Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-16
The Agrarians.

The Agrarians.
You have seen mention of the agrarians
| in the newspapers. They are the chief
| enemies of American food stuffs. They fight
the introduction of our pork and would like
| to put a big tax American bread stuffs.
| Before 1 came here l supposed these men
| wereYiard-fiste farmers like our grangers,
! and that their party was a party of the
| poor against the rich, of the farmer against
| the monopoist. 1t is not. The agrarians
| are made up of the mobiles of Germany.
They are the land-holding classes, and of
| their relatives, many of whom were In Of
| flee and many in the army.
The German empire is divided up into
| large estates many of which have been In
| certain families for ages. There are other
| parts which have smaller estates, but many
| have in the past lived off of the income of
| their farms The most of them are ex-
travagant and have large families depend
| ent upon them. Their sons in civil and
military employ are poorly paid and have
| to be helped, and the result is it there is
| not a profit from the estates the whole
family goes hungry, metaphorically speak
| ing.
| Again the soil of Germany is poor. Tt
cannot compete with our rich lands of the
west, and the land holders are running be-
| hind They have mortgaged their estates
in some parts of Germany to 40 per cent
| of their value and they have an interest
| debt to meet every quarter. Their only
hope is in raising the price of food stuffs.
| This means keeping our grains out of the
markets. which so far they have not been
able to do.
Backed by the Kaiser.
| The agrarians are to some extent backed
| by the kaiser. He is estate owner him
| self He belongs to their class and he
knows he can rely upon them. His chief
officials in both army and navy are from
the agrarians and he would please them
! if he could At the same time he is broad
| minded and far seeing. He knows more
about the country perhaps than any man
| i'll it, and with all his idiosyncrasies he is
| packed with common sense. He knows
| that Germany must have cheap food if low
wages are to prevail in the factories and
! the Germans thereby be able to complete
with the rest of the world in commerce
| and trade.
! sanction bread usury." He does much to
hold the Agrarians back. and at the same
time helps them whenever he can. He
would like to see Germany raise it's own
| wheat and rye for fear war may shut off
| outside supplies, but apparently realizes
the impossibility. Today the German army
subsists largely American food. Its
| horses eat American corn and when the
| troops were sent to China not long ago
they were supplied with American canned
meats, much to the disgust of the agrarians.
| This matter was brought up in the reich
| stag and it was shown that 1.-The American
| canned meats were the cheapest and best.
| Indeed the kaiser we'll knows that Ameri-
can foods are good. He likes American
sausages and American hams and uses them
| in the palace. When Admiral Evans was
| at Klel he had the emperor to breakfast
and at that time tickled his palate with
| Smithfield ham. The kaiser demanded to
| know where 1t came FROM and since then
| l am told he has ordered a special shipment
| to Germany. He has sampled the canned
| meats furnished the army, and he knows
as well as any one that our meats are good
Fighting the American Hog.
Just now the agrarians are making a big
| fight on the American hog. This is both
| open and secret Many of the meat in
| spectors sympathize with them, and our
| pork is thrown out on all sorts of pre-
| texts.
| The authorities of the various provinces
| have been practically instructed to dscrimi-
| nate against Americans, to refuse con-
| suls statistical information as to the infrac-
| tons of the laws upon provisions and food
products. and withhold from them the find
ing of trichinae other deleterious sub
| stances in domestic meats, and also the
| condition of human and animal diseases in
their respective districts Such orders are
| secret ones, but that which / have quoted
| was stolen by clerk in one of the provin-
| clal offices and read in a political speech in
the reichstag A leading German paper in
| commenting upon ii said:
| What the order really means is that If
| any disease is found in any meat sold in
Germany it must come from the outside,
for We want the world to believe We have
no disease. animal human, and that
| trichinae can only come from American
| meats
Nevertheless, the Germans are now eating
about 100000 pounds of our meat month
and they would take millions more if the
agragians would let 1t in The chamber of
commerce of Hamburg recently criticised
tho meat inspection law, saying that Ameri-
can corned beef had been used for years by
ia hnd no O0r n ~
and that there is nc reason for Directing to