The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-03-19
TRADE FIGURES
NOT CORRECT
Germans Argue on a
False Basis.
P0RTER'S WORK HANDICAPPED
GOODS IN TRANSIT CLASSED AS
IMPORTS.
It Is Enormously Asserted by Berlir
Officials That the Balance of
Trade Is Going Too Much
the American Way.
Copyrighted, 1893. by the Associated Press.


! BERLIN, March 18.-The newspapers
are discussing the chances of effecting
a commercial treaty with the United
! States, taking as a basis the arguments
/ for and against the figures quoted by
Count Won Posadowsky- Wehner in the
/ Reichstag a month ago, purporting to
! give the official statistics Of the i'm
! ports and exports of Germany and the
! United States. These are seriously in
! correct and do not tally with the
/ figures furnished to Robert P. Porter
since he has been here by Oscar P.
Austin, chief of the Bureau of Statistics
of the United States Treasury Depart
ment. The latter has collected official
| figures dealing with both fiscal calen-
dars for the year 1898 and they both
show an enormous discrepancy COM
pared with the figures of Count Won
Posadows1y- Wehner. The latter set
forth that the excess of imports of
American goods compared with the ex-
ports to the United States in 1898 was
! 507, 800, 900 marks, the imports being
! 852 0O0, 600 marks and the exports 344,-
! 10000 marks. According to the United
States Treasury Department the Amer
| lean exports 70 Germany during the
last fiscal year were about 624, 900, 900
marks, while for the calendar year they
were liz, 900 900 marks below Count Won
/ Posadowsky-Wehn figures. This
enormous and unexplained discrepancy
! is greatly hampering the negotiations
| for a commercial treaty and almost
/ bars Mr.. POrter's way for the present.
Germany claims that the balance of
trade has lately been going, under the
/ Dingley law, too much the American
! way 10 make treaty under the ex-
| listing conditions profitable to Germany.
/ In proof of this the German officials
adduce the alleged enormous American
! surplus of 1855.
| According to the American figures
! the excess of American exports to Ger
many during the ten years between 1888
and 1883 is only S115, 900, 600, or less than
the excess which Germany claims for
/ 1893 alone. During 1889-90-91 and SO
Germany exported an excess to the
| United States, while the annual aver
( age of Americas excess of exports TO
/ Germany for ten years is only little
/ over 81, 600, 600, a trifie in so enormous
a trade, Of which, moreover, 2,24O,00O
marks were raw material-cotton, cop
per, tobacco and proclamation the
! United States and produced IN Ger
many, whereof the latter enhances the
value by manufacturing, showing that
/ trade with the United States was
source of great profit to Germany in
stead of loss.
| An American expert here has fur
nished the correspondent of the Asso-
/ ciated Press with what seems TO De
good explanation of the above discrep-
! ancy. Count Won PoSadoWsky- w ehnef
figures include among the imports from
| the United States all goods passing
| through Germany in transit, which
form a very large amount, but just now
large cannot be stated precisely
The expert does not take into account
the fact that nearly the whole carry
ing of exports from the United states
to Germany is done in German vessels,
the profits of which are also large. a
German expert showed these hgures 10
a British statesman, and the latter,
after carefully studying them, said:
magnificent showing for Germany II
would be magnificent showing for any
country"
According to the butchers organ. the
Government has decided TO place Amer
lean hard sausage" on a higher tarlfI
as a luxury. This increases the duty
from II to 60 marks per 100 kilos.
Referring to the visit here of Cecil
Rhodes, g number of papers have dis
cussed whether 1t would not be best TO
insist upon Samoa in exchange for Ger
manys consent to the building OF the
Cape-to- Cairo railroad through Ger
man East Africa. The Deutsche lei
tuQR approves VI lilt SclltHle-
In the meanwhile the United States
ambassador, Andrew D. White, tells
the correspondent that though he has
not received any recent instructions on
the subject, he does not doubt the cor
rectness Of the dispatches from Wash
tngton saying the status quo will be
maintained at Samoa, and that Herr
Solf, the new municipal president of
Apia, will be confirmed by the United
States and Great Britain. Mr. White
added that Herr Solf seemed to be the
proper man for the position, and that
if Mataafa behaves decently and if the
iueIigibility of MaIietoa Tanu be shown
there probably will be no objection to
Mataafa's continuance on the throne.
The ambassador further remarked that
so far, except with a possible singular
particular, ii has been shown that Chief
Justice Chambers had behaved cor
rectly.
The Catholic press of Germany has