Our foreign commerce for the fiscal year 1899-1900 reached the astounding total of $2,244,424,266, exceeding that of the preceding year by $320,000,000. Our imports were $849,941,184, an amount surpassed only in 1893. Our total exports were $1,394,483,082. The favorable balance of trade had continued for some time, amounting for three years to $1,689,849,387, much of which meant the lessening of United States indebtedness abroad. The chief commodities for which we now looked to foreign lands were first of all sugar, then hides, coffee, rubber, silk, and fine cottons. In return we parted with cotton from the South and bread-stuffs from the North, each exceeding $260,000,000 in value. Next in volumes exported were provisions, meat, and dairy products, worth $184,453,055. Iron and steel exports, including $55,000,000 and more in machinery, were valued at about $122,000,000. The live-stock shipped abroad was appraised at about $181,820,000. About 3-1/2 per cent. of our imports came from Cuba, about 20 per cent. from Hawaii, and about 1 per cent. from Porto Rico, Samoa, and the Philippines. In 1902 the tables were turned somewhat. American exports fell off and the home market was again invaded. Imported steel billets were sold at the very doors of the Steel Corporation factories. So abundant were the revenues the year named, exceeding expenditures by $79,500,000, that war taxes were shortly repealed. "A billion dollar Congress" would now have seemed economical. Our gross expenditures the preceding year had been $1,041,243,523. For 1900 they were $988,797,697. Our national debt, lessened during the year by some $28,000,000 or $30,000,000, stood at $1,071,214,444. CHAPTER XVIII. THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION, 1901 The time had come for North and South America to unite in a noble enterprise illustrating their community of interests. United States people were deplorably ignorant of their southern neighbors, this accounting in part for the paucity of our trade with them. They knew as little of us. Our war with Spain had caused them some doubts touching our intentions toward the Spanish-Americans. An exposition was a hopeful means of bringing about mutual knowledge and friendliness. But the fair could not be ecumenical. At Chicago and Paris World's Fairs had reached perhaps almost their final development. To compete in interest, so soon, with such vast displays, an exposition must specialize and condense.