Mr. Phelps to Mr. Blaine.
Berlin, January 24, 1891. (Received February 10.)
Sir: I have the honor to call your attention to the debate, which occupied two sessions of the Reichstag, one on Wednesday, the other on Friday of this week.
The occasion was a resolution pertinent to a section iii an appropriation bill, then pending, introduced by Dr. Earth, a leading member of [Page 502] the Liberal party, to the effect “that the chancellor be requested to withdraw the order of March 6, 1883, which forbids the importation of swine, swine flesh, and sausage of American production.”
The debate was opened by Dr. Barth. He referred to the origin of this policy of exclusion as so near in time and spirit to Germany’s adoption of the protective system that one can not but draw the inference that it was a part of that system; and the probability that the policy of exclusion was one of protection and not of sanitation was used with more or less directness by all who subsequently spoke on his side, and as earnestly and uniformly denied by those who spoke for the Government.
On our side nothing new was or could be said. The swine was healthy, and its flesh was eaten in the United States, in England, and elsewhere without harm. German laborers needed it as a cheap nourishment. The United States ought no longer to be annoyed by such a severe and unjust reflection upon its great staple. The measure when passed eight years ago was passed as merely “temporary” and, finally, the American Government had passed a measure intended to make so thorough an examination of the animal and its product as to remove any ground for apprehension as to its healthy condition.
The Government, speaking by von Boettieher, the vice-chancellor, answered some of these pleas and ignored others. He was willing to give the people cheap food, but he wanted it to be good food. He still maintained that our swine flesh was more trichinous than Germany’s; claimed that English and Dutch used it with impunity because they never used it uncooked; found fault with the manner in which our slaughtering and preparing was done, on the statements of American journals, made apparently in local rivalry; and Anally expressed dissatisfaction with our act of August 30, 1890, “providing for the inspection of meats for exportation,” etc., because the examination was not compulsory and because it was made on the product already boxed.
He spoke of some new measures already introduced into our Congress, which, by supplying these conditions, admitted the defects of the present law, and finally closed, leaving the decided impression that, as his knowledge of the present law was evidently slight, he was making rather perfunctory objections to it, because his Government had not yet found time to thoroughly examine the provisions of this act and were fencing for time to learn them, and still more to learn what would be their practical effect after they had been longer in operation.
It was encouraging to find in the spirit, if not in the words, of his speeches that, under the influence of public opinion or its own convictions, the Government was moving towards repeal and waiting only for the fullest measure of sanitary security.
Von Marschall, the minister of foreign affairs, entered in the debate only to say that a careful investigation was being made of the facts of the case and of the efficiency of the act of Congress above referred to through the consular and other representatives of the German Government in the United States.
It was a great satisfaction to hear Windthorst, the great leader of the Central or Catholic party, which casts always a solid hundred votes, say that he was ready to remove restriction, and only waited, as the Government was doing, until the assurance was satisfactory that American swine flesh could be used without injury to German health.
The National Liberals, to the surprise of many, voted with Dr. Barth. The vote was 106 for the resolution and 133 against it.
I have, etc.,