Chewing gum used to be classed in American statistics under the heading of confeo: ionery, but. apparently the war has raised it to such a position of world importance that now it takes a special place of its own in export figures. Thus there may be found a quantity of interesting matter about the article—whether one treats it as confectionery or not. The value of the stuff exported during 1919 was $2,164,200, an increase of 27 per cent. over the previous year. This is alarming. for to non-prohibition countries chewing gum takes very nearly the same position as alcohol! does under dry laws. England had apparently set her teeth to win the war in 1918, and used over a million dollars worth of gum to keep them set, but, the occasion over, the consumption declined by about a quarter. But other countries are not so fortunate. It is worthy of note that China and Korea have trebled their consumption, or to be strictly accurate, we should say imports of gum. for except in moments of intense excitement we have never known of its being consumed: the correct process is to discard it- There is no doubt that the habit of chewing is spreading generally, for we note from the statistics which are available on the subject that Germany, which imported none in 1918, took one dollar's worth last year. Undoubtedly a notable advance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.