The age-herald., 1898-12-06

view 10 securing all attalnaDle lnIorma7 ton necessary to full and complete un- derstanding by congress in regard to the participation of this government in the Paris exposition, was laid before you by my message of December G. 1S97 and showed the large opportunities to make known our national progress In manufactures, as well as the urgent need of immediate and ade- quate provision to enable due advantage thereof to be taken. MT. Handy's death soon afterward rendered it necessary for another to take up and complete his un- finished work and on January II last MT. Thomas W. Cridler. third assistant secre- tary of state, was designated to fulfill that task His report was laid before you in my message June i, 1S98, the gratifying result of awakening renewed interest in the projected display. By a provision in the sundry civil appropriation act of July l, 1898, sum not to exceed $650,0O0 was allotted for the organization of a commits sion to prepare for the proper preparation and installation of American exhibits and for the display of suitable exhibits by the several executive departments, particularly by the department of agriculture, the fish commission and the Smithsonian institu- tion, in representation of the government of the United States. Pursuant to that en- actment I appointed MT Ferdinand w. Peck, of Chicago commissioner general, with an assistant commissioner-generala and secretary. Mir. Peck at once proceeded to Paris where his success in enarging the scope and variety of the United States ex- hibit has been most gratifying.
 Notwithstanding the comparatively limi- ted area of the exposition site-less than one-half of that of the Worlds fair at Chicago-the space assigned to the United States has been increased from the abso- lute allotment of 157, ,403 square feet reported by MT. Handy to some POP, 600 square feet, with corresponding augmentation of the for frtr1x onn ata ric+io ,fn tion of the various important branches of our country's development.
 Increase in Appropriation
 MT. Handy's report will be laid before you. In my judgment it's recommendations will call for your early consideration es- pecially as regards an increase of the ap- propriation to at least one million dollars in all in order that only the assigned space may be taken up by the best possible ex- hibits in every class, but the preparation and installment be so perfect scale as to rank among the first in that unpar- alleled competition of artistic and inventive production and thus counterbalance the dis advantage with which we start as com- pared with other countries whose appro- priations are on more generous scale and whose preparations are in a state of much greater forwardness than our own. Where our artisans have the admitted capacity
 
 cited many of the grandest discoveries of these latter days of the century and where the native resources of our land are as lim- itless as they are valuable to supply the worlds needs, it Is our province, as it should be our earnest care, to lead in the march or human progress and not rest con- tent with any secondary place.
 Moreover, if this be due to ourselves, 1t is no less due to the great French nation whose guests we become and which has in so many ways testified its wishes and hope that our participation shall betit the place the two peoples have won in the field of universal development.
 The commerce al arrangement with France of May 8, 1898, under the provisions of sec ton of the tariff act of 1897, went into effect on June following. It has relieved a portion of our export trade from serious embarrassment. Further negotiations are now pending under section 4 of the same act, with a view to the increase of trade between the two countries to their mutual advantage. Negotiations with other gov ernments, in part interrupted by the war with Spain, are in progress under both sec tions of the tariff act. I hope to be able to announce some of the results of these negotiations during the present session of congress
 Negotiations With Germany
 Negotiations to the same end with Ger many have been set on foot. Meanwhile nothing has been relaxed to convince the imperial government of the thoroughness of the inspection of our pork products for ex- portation, and it is trusted that the ef- fclent adm 'nistration of this measure by the department of agriculture will be rec ognized as guarantee of the healthfulness of the food staples we send abroad to coun- tries where their use Is large and necessary. l transmitted to the senate February last information touching the prohibition against the importation of fresh fruits from this country, which had then recent ly been decreed by Germany on the ground of danger of disseminating the San Jose scale insect. This precautionary measure was justified by Germany on the score of drastic steps taken in several states of the United States against the spread of the pest, elaborate reports of the department of agriculture being put in evidence to show the danger to German fruit-growing in- terests should the scale obtain Judgment in that country. Temporary relief was af- forded in the case of large consignments of fruit to export by inspection and admis- sion when found non-infected.
 Later the prohibition was extended to dried fruit of every kind, but was relaxed so as to include only unpeeled fruit and fruit waste It was to be expected that the alarm reached to other countries, and Swift zerland has adopted similar inhibition. Efforts are in progress to induce the Ger man and Swiss governments to relax the prohibition in favor of dried fruits shown to have been cured under circumstances rendering the absence of animal life posi- tive. Our relations with Great Britain have continued on the most friendly footing. As senting to our request, the protection of Americans and their interests in Spanish jurisdiction was assumed by the diplomatic and consular representatives of Great Brit ain, who filled their delicate and arduous trust with tact and zeal, eiciting high commendation. I may be allowed to make fitting allusions to the instance of MT. Ramsden, her majesty's consul at Santiago de Cuba whose untimely death after dis tingu'shed service and undying effort dur ing the siege of that city was sincerely la mented. Tn the early part of April last. pursuant to request made at the instance of the secretary of state by the British am- bassador at this capital the Canadian gov ernment granted facilities for the passage of four United States revenue cutters from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast by way of the Canadian canal and the St. Lawrence river.