Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-25
RETALIATION DEPRECATED.
The Minority Report on the Hog Oues
tiOn Submitted by Senator Vance.

The Minority Report on the Hog Cues
tiOn Submitted by Senator Vance.
WASHINGTON, March Ex-senator
Vance, in the minority report from the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted
to-day, expresses the opinion that Ger
many has the right to exclude American
hog products on the ground that they are
unwhOlesOme, if she deems it proper, and
that this government is not justified in
lmpeaching her motives. ''If it be true'
continues the report, ''that our pork is to
any extent unWh0lesOme we should en-
deavor by rigid system of inspection to
remove the cause of complaint. If it be
that fear of trichinoSis is only preteXt
and that the real reason for excluding our
hog products is desire to protect their
own producers, then we are the last peO-
pie on earth who ought to complain. alter
surrounding ourselves for more than
twenty years with protective
tariff wall so high as to exclude, virtually.
all the products of Germany which com
pete with ours. 1t is rather late for us to
advance retaliation against government
which merely follows our example. In
fact, Germany's action is retaliation. and
the cry of ''stOp thief1 cannot change the
true condition Of things. We have got to
learn that we are not so great and indie
pendent as to enable us to defy the laws
of political economy and the amenities of
international trade with impunity. We
have been told again and again that our
true policy was to shut up our manufac-
lures from the competition of the world,
and that all nations thus excluded would
be compelled, nevertheless, to buy our
breadstutfs and provisions, and that they
could not do without them. We are
greatly surprised and indignant when one
important customer says that he can get
along without our hog products, and for
bids their coming in, and we propose to
retaliate. For what? For simply and
frankly torbidding them to be imported.
Suppose, instead of doing this, Germany
had imposed a duty of 100 per cent on
them, which would as effectuallV pro-
hibit their importation? What then?
Where would be our so-called re-
taliatiOn? The undersigned can see no
difference whatever in the two methods Of
prohibition so far as results are con-
cernGd, only that one is manly and direct,
whilst the other is indirect, and based on
false pretenseS. Our great meat industry
must indeed be cared for 1t, with kim
dred agricultural industries. furnishes
nearly all of our foreign trade, and they
deserve all that Congress can do for them,
but this bill does not propose the true way
to do 1t. This way is to remove, as far
as possible, all restrictions upon trade
and the enlargement of the market for our
farmers products all over the world
by liberal treaties and tariff laws.
The last section Of the bill is especially
Objectionable. not only in the proposed
retaliation, but in the relegatiOn of the
whole matter to the Executive. We pro-
pose thereby to arm the Chief Magistrate
of constitutional republic with the
same arbitrary power over commerce that
is now exercised by the Prime Minister of
feudal European despotism, in order that
on equal terms they may inflict mutual
injuries on their people until one or the
other gives in; this, too, whilst Congress
is in session, and the representatives of
the people are present, ready to say if
they wish to begin this war, and
on what articles of commerce
they prefer the fight to be
made. The section in effect is
an abdIcatiOn of the powers and duties of
Congress and the relegatiOn thereof to
the better judgment of the President. If
such measures of sO-called retaliation
against Germany or any other nation
should be deemed necessary or advisable
imprtn{S, let Congress say so, and let it
likewise prescribe all the details of such
measures and articles on which the strug-
gle is to be made. 1t is the Presidents bust
ness to execute laws not to make them,
and it is as certainly the duty of Congress
to make them and not shift the task on
eCH.SpOuy el5' <AHOse secIlohs OF the Dill
which provide an inspection of meats
designed for expectation, and which
forbid the importation of adulterated and
unwhOlesome articles of food or drink,
constitute proper legislation, and while it
is not regarded as sufficiently thorough,
are yet in the right direction when per
fected by experience, and a sincere desire
to give the world wholesome food, which
it is not doubted all our producers enter
tain. In the opinion of the undersigned
all will have been accomplished that is
desired by the friends of the bill y