The Portland daily press., 1900-05-28
WITH SWEDEN.
Our Trade Relations Are Most sattsfa c.
tory, Mays Minister Thomas.

saturdays New York Tribune says:
"William w. Thomas, envoy extraordi-
nary and minister plenipotentiary of the
United States of America to Sweden and
Norway, arrived last night ON the Ham
burg American liner Fuerst Bismarck
and went at once to Washington. In
he course of conversation with reporters
Mr.. Thomas said:
"Our commerce with Sweden and Nor
way Is in most satisfactory condition.
Only two difficulties have arisen In the
last three years, and they We're most
agreeabfy settled. The commerce amounts
to 81, 600 900 year, with the balance of
trade very much in our favor, our exports
to Sweden alone amounting to -, 900, 600,
consisting of cotton, petroleum, sole
leather, pork and cereals chiefly, and the
imports being $1,000, 600, chiefly iron.
Swedish iron continues to be the best in
the world, and is indispensable in the
manufacture of the finest cutlery and
the finest drawn wire. The first Difficult
ty we had was with lard. Sweden some
time ago passed "a law infiicting heavy
fines and penalties on the importation
of adulterated lard, commodity we ex-
port largely. The law went into effect
April l. 1899 Soon after large I'M
portation of American lard was seized at
Malmo, Sweden, examined, declared to
be adulterated and condemned. Two
courses We're open TO me-one was TO pro-
test by official notes; the other to try
milder measures. Being on friendly
terms with the foreign office at Stock
holm, / represented that America made
no objection to the law relating to the
adulteration of food, nor any objection
to the lard having been condemned and
coniiscated, provided that it was adul-
terated, but that l had evidence, conclu-
sive to me, that the lard was pure. This
was the first case under the law, and
IL would be precedent. l therefore
earnestly requested that the case be re-
opened in order that the first chemist in
Sweden might with scrupulous care ex-
anime the lard. The foreign office acced
ed to my request and sent for DIR. Luven,
professor of chemistry in the University
of Lund. He made a careful analysis of
the lard, declared it TO be pure, and ON
his certificate TO that effect the public
prosecutor moved that the Indictment
against the lard be quashed and the COM
plant was dismissed. Since then there
has been no more trouble with the inn
portation of American lard into Sweden.
The other case was American horse
meat 1t may not be generally known
that we have number of large slaugh-
ter houses for the slaughter and packing
of horse meat, which / believe is all ex-
ported. On every package of this salted
horse meat the United States inspector
at the slaughter house puts his stamp.
certifying that the meat came from heal
thy animals. The Swedish custom house
authorities held that the signature of
the inspector instead of being stamped,
should have been hand written. This
would throw such difficulty in the way
of our methods of packing and stamping
as to amount to practical prohibition.
On this question l wrote II formal note
to the Swedish government, and the gov
eminent decided TO allow my request,
and so far as America is concerned to
admit the stamps of our United States
inspectors in the usual way"
Mr.. Thomas came here alone, his
wife, who is daughter of Swedish
nobleman, and family remaining in Swe-
den, and he expects to return in about
month. -