The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-17

Russian, but we can understand the
music-it is just the same in Berlin.
Paris or St Petersburg as in New Y FORK
or Hutchinson. It is in fact the uni
versal language of all nations and any
Russian musician can read Sousa's
stuff as easily as he can the writing Of
Russian composer. An American
musician can read the music of any
other country as readily as his own. I
enjoyed grand opera at Berlin as much
as I would in Chicago and my heart
ouickened at Dresden when the band
beneath the hotel window about mid
night played the STARS and Stripes
Forever" in as good style as Holidays
band does at home. Germany is pre-
eminently the country for music anc
good music, but they do overwork the
man with the bass drum and cymbals.
1 have been interesting myself to finG
out the effect of the packing house IN
vestigations and charges which took
place lust before left home. OF course
the market for American meat has been
practically paralyzed, and it is not
strange that all kinds of American
goods have suffered in reputation. In
Germany there is no direct effect, as
the tariff forbids the importation of
meat in less than five pound pieces,
which shuts out canned stuff In
Sweden they told me the contracts for
the supply of the Swedish army with
American meat had been cancelled. No
grocer or merchant now exhibits Amer
lean canned goods anywhere, while last
year I found our packing house products
generally on sale outside Of Germany.
The newspapers have used the incident
to play up the buy your stuff at home"
theory The most awful stories are cir
culated OF all kinds of animals and even
human bodies being canned in America
and such articles naturally frighten
people. The attack is general on Ameri-
can products and has doubtless hurt the
sales generally in every line, including
even machinery. The Wernicke office
fixtures and the American shoes have
escaped and are still IN evidence every
where, but as a. whole American goods
are on the 6.<EenSive and 1t will take
long time to recover. The English
newspap ers have used the scare to fight
all kinds of American wares, and I'M
derstand that every house which i'm
ports American goods is having hard
work to sell It's stuff and is suffering
financially. Confidence is at the bottom
of trade and the confidence of Europe
in American articles, which was very
high a year ago, is now below zero. In
Europe there is real inspection. It Is
not allowed even to sell stale vegetables
as fresh and while Il think it is con-
sidered legitimate to work off any old
thing on American tourists, among their
people the Germans compel a store
keeper to be absolutely honest In his
representations and no cold storage eggs
can be marked fresh eggs under pen
atty of the law. But then there is a law
;gld regulation for everything. You
can't even build an addition to your
mission. The people stand for these
regulations, know nothing Of what we
call individual freedom and, never hav-
ing known anythingi else but govern
ment regulation supervision and DOM
nation, they accept 1t as a matter Of
course. From my experience the only
way to get anything done quickly or
when you want to is to pay some officer
a tip or a fee. A little money viii
grease the legal machinery in Germany
or Russia much better than a lot of
argument or. common sense. may be
wrong about this, but my experience
has been that by properly seeing the
right official almost anything can be
Arranged"
The second-cIass railroad fare in Ger.
many is. a little over two cents a mile
On the government roads in Sweden 1t
is two and one-sixth cents mile
Freight rates on government roads are
discriminative. according to the reports
and one of the political issues in Ger
many is whether the government shall
continue to charge a less rate to en-
courage factories on their products or
raise those rates and lower the tariff
on farm products Freight rates are pro-
badly higher than with US, though as
they have about as many different
"classifications" as our railroads have
It requires an expert to tell just what
the rates are, and then he has to ZAP
proximate" The cities usually own the
street railways and the fare is less than
with US. But a German motOrman In
Cologne gets 80 cents a day and, after
he has been in the service so many
years, 95 cents day. A railroad guard
ca brakeman and conductor combined)
gets so cents day. An engineer draws
about $3.50 day. None of these wages
is more than one-third what Is paid in
our country. So it is hardly fair to COM
pare German, Swedish or other rail-
road charges in Europe with those of
America, when their roads are sur
rounded by dense populations, furnish
less convenience and comfort, and only
pay one-third the wages. The only
things that are cheaper in Europe than
with us are those in which the element
of wages enters, and the wool, the cot
ton and the tin wares and the meat
and lard are just a S high or higher.
The railroad bridges, tracks and road
beds are better in Europe than in Amer
lea. q fact that helps account for the
few accidents. Another preventive of
accidents is that it is generally a crime
for a man to go on a station platform
cept at a regular crossing get on or off
the train when in motion. or try to ride
without paying fare. In fact, as near as
/ can figure it out. the law in Germany
and most European countries makes a
man guilty of a crime If he gets in the
way of cars. Therefore, they are very
careful and do ont have the American
habit of taking chances If q man is
hurt by an American railway the jury
generally gives him damages. If man
should get hurt by German train 1
suppose they would put him in jail for
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