No. 275.
Mr. Blaine to Mr. Outrey.
Washington, November 25, 1881.
Sir: Referring to the conversation I had the honor to hold with you on Wednesday last in relation to the decree issued by the French Government on the 18th of February, 1881, prohibiting the importation of American pork into France because of the danger to the public health from the trichinæ with which it was infested, I have the honor to recall to your attention some of the salient facts bearing upon this question of maintaining, modifying, or repealing the decree.
The intelligence that such a decree had been suddenly promulgated was received with surprise and regret everywhere in the United States, as it was manifest that it would paralyze an important branch of commerce between the two countries. The surprise was heightened by learning that this hostility to American pork was based upon a declaration that it was so infested with trichinae as to be dangerous to the public health.
In order to ascertain in the most precise, full, and authentic manner what were the facts, this government immediately directed the chief officer of the bureau of statistics of the State Department to proceed to those cities which were the principal centers of the pork trade, Chicago and Cincinnati, and investigate thoroughly this great industry through every step, to examine into the methods of raising and feeding, to visit the principal packing establishments, to confer with the officers of the public health, to exhaust every means of arriving at the exact truth with regard to the character of the pork product of the country.
That examination was faithfully made, and the facts, established by abundant proof, were simple and conclusive. American swine are of the best breeds, are fed upon corn—a more wholesome food than is given them in other countries; they are not more liable to disease here than elsewhere, and the percentage infected with trichinae is probably less, on account of this superiority of food and breed, than in any other country; packers and curers exercise care and skill that are nowhere surpassed, and the pork selected for the foreign market is equal to the best sold in the home trade. The officers of the public health report trichinosis one of the rarest diseases known, and no case ever known where the meat was cooked. In Chicago but two cases were known in a record of 40,000 deaths, and in both cases the meat was uncooked) in [Page 443] Cincinnati the health officer reported that he had never known a case in that city, where pork is abundant, cheap, and of universal consumption. As a scientific fact, in certain very rare examples, there is such a disease; as a practical fact, as a danger to the public health, it is unknown in this country—the country where more pork to the inhabitants is eaten than in any other in the world; where, in some form, it is upon the table of almost every family every day in the year.
Turning from this country to Great Britain, where the consumption of American pork is the largest among the nations of Europe, we have not found a single case of trichinosis from American pork. The British national habit of always cooking meat before eating it is an absolute safeguard against the possibility of danger, and that government has made no endeavor to prohibit the pork trade, domestic or foreign, as in any degree dangerous to the health of the people.
The Government of Switzerland, after a thorough investigation of the subject, which was ordered at the time of the uneasiness, created in the public mind in Switzerland by the prohibition in France, for the proclaimed reason that American pork was dangerous to the public health, determined that the danger was so remote as to be practically imaginary, and that complete security was afforded by simply cooking the meat.
The Government of Belgium, after like examination, came to the same conclusion as Switzerland. In Germany and Austria-Hungary, the existence of trichinosis is reported by the authorities to be of rare occurrence, though it is stated that there have been more condemnations of German and Servian swine on account of the presence of trichiniæ, than of American.
The habit of eating pork raw prevails among many Germans, and accounts for the cases of the disease sometimes found.
The prohibition of American pork by Austria-Hungary, which is a pork exporting country, and supplies largely to France, following quickly upon the French decree was in effect of minor importance, inasmuch as American pork is not sent there in large quantities. No case, however, of trichinosis, from American pork, can be ascertained to have occurred there—all those reported having arisen from eating the pork of that country, and in each case, uncooked.
If the search is fruitless in this country or elsewhere for any adequate cause for the announcement by the French Government of the dangers to the public health from American pork, and its consequent exclusion from your ports, inquiry naturally turns to France to discover how extensive had been the mortality there from this cause; but I have yet to learn of a single case in France of death from trichinosis arising from eating American pork.
The one case of which much was said in the newspapers about the time the decree was issued is reported, on good authority, to have been caused by eating French pork.
It was apparent, therefore, that the alarm which had inspired the decree of February 18th had no sufficient basis. The facts in regard to the character and quality of our pork, product, as amply shown, in the investigation instituted by this government and briefly referred to above, were duly laid before the minister of foreign affairs at Paris as early as last May, and it was confidently hoped that, upon recognizing them, that government would revoke the decree and put an end to the injury inflicted by it upon the common interests of two friendly nations. Still the decree has been maintained in force with undiminished rigor through nearly ten months, resulting in the destruction of this [Page 444] immense trade between the two countries, lately so flourishing and amounting to over twenty millions of dollars per annum.
Although it may have inured somewhat to the profit of those engaged in pork raising in France and the adjoining countries, by excluding a competitor from the market, it has not only inflicted great individual losses upon French and upon American citizens by putting an end to this enormous trade, and raised the price of food to the people of France, especially the poorer classes, but it has also tended strongly to check the growing commercial intercourse, the general interchange of commodities, and the rapidly increasing trade between the citizens of the two republics—a growth which has so long been going on and which has been viewed with the liveliest satisfaction and fostered with assiduous care by this government. The disturbance of the complex and closely interwoven interests of commerce has extended far beyond the commodity now under discussion.
It is true that some of the indirect results of the accusation of un-healthfulness have been beneficial to the pork product. Packers have exercised more vigilance than ever. Farmers appreciate more than formerly the value of their choice breeds and superior food. No precaution is neglected in preparing for the foreign market, that the article may be ready for the severest test and most rigid inspection of expert judges and watchful rivals.
But these facts, which are widely discussed by the newspapers and the people, have only tended to make the continuance of the prohibition appear more unnecessary, and there has resulted a disposition in many minds towards defensive, if not retaliatory, legislation.
You will bear me witness that I have spared no effort since the announcement of the decree to avert the present situation of this question, which is in so many points of view to be regretted.
This government has diligently addressed itself to the enlightened judgment of French statesmen by offering all the information which could be obtained to show the needless character and injurious effect of the decree now so long in force, and which, contrary to what we are sure is the sentiment of the French Government and people, has the air of being unfriendly. Months have passed without a sign of change, save the possible institution of a system of microscopic examination in detail, which will necessarily be almost, if not quite, as prohibitory by its delays as is the decree itself. That system has been repeatedly tried elsewhere, and to some extent in this country, always to be abandoned. In Chicago, after a fruitless examination of ten thousand slaughtered animals in the search for trichinae, it was deemed better to trust to the general protection to be derived from feeding clean, wholesome food, choosing the best breeds of swine, taking care in the selection of those slaughtered, and skill in the handling and curing, than to endure the destructive delays of a microscopic examination of each piece or each animal, which even then did not reach absolute certainty unless every part of each was subjected to the process.
The Congress of the United States is about to assemble, and this government must make some answer to the demand which the public mind is already formulating for defense of home interests. Before that time arrives, I seize this occasion to again appeal to the judgment of the French Government, with which we are so closely united by inherited friendship, by similarity of institutions, and by community of interest.
Accept, &c.,