St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-06
CATTLE EXPORT.
Senator Vests Resolution Starts a
Tariff Talk.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5.-The resolu-
ton offered by Mr.. Vest ON the 10th of
December, requesting the president of
the United States to cause correspond
ence and negotiations to be had through
the department of state, or otherwise,
with the authorities of Great Britain for
the purpose of securing the abrogation
or modification of the regulations which
require cattle imported from the United
States to be slaughtered at the point of
entry and prohibit their being carried
alive to other parts of the kingdom, was
taken up in the senate today, and was
by Mr.. Vest explained and advocated.
Mr.. Hale treated the regulations in
question as a marked instance of Great
Britaln'S Inconsistency in the matter of
free trade. Great Britain. he said, was
constantly preaching homileS on free
trade, was objecting In every possible
way to protection as embodied in the
statutes of the United States, and was
calling down on the heads of the Amer
lean people the censure and the venge-
ance Of the civilized world because of
the barbarism-the extreme barbarism
and unenlightenment--o their protect
i've policy, and yet under the forms of
quarantine regulations, II was actually
prohibiting the expectation from the
United States to Great Britain of live
animals, establishing a complete pro-
hibtory tariff.
No American cattle or sheep could be
introduced into Great Britain to COM
pete with the farmers and cattle raisers
OF that country any more than if tariff
duty of 100 per cent had been laid on
them. This was because the British
authorities committed. as they claimed
to be, to free trade with all the world
were aware OF the disastrous effect of
such importation on the British farmers
and cattle and sheep raiSers. 1t was an
instance of the Inconsistency of the
British cry of free trade. The British
government did not. as the American
government did, impose protective du-
ties, but it proceeded under another
form to enact an outright prohibitory
tariff. He did not want the resolution
TO be adopted without calling attention
to that inconsistency, but he did not Op-
pose the resolution.
Senator Vest deprecated the introduce
ton OF tariff discussion on the resolu-
ton, and should certainly not put him
self In the attitude Of defending either
the motives or the action of the author
tiles OF Great Britain. 1t was, however,
proper TO state as q historical fact that
action had been based ostensibly OH the
fact that there had been sporadic cases
OF pleuro-pneumOnia found in exported
American cattle. That those cases had
been very largely exaggerated from
mercenary motives in different quarters
In England had been (he thOught) made
fully apparent by the report of the SEN
ate select committee Oh meat products
to which report he referred senator's.
What he desired was to remove the
obstacle, without irritation, without
friction. because he considered 1t the
first object OF craftsmanship to bring
about results that would inure to the
benefit of the American people. Here
was the fact that those quarantine reg
ulations existed, and it was only proper
to say that the British authorities had
stated that they desired to see what
would be the operation of the act of
March, 1890 (fOr the inspection of cat
tie sent abroad, before they took def
mite action in regard to their quarantine
regulations. If. after the state depart
ment had called the attention of the
British government to the subject and
had calmy presented all the facts, show
Ing that no diseased cattle were ex-
ported from the United States, the
British authorities refused to treat
American cattle justly, he (Mr. Vest
would not be found tagging when the
senator from Maine (Mr. Hale proposed
the most extreme measures in order to
remove the outrage.
Mr.. Hale expressed the desire that
the senator from Missouri might be sue
cessful in what he proposed, but he
warned him that in his path lay not
only the quarantine officers of Great
Britain and the boards of health, but
the British farmers and the British
raisers of cattle and sheep, and that his
efforts would be futile, because he
would come face to face with what was
the actual trouble in the case, and not
the ostensible trouble. The resolution
was adopted.