Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-08-16

three engines and more than one
hundred wagons, pass each other or
railroad about three hundred feet
from my house, and during this
time, soothed by the noise, / go tC
Sleep"
TO these illusions Mr.. White
made appropriate rejOinders, and in
few minutes Bismarck, addressing
me directly, said: "You are doubt
less interested in our action on the
action on the tariff. We can," he
proceeded to say, "produce what we
need as well as our neighbors, but
cannot do it so cheaply as they,
especially as Hungary-Russia can
raise cattle and grain almost with
out cost; and to relieve our farmers
of part of the land tax which is OPP
pressive, it is possible that we should
make those who compete with
them for our market pay something
for the privilege" He then gave a
most interesting account of how
vast tracts of land in those countries
are cultivated by people who neither
own nor rent the land, and who
/ therefore need not, as said, pay
taxes or earn interest on capital.
On parts of those free lands herds of
cattle range, q Id at the proper
! season hundreds of horses and plows
are brought there, and land outside
the cattle range is prepared for seed.
This service is paid for with cattle,
and when the grain is ripe the same
horses come to cut and thresh, the
owners receiving a percentage of
the crops to raise and gather. "Two
hundred kilos of wheat in that
way" continued the speaker, "does
not cost as much as the German
farmer is taxed on the quantity of
land that would yield the same
amount of grain and the experience
of few years has taught us that the
people of the empire need such du-
ties as protected them from unequal
competition under the Zollver-
ein."
Nothing in the interview surprised
me so much as the freedom with
which Bismarck spoke of men still
in positions of influence. His con-
tempt for the arrogant pretenders
who regard the doctrines of the
British school of free trade as abso-
lutte and indisputable propositions
is intense. He characterized them
as dOctrinaires and clesetmen, and
said doctors, clergymen and law
yerS, but few of whom know any
thing of the details of public affairs,
are generally on that side, and they
are led by those who know nothing
of the question but what they have
learned from the books of men who
hnxrn s,Ia.,Ct I,1xv fOr,,ntn1afn1 fr,a..van
ticable nonsense. "I have" said he,
chad much annoyance from block
heads who ask impossible answers
to irrelevant questions, and, as the
French proverb says, Go about
seeking for noon at 2 O'Clock.
Fearing that we might be tres
passing, we prepared to leave,
when, saying "But you will look at
the garden" he arose, took his cane
and cap, and swapping his fingers to
the large black dog that had lain
quietly at his side, moved toward
the door.
But in view of the international
significance of the conversation
which followed / must omit what
he said about them, with his ac-
count of the garden with its arcade
of trees, illustrating the growth of
Berlin, and his response to my re-
mark upon his striking personal
resemblance to Gen. Scott.
In the garden, Bismarck, recur-
ring to the subject of customs duties,
said that "each Government should
regard the welfare of its own people.
You have done this by your tariff,
and your national progress is unpar-
alleled. You can compete in man.
ufactures with England in many
markets, and by means of your
ingenious machinery and cheap
transportation you can send food
over into Germany"
Here | found my opportunity,
and said "that is true, but many of
us believe that by your demoneti-
zation of silver you have arrested
progress, and by restricting our
trade have driven bankrupt traders
and unemployed artizans into agri-
ricultural pursuits, and by thus re-
duoing prices have increased the
competition with which you have
to contend"
The frankness of the response to
this challenge seemed as much of
surprise to our Minister, who is evil
IDENTIFY on the easiest terms with
Bismarck, as 1t was to me. eyes"
said he, ''in that matter we have
gone too fast and too far we have
not been wise. AS each State had
its own monetary system, the EN-
pire found many coinages within
its limits, and must unity them. 1t
also found itself in a condition to
use gold, and it seemed wise to do
so. One man cannot understand
every speciality, and men must se-
lect those in which they would
master. / had not made finance a
study, and had to choose an agent
to conduct these changes. Herr
Delbruck had a great reputation as
a financier abroad and at home, and
to him the matter was confided, but
great as was his reputation, the re-
suits have shown that, as the oopns
try people say, he carried only
water in his kettle, which signifies
that workmen whose poverty is
such that they cOnnot obtain meat
broth, carry a kettle of water to
conceal this poverty. / therefore
had to call Otller cOunSelOrS ana
make a speciality of the subject. 1t
is clear that we did not need to
abolish silver money; we should
have supplemented it by q gold
coinage. The sale of silver has re-
duced the price of that metal, has
cost the Empire an immense sum,
and cannot be continued without
ruinous loss, as Won Dechenal, Pres
ident of the Reichs Bank has shown,
and 1 have, therefore, prohibited
further sales"
AT this point / suggested that our
Government was about to invite |
Germany, France, England and |
other nations to meet in joint con-
vention for the purpose of determine
ing the relative value of gold and |
silver, and providing forthe general
recognition of silver as a money |
metal.
With an expression of mingled |
surpriseand qualification, he quickly