I have the honor to inclose a copy of my communication, which I hope will
meet the approval of the Department.
[Inclosure in No. 425.]
Mr. Morton to Mr.
Challemel Lacour.
Legation of the United States,
Paris, October 20,
1883.
Sir: I beg leave to call again your
excellency’s attention to the subject-matter of my note of March 23,
1883, representing the injustice of the long standing decree prohibiting
the importation of American salted meats.
The conversations I have had the honor to hold with your excellency and
other members of the cabinet in relation to the decree had led me to
believe that it would have been repealed long ago. I regret to say that
it is still in force, and I must add that I fail to see upon what ground
a measure so prejudicial to the true interests of two great countries so
friendly allied as France and the United States are is so persistently
retained.
The present minister of commerce believes it uncalled for. His
predecessor openly advocated its repeal in the Senate; the
constitutional head of the Government, the president of the council, has
publicly declared that he disapproves of it; your excellency opposed it
in the Senate chamber. The House of Deputies expressed itself
unequivocally in favor of its repeal, and the Senate, while declining by
a bare majority to interfere in the matter, left the Government free to
take its own course; the Academy of Medicine of France has declared it
unnecessary; the board of public hygiene has made the same authoritative
declaration, and the great chemist, Mr. Wurtz, who is paramount
authority for the whole scientific world, has demonstrated in
unanswerable language its absolute inutility.
A moment’s consideration will, I trust, satisfy your excellency that, on
the ground of public health, it would be much more justifiable to
exclude French wines from America than it is to prohibit American meats
in France. The French scientific authorities do not contend that the
consumption of American meats is dangerous, while they do contend that
some French wines are adulterated to an extent prejudicial to public
health.
On the one side there is the evidence of the most competent of your
learned institutions in such matters, that American salted meats are
inoffensive; on the other there is the evidence of your own officials
that French wines are manipulated in such a manner as to make them
unhealthy.
Yet, notwithstanding the overwhelming weight of such facts, and in spite
of the repeated complaints of the French chambers of commerce, and of
the earnest representations of the United States, this obnoxious decree
has remained standing for nearly three years, and has had the
mischievous tendency of alienating from France the powerful commercial
interests of our Western States. Your excellency cannot be unaware that
the growing dissatisfaction caused by this extraordinary discrimination,
only applicable to the United States of all the countries with which
France is on friendly relations, against one of the most important
products of the United States, is likely to give rise to discussion in
the Congress about to convene at Washington which might result in
measures which would seriously affect Franco-American commerce in some
of its most important branches.
If I call your excellency’s attention to these facts it is by no means
with the intention of threatening the French Government with retaliatory
measures, which, so far as I am informed, are not contemplated by my
Government, but simply to show that the interests which are provoked to
take such a course could find substantial reasons to support the
position.
Believing that the French Government would satisfy itself that the decree
was issued under a misapprehension, and cheerfully abrogate it, neither
the Government nor the Congress of the United States, notwithstanding
the constantly increasing pressure of public opinion, has taken any
action with reference thereto.
I cannot doubt that your excellency will, upon a review of the evidence
in your possession, concur with me in the opinion that the results of
the searching investigations conducted by competent officers of both
countries, have clearly established the unfounded and erroneous
character of the statements regarding the alleged unwholesome quality of
American hog products upon which the issue of the prohibitory decree was
based.
I avail, &c.,
