The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-01-06

washington, Jan. 5.-The protest Of
Austria against the American discrlmir-
alting duty on sugar, experimenting as
It does similar action by Germany. is
giving the administration grave concern,
An evidence of this was a conference to-
day lasting about an hour between Seq
rotary Gresham, Secretary Carlise, and
Attorney-General Olney.
. Secretary Gresham is concerned in the
subject from diplomatic point of view;
Secretary Carlisle is interested in the eff
feet Of possible retaliation upon the rev
enues OF the government and upon the
ajbtorney-general devoives the duty of
giving an opinion of the legality of the
proposed movement of the government.
The Austrian minister undertakes TO
show in the first place that the impose
Sion of the differeEtial duty of lilo Of J
cent per pound on Austrian sugar is IN
violation OF criticize 8, of the Greatly of
1929. between the United States and
AustIia-Hungary. Then it is asserted
that the exchange Of notes preceding the
. reciprocity agreement under the McKin-
ley act established new basis of conn
mercia1 relations and that Austria-Hun-
gary conceded to the United States the
same reduction of duties that it granted
f. TO other countries. under what is known
as the most favored nation clause. The
Austrian minister also shows that the
assessment of bounty upon sugar pro-
duced in Austria is not the set of the inn
perfa1 government, but is entirely a. pro-
yincial affair and SO corresponds 10 the
independent action of any OF our states.
: 1nasn1uch as the bounty system of Aus
1r5a differs from Germany, II was con-
tended that the same construction which
put the differentiaa tariff on German sug-
ar did not apply to Austrian sugar. But
when the question came formally before
Secretary Carlisle upon an inquiry from
the collector of customs at Baltimore,
(. the secretary disposed Of the contention
81. last: - s-- -
CarIfsIe's Letter.
THE department is in receipt of your
letter of the 18th inst, In which you re-
quest to be informed what foreign coun-
tries grant a direct or indirect bounty on
sugar. In reply I have to state that
Germany and AuStria-Hungary grant by
under the operations Of the laws of
France. Belgium. Denmark and Neither
lands, providing for remission of the in
ternal revenues taxes on beets used in
the production of exported sugar, indi-
rect bounties may apparently be earned
Respectfully,
~. G. CARLISLE"
This letter not only disposed of Ger
many and Austria, but held subject to
additional taxes sugars coming from four
OtllcL IluIOpCdA II NAY De
more than q coincidence that each of
these four countries mas begun the appli-
cation OF restrictions upon the importa-
ton of American cattle or other food pro-
ducts The whole situation is made more
grave by the belief which is entertained
by the administration that it is well nigh
hopeless to appeal TO Congress for aid.
III 1t is finally held by the administration
that The sugar duty is a discriminating
duty there will probably be another ap-
peal TO Congress to repeal it, but if 1T is
held to be a fair tax and not in CONTRA
Vention Of the favored nations clause,
the case probably will be one requiring
simple executive action.
The figures collected by the treasury
department bearing upon this subject
show that during the past fiscal year the
imports OF beet root sugar into the Unit
ted States from Europe amounted in
value. 10 Sl5,701.000 Germany stands first
in the list with 81, o63 600; Belgium comes
second. with S2.3I7 coo; Austria third. with
M,412,G95i France fourth, with s422,042 and
the Netherlands fifth, with SS3S, 722
an OF this sugar came into the United
States last year duty free, and it is con-
tended that the effect Of the differential
of a one tenth of one cent per pound in
addition to the duty of 40 per cent. levied
on all sugar will be to prohibit the traf-
Other Disturbing Elements.
There are, it is learned, other disturb
ing clements entering into our relation
with continental European powers, which
undoubtedly have had the effect TO slim
ulate the retaliatory policy adopted by
them One of these discussed at this
mornings conference was the status Of
the agents of this government stationed
in Europe to carry out the quarantine
laws, when there seemed to be great dam
ger of the introduction of cholera, Into
the United States last summer. Medical
officers were placed at the principal Eu-
ropean ports and under the terms of the
a ct of 1893. they We're required to make
sure that the vessels Llea-ed for the Uni
ted States were free from all traces of
diseases. The French government pro
tested against the presence of our med
zeal representatives. The Germans did
not 90 so far at that time, but they re-
scented the operations on their soil of the
were not clothed with diplomatic powers.
In the end they protested strongly and
have gone so far as to intimate that If
the provisions OF pending .I,1 LEGISLATION
sion Of the inspection principle to immi-
grants Is carried out, they will not per-
NIT them 10 operate.
Exclusion of Emigrants.
As this threat was to absolutely nullify
any effort that the United States govern
the most dangerous class and also to eX-
nose the people of the United States 20
Infection from cholera, the matter is re-
garded as fun Of gravity. In fact the
turn affairs have taken makes it evident
that our relations with continental
Europe are likely to get entirely beyond
executive control If we once recognize the
right Of these countries to dictate in
matters of legislation. The conference
today did not result IN defining any line
of policy, and it is believed possible that
the president will feel obliged to lay the
matter before Congress in a special mes
sage to supplement the efforts of the ad-
rlinistration in Congress to pass the
sugar repeal bill now pending. 1t may
be stated, however that not all of the
members of the cabinet are confident
that the enactment Of this measure will
quarters there is an abiding belief that
the real object of the European combine
is to break down the entire sugar SEIZED
,lle, and secure free sugar as the price
ior the admission of American food pro-
ducts.
PLEURO-PNEITaION