BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-04-15
sANIUAN. APRIL IS
A German View
of the American Peril.


Mos OF the German opinions con
cerning the American industrial inva-
sion have been contained in cable des-
patches and ex pressed in f1agmentary
form. The statements of Count Won
Bulow and Count Goluchowski, the
Austrian premier, as well IS of certain
members of the Reichstag, have touch
e1 upon phases of that invasion that
were temporarily prominent and helped
to. force the pace in national politics
Some of them ere ex xolo5ions of anger
from Agrarians others were retallatory
threats of manufacturers. In the ctr
rent North American Review" DR.
Wilhelm Wendlandt, the manager OF
the Manufacturers Association, repre-.
senting $1,000 German industrial firms
giv,S a general statement of the diff
culty that Europe has to solve. We
have sprung surprise upon old Europe
he thinks, because its political leaders
and manufacturers were caught nap
ping. They had ample means of pro
tecting themselves, but they did not
use them, while we did use ours in
making the Dingley tariff
The position taken by DR.. Wendlandt
is that The Dingley tariff is the grand
regulator of European economic policies.
Either we shall have to lower that tariff
and by SO doing prevent European re-
prisa1s, or we shall have to meet a Gus
toms union directed against us in sheer
self-d efense. It is not the growth of
!. the trusts ID their cheapened output
that threatens the old countries so much
as it is the American maximum con-
cession," which cannot be regarded as
in any way an equivalent of exchange
with the tariff treaties of the European
states. We have clearly got the better
of E 1rope, DR.. Wendlandt says, in re-
gard to advantages under the most
favored nation clause. The maximum
concession which European countries
give each other on the basis of their
treaty tariffs is, from the foreign manu-
facturers' point of view, very different
foundation for treaties as to the most
favored nation from the Presidents S
right to grant reductions on few art
icles, especial when these are not Of
much importance in industry.
1t is noteworthy that this foreign
view denies entirely any superiority in
American manufacturing, and ascrlbes
the advantage we have in European
markets to the protective system. The
most important admission is. however,
that any single European country is
unable to cope with American com
petition, aad that general customs
union is the only remedy. Though Dr.
Wendlandt tries to drag Great Brit4in
into this me-, by arguing that her peril
is greater than that of the others it is
barely necessary to point Out that Great
Britain does not stand on the same
economic footing as the continental
countries and has practically disclaimed
any intention of joining in any tariff
reprisais against the United States
The idea 0. continental customs Union
has not the novelty in European thought
~taat it has here. The average Am -rican
heard no,hing about it until shortly
after the sornlati III of Our steel trust,
and the comment made upol it has
generally been that it is impossible
We are assured by DIR. Wendlandt
that the idea of such an attem against
us is little more than twenty years
old, aud that France, Gern any, Italy
and Austria have at different times
made preparations to carry it into eff
feet. France. suggested tariff cJm-
bination of the middle European states
in 1870; an similar measure was advo-
Gated by the International Agricultural
Congress at Pesth in 1885 and afterward
in 1896; an Informal attempt was also.
made with the same object in 1890,
after the Mckinley bill went into effect,
while Crispi, when negotiating with
Caprivi in 1893 for the TRIBE Alliance,
advocated middle European customs
uuion.
Such is typical conception of the
American peril and the way to avert
it. It will be noted that this German
writer does not admit the efficiency of
such customs union with Great
Britain left out. The futiHty of this
scheme is therefore manifest, and the
issue reduced, SO long as our protective
system s maintained, to that of treaty
negotiations which shall mitigate Eur |
opean hostility and increase our own
exports
avs and resolutions anpro-