The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-07
GERMANY AND AMERICA.
THE ADVANTAGES OF A COMMERCIAL
TREATY.
CONCILIATORY GERMAN TONE.
Our Reciprocity Treaty With France
Causes Uneasiness Among the Ger
mans Over the Prospects of Their
Scheme for Increase of the Navy.
Criticism of British Military Mis-
takes in South Africa.
Copyright by Associated Press.)

Copyright by Associated Press.)
Berlin, November 4.-Opinion here
inclines more and more strongly in ia
vor of a commercial treaty with the
United States. which will be fair for
both sides and enable the merchants
of both nations to make calcula tions
regarding trade between the two
countries for a number of years ahead.
The growing Importance of the Unit
ed States as a market for German
goods is generally recognized by every
body except the agrarians and leads to
the hope that the long pending nego-
tiations will be brought to successful
issue.
The kind reception of the German
delegates to the Philadelphia CONNER
cial congress is greatly appreciated by
the press here. The newspapers ex-
press the hope that the gathering will
remove many mutual errors. A num-
ber of publications have appeared late
ly, explaining the advantages of bet
ter commercial relations.
The additional reciprocity treaty be-
tween the United States and France
has startled German merchants. The
National Zeitung devotes a long edi-
torial to the subject, which concludes:
THE quarrel between Germany and the
United States about the correct inter-
probation of the favored nation clause
must thereby become more acute un-
less Germany gets the same tariff re-
ductions as France"
A number of other papers and pam
phlets point out that the treaty af-
fects many articles of German export
to the United States and that, there
fore, 1T is a matter of great import
ance. =
The correspondent of the Associated
Press learns from an official source
that confidential adviceS have been re-
ceived from Washington to the effect
that negotiations between the embassy
and the state department will not be
seriously resumed until the measures
touching American interests pending
in the reichstag, especially the meat in
spection bill, are disposed of.
The correspondent learns on the
highest authority that Count Won Po-
SadoWsky-Wehner recently conversing
on the subject said
ITO pass an inspection bill in any
shape, the government must hump the
agrarians to a certain extent. Other
wise the bill will be rejected in it's old
state and the commercial war with the
United States will continue. We will
have to prohibit American sausages
and canned meats, and, in compensa-
tiOn will encourage the importation of
American fresh meats and will not him
der the importation of hams, etc. The
Americans will have to be satisfied
with this
In the same conversation, the minis
ter of the interior said: "If this un-
terbilanz (meaning balance of trade)
against Germany continues we shall
Oh hn To 6xDy f1,0 e.%A 1I,,, 4
That the agrarians oppose the pro-
posed commercial treaty goes without
saying. The DeutSche TageS Zeitung
argues that Germany's commercial
treaty policy is a gigantic mistake. 1t
claims the balance of trade has gone
more and more against Germany un-
der the treaties, until it now amounts
to 1,347, 900 marks, while during the
free trade of 1S72-1SS0, it was 1,O72 000,-
600 marks. However, official statistics
for the last nine months, just publish
ed show that German exports have
increased 202, 100000 marks over the
same period of 1898, of which 9S,00O,0 900
marks were exports to the United
States.
The emperor's naval projects have
formed the main subject of press dis
cussion this week. The government
now admits that the Flotten-plan real
ly means doubling the navy as COM
pared with what 1t would be under
the plan of 1897, and that $4,000 addi-
tional men will be needed for the new
fleet. Nearly the whole press ex-
presses astonishment at the fact that
his majesty personally conceived and
pushed the plan, while Prince Hohen-
lohe'S consent was only obtained later
and that the bundesrath and Prussian
cabinet have not yet been consulted.
However, the chances of bill embody-
ing the plan, which, the correspondent
learns, will reach the reichStag before
the end of the year.
The government, through Herr
krupp's organ, the semi-official Poll
tischen Nachrichten, gives among the
reasons for the contemplated increase
the advent of the United States as a
new weltmacht, the cooperation of
Great Britain and the United States in
Samoa and the war in South Africa,
which has had much to do with the
conception of the plan.
The news of the British reverses and
losses has been received in Germany
with less demonstrations of joy than
might have been expected from previ-
Gus expressions. The mistakes and
shortcomings of the British prepara-
tions are pointed out with much vigor
by the press strategists and military
writers, but the other newspapers COM
ment on the weeks everts fairly.