1904, by which 50 lives were lost; the fire on board the steamer Queen off the coast of Oregon, on February 27, 1904, when the lives of 14, who embarked in the lifeboats, were lost by the staving and capsizing of the boats; the explosion of the boilers in the steamer Fred Wilson at Louisville, Ky., on May 26, 1904, with a loss of 11 lives; and the burning of the steamer General Slocum in East River, New York, on June 15, 1904, by which disaster 957 persons perished.

DISASTER TO THE STEAMER GENERAL SLOCUM.

On June 15, 1904, the passenger excursion steamer General Slocum was burned in the harbor of New York, with a loss of 957 lives. The appalling nature of this disaster, together with certain features attendant thereon, called for immediate and special action by the Department, and on June 23, 1904, there was appointed the United States. Commission of Investigation upon the Disaster to the General Slocum. This Commission was made up as follows: Lawrence O. Murray, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Labor, chairman; John M. Wilson, brigadier-general, U. S. Army, retired; Cameron McR. Winslow, commander, U. S. Navy; Herbert Knox Smith, Deputy Commissioner of Corporations, Department of Commerce and Labor, secretary; and George Uhler, Supervising Inspector-General, Steamboat-Inspection Service, Department of Commerce and Labor.

The Commission was instructed to make a thorough investigation into the disaster, to consider such other matters bearing upon the safety of passenger traffic upon the navigable waters of the United States as might be brought to its attention by such investigation, and to make a report thereon, accompanied by recommendations for such departmental or legislative action as it might deem necessary. On July 19, 1904, the Commission began its formal hearings in New York City. Twenty-three days were devoted to the taking of testimony in that city, and forty-two days to the preparation and digesting of the

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