Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-02-07

a decree which goes into eflect lmIne-
diately, prohibiting the Importation OF
every kind of American fresh fruit
The United States ambassador, An
drew S. White, sent formal letter 10
the foreign Office, inquiring upon what
authority this step was taken. Inc
United States consul at Hamburg, Or.
Hugh Pitcarian, telegraphs that 5000
barrels of American apples have been
forbidden to cross the frontier at En-
merich, which, aside from Hamburg,
is the principal place Of entry. On
receipt of this news Mr.. White sent
second and stronger 1emonstrance to
the foreign office. 1t was learned that
the Prussian government prohibits the
entry, claiming that California and
other vermin threaten German trees
and fruits.
Washington, Feb 3.-The state de-
partment has not yet been informed
by Ambassador White of the decree
and an official statement is awaited
with anxiety at the department. which
desires TO know just how far the Ger
man government is wiling to yield to
the agrarian panty which insists upon
the exclusion of all American farm
products which enter into competition
with the German farmer. For two
years the state department has been
engaged almost fruitlessly to secure
from the German government re-
versal of the decree like the present
one, but applied to meat products. Of
course nothing will be done in the
absence of full official information
from Mr.. White as to the facts in the
case and it may be that the history of
the meat exclusion negotiations will
be repeated in that there may be long
correspondence to permit the German
government to demonstrate if it can
the great dangers to be looked for in
American fresh fruits. But if the
facts indicate that there is as little
foundation for this exclusion, as was
the case with the meat products, it is
said at the state department that the
president will probably avail himself
of the statutory power to retaliate
sharply under section of the act of
Aug. 3Oth, 1890. To the knowledge of
the department no complaint has ever
before been made against the charac-
Ter of the American fresh fruit. The
officials of the agricultural department
believe that Germany, having in mind
recent legislation of the American gov
eminent imposing discriminating
duty on bounty-paid sugar, has taken
this action as a scrt Of retaliation. The
growth of the shipment of apples
abroad has been enormous in the last
sixteen years. In 1891 the shipment
amounted to 1,328,S06 barrels, while in
1867 the aggregate was 2,919,846 bar
rels. Of this aggregate, 111,090 barrels
valued at $213,482, were shipped to
Hamburg, the remaining number,
with the exception approximately of
100000 barrels, going to English ports.
The Berlin News attracted much at
tention among members of the house.
Mr. Hit, chairman of the committee
on foreign affairs, expressed surprise
at the step taken, particularly that it
was not preceded with a notice to our
representative in Berlin. He said it
was evident that Germany based her
course on sanitary grounds, which
would exclude the idea that the move
was of political and prospective char
acter Mr.. Hit felt that our authori
ties would take steps to learn whether
any sanitary evils could be attributed
to the condition of fruit crop Of Cali
fornia, and, if this is established in the
negative, no doubt courteous firm
representation will be made to the Ger
man government Mr.. Hit expressed
the hope that this is not a step in Ger
many's retaliatory policy which has
been referred to in the 1ecent utterances
by distinguished German officials
Other members of the house committee
expressed the view that this was part
of Germany's retaliatory attitude to-
ward the United States.
Chairman Dingley said: "This evil
GENTLY is advice to prohibit the impor-
tation of American fruits on alleged
sanitary grounds in line with the SINH
lar prohibition of American pork. The
importation seems TO be prohibited on
sanitary grounds in order to evade the
provisions of our commercial treaties
with Germany which give imports
from the United States equal privileges
with the imports of other countries.
There is not the slightest ground for
the allegation that California fruits are
affected as charged. Indeed the evil
dence is conclusive that they are es-
pecially free from parasites. The
United States would have much more
ground for prohibiting the importation
OF German wines on alleged sanitary
grounds than Germany has to prohibit
the importation of American fruit or
American pork on such grounds. We
have no objection to Germany's putting
whatever duty she sees fit on imports
of any kind. That is her own bust
ness; but when that government I'M
dertakes to prohibit the importation of