No. 320.
Mr. Lowell
to Mr. Blaine.
Legation of
the United States,
London, April 9, 1880.
(Received April 20.)
No. 161.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that, immediately
on receiving your dispatch No. 130, of the 17th ultimo, I addressed a note
to Lord Granville, of which a copy is annexed, urging upon him the
importance of an authoritative correction of the statements of Mr.
Crump.
I am inclined to think, from my observation of what is going on here, that it
would not be wise to recall public attention to those statements, since they
have already produced their evil effect and the panic already excited by
them (on which argument would be as much wasted as on a London fog) is
already subsiding. The only statistics to which appeal could be made would
at once be discredited by the criticism that they are guaranteed by
interested persons only, and have not the same value as would attach to the
reports of officials specially appointed by the government, and whose
statements would have the sanction of a public and recognized authority.
[Page 526]
The present ministry is altogether well disposed in the matter and satisfied
that the trade is as important to England as to the United. States; but
there is always the danger that the question may become political rather
than economic, and that the theory of protection (which still has advocates
here) may be disguised as a legitimate carefulness of the public health and
of the interests of British agriculture. I do not suppose that anything can
be done before the next meeting of Congress, and I fully understand the
difficulties that are inherent in our Federal system, but the matter is of
such grave importance that I am sure our government will see the necessity
of establishing some general system of oversight and inspection whose
impartiality shall be above suspicion. From what I saw of Dr. Lyman, who was
here last year as the agent of the Agricultural Department, I am sure that
the fit men for such a function would not be wanting, and the reputation of
the scientific work, executed under our national sanction, is so deservedly
high that the mere fact of such officials being appointed would greatly
strengthen the hands of the advocates of an unrestricted provision trade
here, and the reports of such official would have an authority, the want of
which is now sensibly apparent. Unless something be, done and promptly done,
to render the exportation of diseased cattle from America impossible, there
is an imminent probability that the importation of live-stock will be
absolutely prohibited.
It will not have escaped your notice, also, that should the foot-and-mouth
disease, which is so easily contagious, once fairly establish itself on our
vast grazing tracts, there would be no hope of our exterminating it.
Supervision of a thoroughly scientific character would seem to be an
absolute necessity, both at the points where the cattle are herded, where
they are gathered for carriage by rail, and at the ports whence they are
shipped for Europe.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 161.]
Mr. Lowell to Lord
Granville.
Legation of the United States,
London, April 1,
1881.
My Lord: I have the honor to acquaint you that
I have received this morning an urgent and important dispatch from Mr.
Blaine at Washington, instructing me to use the most prompt and
effective measures to contradict a report made last December by Mr.
Crump, the acting British consul at Philadelphia, to the effect that
seven hundred thousand head of swine died in the year 1880, in Illinois
alone, from hog cholera. Mr. Crump added that several cases of trichinosis had also occurred in the United
States, giving the idea that the two diseases are correlated, and he
further announced the possibility of communicating trichina to the human
body by adulteration of butter and cheese with fatty products supposed
to be taken from places where hogs die of diseases. This report has
occasioned widespread alarm among consumers in Great Britain, and has
seriously deranged trade therein. So sudden and disastrous, in fact, was
the check given to this great and steadily-increasing commerce, that, as
a matter of national importance, the Government of the United States was
moved to make a searching investigation of the grounds on which Mr.
Crump’s publication was based, and correspondence was accordingly had
with Her Majesty’s legation in Washington, and with the board of trade
of the pork producing, packing, and shipping centers. In response to
these inquiries the most positive official assertions have reached the
Department of State from all quarters, comprising the extensive
swine-growing regions of the west, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana, that the
mortality, even among very young pigs, has been less in 1879 and 1880
than for preceding years, and that the health of full-grown hogs (which
are alone packed as pork) has never been better than during the past
years. Her Majesty’s minister at Washington frankly admits that the
statements of Mr. Crump, the acting consul, are exaggerated.
[Page 527]
The universal and positive denials of these statements have tended to
allay the excitement on this subject in the United States, but the
allegations in question have taken such hold on popular prejudice in
Great Britain, and elsewhere in Europe, that it will be difficult to
diminish their injurious effects, and I most earnestly ask your
lordship’s assistance in this undertaking. In View of all the facts
accessible to the Department of State, it cannot avoid the conviction
that the good faith of Mr. Crump has been imposed upon, and that he has
unwittingly been made the tool of designing speculators to the great
injury of legitimate trade. This conviction is strengthened by an
analysis of his statements, as well as by a published report of an
interview had on the 7th of March last, by a committee of the New York
Produce Exchange, with Captain Clipperton (Her Majesty’s consul) and Mr.
Crump (the vice-consul) at Philadelphia. Mr. Crump admitted on this
occasion that he was aware, when he wrote his reports, that the
mortality among swine in 1880 was not greater than in 1879.
It is proper also to observe the singular phraseology of Mr. Crump’s
paper, by which the general reader would be led to infer that the
so-called “hog cholera” is communicable to human beings as trichinosis,
by eating the products of diseased animals. No scientist needs to be
informed that “hog cholera” or “hog fever,” as the disease is
indifferently styled, is a contagious catarrhal pneumonia, analogous to
pleuro-pneumonia among neat cattle, and entirely distinct from
trichinosis, which is due to the development of minute parasites in the
muscular tissues, but to the popular mind the distinction is far from
evident. Hog cholera has always existed, mostly among young pigs as
cholera infection has always existed among young children.
It should be remembered also that the report in question does not come
from the pork-raising and pork-packing centers, where it is the easy
duty of the British consular officers to acquaint themselves with all
the facts bearing on this great branch of international commerce, but
from a seaport through which but a small part of the packed product
passes. This consideration alone is sufficient to throw some doubt upon
the accuracy if not the good faith of Mr. Crump’s communication. As the
publication of his report seems to have been made by the permission of
Her Majesty’s Government, it is not unreasonable to request that the
denial of its statements should be made with equal authority and equal
publicity. The injury having been done, no step should be omitted to
undo it.
Nor is the harm which has been wrought confined to Great Britain. The
report has spread to the continent, and added to the prejudice already
created there, probably by the same agencies which inspired Mr. Crump’s
announcement. The action of the British Government in condemnation of it
will undoubtedly influence the feeling on the continent. To this end
contradiction cannot be too speedy or too positive. I have the honor,
therefore, to bring this subject to the most serious consideration of
your lord-ship, with the earnest request that Her Majesty’s Government
will take such prompt and strenuous measures as will effectually check
the widespread alarm and commercial derangement occasioned by Mr.
Crump’s report.
I have the honor to be, &c.,
