To discuss the part which the various reduction in prices of the merchandise nations have had in this commerce, the whose value only is stated fully offsets relations of imports to exports, or the any increase in the closeness with which classes of articles exchanged between the the field has been gleaned, and that the great sections of the globe, would carry figures represent with a fair degree of this study beyond reasonable limits. In accuracy the relative quantity of merall of the above statements, the term chandise moved at the various periods "commerce has covered both exports under discussion. While the fact that and imports, and has included the ex- the exports of each nation always become COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES-COMMISSIONERS the imports of some other nation would late and create commerce, show such a suggest that export and import ought to marvellous growth as that of the century balance each other in the grand aggre- just ended? It seems almost impossible, gate, it is found that they do not, since the freight, insurance, and brokerage are in the most cases added to the export price in naming the value of the goods where they become an import, thus making the stated value of the world's import usually from 5 to 10 per cent. in excess of the stated value of the exports. yet no more impossible than the growth which has actually occurred during the past century would have appeared had it been predicted at its beginning. Aerial navigation may, long before the end of the present century, aid in the transportation of men and mails and the lighter articles of commerce to areas not supplied with other means of transportation; a similar service may be performed between great distributing centres by huge pneumatic tubes, a mere development of the system which now prevails for shorter distances in great cities; wireless telegraphy will The United States has performed well her part in the century's development of the world's commerce. While the total commerce of the world has grown from $1,479,000,000 to $19,915,000,000, that of the United States has increased from $162,000,000 to over $2,000,000,000, while communicate with all sections of the the ratio of increase in exports of domestic merchandise is even much greater. Indeed, the figures of our commerce for the first year and decade of the century are quite misleading for comparative purposes, as they include large quantities of foreign goods brought to our ports by our vessels and merely declared as entries, while in fact they in many cases never left shipboard and only entered nominally into our commerce because of their being carried by our vessels. This was due to the fact that European nations which had very rigorous laws prohibiting the carrying by foreign vessels of commerce between their own ports and colonies were willing to suspend the action of these laws while the war prevented them from doing their own carrying-trade. The result of this was that, during the first decade of the century, our reported exports of foreign goods amounted to as much as those of domestic products, and in some years actually exceeded them, while now they only amount to about 2 per cent. of our total exports. Comparing the commerce in domestic goods during 1899 with that of 1800, it is found that the percentage of increase is very much greater than that shown by the world's total commerce. In general, it may be said of our commerce of 1900, that the imports are about ten times as much as in 1800, and the exports twenty times as much as the nominal figure of 1800. What of the twentieth century? Can its commerce, and all those conveniences of traffic and intercourse which go to stimu world; electricity will transfer to convenient points the power created by countless waterfalls now inaccessible for manufacturing purposes; steamships will develop their carrying powers and multiply communications between continents and great trading centres; a ship canal will connect the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific; and vessels circumnavigating the globe in the interests of .commerce may take further advantage of currents of air and water which move ever westward as the earth revolves ever towards the east; other ship canals will connect our Great Lakes with the ocean, and steamships from Europe and the Mediterranean countries and the Orient will land their merchandise at the docks of Chicago and Duluth, and the other great commercial cities of our inland seas; a great railway system will stretch from South America to Bering Straits, thence down the eastern coast of Siberia, through China, Siam, Burmah, across India, Persia, Arabia, past the pyramids of Egypt to the westernmost point of Africa, where only 1,600 miles of ocean will intervene to prevent the complete encircling of the earth with a belt of steel, whose branches will penetrate to every habitable part of every continent, and place men in all climes and all nations and all continents in constant communication with each other and facilitate the interchange of commodities between them. Commissioners to Foreign Courts. Soon after the Declaration of Independence a plan of treaties with foreign gov COMMITTEES OF SAFETY-CONCILIATION MEASURES Louisiana). It is the basis of the jurisprudence of all the States in so far as it conforms to the circumstances and institutions of the country and has not been otherwise modified by statutory provision. See CODES. ernments was reported by a committee on that subject, and Franklin, Deane, and Jefferson were appointed (Sept. 26, 1776) commissioners to the French Court. Unwilling to 'eave his wife, whose health was declining, Jefferson refused the appointment, and Arthur Lee, then in Lon- Common Schools. See EDUCATION. don, was substituted for him; and after Common Schools, EARLY. In 1649 the loss of New York these commissioners provision was made in the Massachuwere urged to press the subject of a treaty setts code for the establishing of comof alliance and commerce. Commission- mon schools in that province. By it ers were also appointed to other European every township was required to maincourts in 1777-Arthur Lee to that of tain a school for reading and writing; Madrid; his brother William (lately one and every town of 100 householders, a of the sheriffs of London) to Vienna and grammar school, with a teacher qualiBerlin, and Ralph Izard, of South Caro- fied to "fit youths for the university lina, to Florence. All but the French (Harvard). mission were failures. Arthur Lee was not allowed to enter Madrid, and went on a fruitless errand to Germany; Izard made no attempt to visit Florence, and William Lee visited Berlin without accomplishing anything. There his papers were stolen from him, through the contrivance, it was believed, of the British resident minister. See AMBASSADOR. This school law was reenacted in Connecticut in the very same terms, and was adopted also by Plymouth and New Haven. The preamble to this law declared that, "it being one chief project of that old deluder, Sathan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these later times persuading men from the use of tongues, so that at the least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded with false glossing of saintseeming deceivers, and that learning may not be buried in the grave of our fathers," therefore this law was enacted. See EDUCATION. Common-sense Pamphlet. See PAINE, THOMAS. See Communists. See SOCIALISM. Committees of Safety, formed before and during the Revolutionary War, to keep watch of and act upon events pertaining to the public welfare, were really committees of vigilance. They were of incalculable service during that period in detecting conspiracies against the interests of the people and restraining evildisposed persons. They were sometimes possessed of almost supreme executive power, delegated to them by the people. Massachusetts took the lead in the appointment of a committee of safety so early as the autumn of 1774, of which John Hancock was chairman. It was given power to call out the militia, provide means for defence-in a word, perform many of the duties of a provisional government. Other colonies appointed Conciliation Measures. In the midst committees of safety. One was appointed of the hot debate in Parliament, in 1775, in the city of New York, composed of the on the New England restraining bill, leading citizens. These committees were Lord North astonished the King, the minin constant communication with commit- istry and the nation by himself bringing tees of correspondence. forward a conciliatory proposition, not Common Law. In the United States unlike that offered by Chatham just bethe term common law" means the com- fore (Feb. 1), which required the colomon law of England and of statutes nists to acknowledge the supremacy and passed by the English Parliament which superintending power of Parliament, but were in force at the time of Amer- provided that no tax should 66 Compromise Measures of 1850. See CLAY, HENRY. Compromise Tariff of 1833. See CLAY, HENRY. ever be ican independence (with the exception of levied except by the consent of the |