The New York herald., 1879-03-07
How Our Foreign Trad. Is injured.

! the dEkALD on 1ueSuay, wherein IL may pe
seen that our trade in provisions with Eu-
ropean countries is endangered by the same
enemies that have already done SO much TO
harm the trade in live cattle. These enc
mics are dishonest merchants and incapable
or dishonest inspectors. There are men IN
all lines of business who cannot be con-
tented with the legitimate profits arising
from their trade, but must seek additional
gain by dishonest practices. If the evil
they do could be confined to themselves 1t
would not be of much consequence. man
who cheats those who deal with him is soon
found out and driven to other resources for
a living. But the knavery OF few causes
suspicion of the many and thus brings honest
traders into discredit. When it becomes
| known that swindling is practised in the
| shipment of American provisions buyers
| naturally become alarmed, the interests
that are affected by the import trade are not
slow to spread the contagion of suspicion.
| and the honest shippers, exporters and
dealers. having only legitimate profits to
depend upon, are the most seriously in
jured.
Any prosperous trade commonly suffers
in the same way from similar causes. 1t
may be remembered how great clamor has
been raised in England from time to time
over the dishonest practices of British mer-
chants whose commerce was mostly with
far away peoples who had no other remedy
than to eventually refuse to buy British
goods and turn their attention to the better
American article that happened to be
handy. It was the Hindoo or the Rus
sian or somebody in the South
Seas that was to be the victim, and
these people, it was assumed, could never
even if they knew the difference between a
good article and poor one and on reason
ing like that they were cheated beyond all
imaginable limit in dry goods, hardware
and other commodities. British critics Of
this dishonesty have sometimes said that
the growth of the American trade was based
on this British failure to do justice by
customers. That is not accurate, but a
great part of our success in the world
| has come to us in that way, certainly.
| When it was found that the English traders
took advantage Of the simplicity and help
| lessness of their distant customers to prac-
| tise all manners Of cheats and frauds upon
| them under the mask Of legitimate COM
merce it was natural that the victims
| should look elsewhere for such necessary
supplies as they needed and eagerly avail
themselves Of the opportunity Of trading
with any nation that would treat them with
| fairness and honesty. Still the desire to be
| rejected from tho tricks Of the British ex-
porter would not have brought customers
to our doors had we not been in condition
to compete with the English manufacturers
| and to offer other advantages to purchasers
besides those arising from more honest and
upright dealings. So that, while the British
| traders would have found American traders
| more than match for them in fair, equal
competition, there can be no doubt that the
dishonest practices of the former hastened
| the decline of their commerce with such
people
And now similar evil is growing in our
commerce. Our vast traffic in provisions,
in dead meat and live animals, in food
supplies of every kind, is to become, rightly
managed, the greatest traffic in the world.
In every country these important products
are wanted, and the people can afford to pay
| the prices at which we can afford to
sell. No other country has such
facilities for this production. If we
can succeed in establishing character for
honesty in our dealings, and can by the
| quality Of the food supplies we pour into
Europe prove that the integrity Of our ex-
porters is backed up by capacity and vigi-
lance of inspection, we are certain to ex-
tend this already vast traffic and to COM
mand the provision markets of the world.
The importance of this to o nation whose
growth and wealth depend on such trade,
and whose vast acres and fertile soil ore
capable Of supplying two continents with
food cannot be exaggerated. Yet a few dis
honest, unscrupulous men can infict q
serious blow on our progress in this direc-
tion. That they are ready to do SO, and to
sacrifice the reputation Of our whole ex-
| porting business for the sake of securing
| illegitimate gains for themselves, cannot
| be questioned. A reputable American
consul tells our government that he has be-
come convinced by actual examination
that frauds calculated to seriously injure
our comm erce are perpotrated by the ship
pers OF our food products He was himself
disposed to regard the seizures of alleged
diseased American hams at Brussels as
prompted by desire to drive such articles
out of the market, but an inspection made
| by himself convinced him of the correct
ness of the statement that they
were unfit for human food. His in
quiries have led to the conviction that
the evil is not on isolated one;
that sometimes through carelessness, and
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