National Republican., 1883-03-21
THE MAN ON THE AVENUE.
Small Talk About Men and Measure.

Small Talk About Men and Measures.
The State department is in receipt of large
numbers of inquiries from firms engaged in
tho packing and expectation of meats, as well
as from merchants and others not exporters
or packers, for information about the Amer-
can hog at home and abroad. Common peo-
pie as well as royal personages are just now
paying a great deal Of attention to the
grunter, and he threatens to loom into
oven more than the prominence he has
yet enjoyed. Commercial and trado papers
throughout the country are making
united protest against the Bismarckian policy
Of excluding American products from the
German market" said veteran attache Of
the department. every mail brings in from
one to dozen copies of newspapers of in
flnence containing editorials devoted to dis
cussion of this question. They are generally
intelligently written and to the point To
my mind this last action Of the Bismarck
government will inevitably result in the
adoption Of retaliatory measures by the
American congress next winter The
mere exclusion of pork from Germany
is nothing. Our pork trade with Germany
is not drop in the bucket, but there is back
of all, European combination, or conspiracy,
if you please, TO drive American meats from
every foreign market, and the methods en-
ployed are so grossly unfair that this govern
ment must for the protection Of its in
terests and the interests Of its citi-
zens, command halt. To longer ignore
this question would be humiliating
confession of timidity and weakness. Foreign
nations will interpret non-action under such
provocation as n license to shut down on any
and every article of American production
that comes into competition with their own
merchandise, and they will not hesitate to
take every possible advantage of us. They
will conclude that if this government will
not resent an open, shameless, and utterly
| inexcusable attack on one of the great in
terests of the country it will not
resent anything, and they will not
only bespatter us with mud, but they will rub
| it in. When France decided to exclude Amer
| lean pork from its market ON the pretense
that the meat was impure, it was shown by
invncble evidence that there was nothing in
the charge and that American meats are as
healthy as the meats produced in any country
on the globe. The French meat merchants car.
|
the alarm, and to protect its Hungarian meat
interests against threatened American compe
tition that government declared the American
hog TO be an impure and generally disreputa
BILE brute, although we had not attempted t.
introduce pork into that country. Now comes
| Germany, a country that consumes only
about one-hfth as much American pork
as the little kingdom of Belgium, and
il, too, issues an order against the
admission of American pork The effect oi
this is to prejudice the European mind
against the article attacked aud drive it out
of the market altogether. No amount ofprooI
of the purity OF our meats can put stop tC
this business. The verdict was agreed upon
before line of testimony was heard, and the
jury is packed against us. Tho only way tC
pro toct our commerce is to fight back"
80
Then, taking up another branch Of the
subject, he continued: "The United State,
holds commanding position. Europe II
compelled to take our breadstutis, and we car
get along nicely without French and German
laces, silks, and fine manufactures. For in
stance, from $4,0O0,000 to $z00O0 900 worth o
foreign wines are imported annually
Probably double that amount of costl,
French and German wines are drank in New
York and Washington every year. 1t 4
estimated that at least $50000000 worth o
foreign wine is consumed in the United State
every twelve months, and as 80 or s5 per cent
of 1t is manufactured right at home, it woul,
not seriously tax the capacity of American
manufacturers of imported wine to be re
quired to mako the other 15 or 90 per cent
They could stand the draft nicely French silk
and laces, and German hosiery and such things
are also manufactured in large quantities il
this country, and all we need in our busines
could be supplied the same way. The sam,