The exhibits of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum of the World’s Commerce and American Industries by means of 88 graphically illustrated charts also deserve mention.  These charts illustrate the progress and present conditions of the commerce of the world, of the manufacturing industries of the United States, and of the British and American shipping industries.

This graphic method shows more clearly than statistics alone would do what proportion of the world’s trade belongs to each of the principal nations, and the relative importance, from a manufacturing standpoint, of the leading cities of the United States.

The Philadelphia Museum was organized in 1884 by ordinance of the city councils, and is governed by a board of trustees.  The board maintains the Commercial Museum and a Commercial Library, and is accumulating material for a group of city museums devoted to public education, ethnology, economics, economic botany, and general science.

The Commercial Museum comprises collections illustrating the production and commerce of all nations.  A bureau of information collates all available data regarding the subject of foreign trade, and distributes, upon application, reports tending to the extension of American trade abroad.

The Commercial Library is free to the public and contains books bearing particularly on the subjects of international trade, productions, transportation, banking, economics, and municipal affairs.  It also contains more important books, pamphlets, periodicals, and foreign reports of recent date relating to foreign trade and commerce than any other commercial library in the world.

This valuable collection of trade literature includes statistical reports of all foreign governments issuing such documents, and foreign governments’ gazettes, reports of board of trade bodies, regulations of customs tariffs, yearbooks descriptive of many foreign countries, colonies, and settlements, the consular reports from all countries, special work regarding trade, commerce, agriculture, mining, and general conditions in foreign countries.  It also has periodicals, city directories, and trade directories from all countries.

The museums are maintained by an annual appropriation from the city of Philadelphia, and the bureau of information by contributions from business firms and individuals desiring special service.

The Commercial Museum has accomplished much along the educational lines.  The growing feeling that an increased export trade is necessary to the prosperity of the country is forcing upon schools and colleges the necessity of courses in commercial geography and commerce.

The Commercial Museum, with its wealth of products collected from every part of the world,