warship lay between.  So we rescued the Philippines and Samoa from German rule and in 1914 German power was eliminated from the Pacific.  During the ten years before the war, the production of copra in the German islands more than doubled and this was only the beginning of the business.  Now these islands have been divided up among Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and these countries are planning to take care of the copra.

But although we get no extension of territory from the war we still have the Philippines and some of the Samoan Islands, and these are capable of great development.  From her share of the Samoan Islands Germany got a million dollars’ worth of copra and we might get more from ours.  The Philippines now lead the world in the production of copra, but Java is a close second and Ceylon not far behind.  If we do not look out we will be beaten both by the Dutch and the British, for they are undertaking the cultivation of the coconut on a larger scale and in a more systematic way.  According to an official bulletin of the Philippine Government a coconut plantation should bring in “dividends ranging from 10 to 75 per cent. from the tenth to the hundredth year.”  And this being printed in 1913 figured the price of copra at 3-1/2 cents, whereas it brought 4-1/2 cents in 1918, so the prospect is still more encouraging.  The copra is half fat and can be cheaply shipped to America, where it can be crushed in the southern oilmills when they are not busy on cottonseed or peanuts.  But even this cost of transportation can be reduced by extracting the oil in the islands and shipping it in bulk like petroleum in tank steamers.

In the year ending June, 1918, the United States imported from the Philippines 155,000,000 pounds of coconut oil worth $18,000,000 and 220,000,000 pounds of copra worth $10,000,000.  But this was about half our total importations; the rest of it we had to get from foreign countries.  Panama palms may give us a little relief from this dependence on foreign sources.  In 1917 we imported 19,000,000 whole coconuts from Panama valued at $700,000.

[Illustration:  SPLITTING COCONUTS ON THE ISLAND OF TAHITI

After drying in the sun the meat is picked and the oil extracted for making coconut butter]

[Illustration:  From “America’s Munitions”

THE ELECTRIC CURRENT PASSING THROUGH SALT WATER IN THESE CELLS
DECOMPOSES THE SALT INTO CAUSTIC SODA AND CHLORINE GAS

There were eight rooms like this in the Edgewood plant, capable of producing 200,000 pounds of chlorine a day]

A new form of fat that has rapidly come into our market is the oil of the soya or soy bean.  In 1918 we imported over 300,000,000 pounds of soy-bean oil, mostly from Manchuria.  The oil is used in manufacture of substitutes for butter, lard, cheese, milk and cream, as well as for soap and paint.  The soy-bean can be raised in the United States wherever corn can be grown and provides provender for man and beast.  The soy meal left after the extraction of the oil makes a good cattle food and the fermented juice affords the shoya sauce made familiar to us through the popularity of the chop-suey restaurants.