It was my original purpose, in pursuance of the policy I have deemed most
likely to secure the admission of American pork, to take notice of the
debate of January 21 and 23 in the Reichstag on Dr. Barth’s resolution
asking the chancellor to remove the restriction on its admission.
Afterwards I found in German discussion, newspaper and conversational, much
stress laid upon the statement of the vice-chancellor, made in the debate,
that the question of the healthfulness of our pork was answered favorably by
those who ate it cooked, unfavorably by those—the Germans—who ate it raw.
The distinction he made is not new, but is certainly receiving an attention
it never had before, either because it was the only shadow of a reason the
Government could give for retaining the restriction or because it was
uttered from the ministerial bench by a vice-chancellor. Under these
circumstances, in view of the unexpected attention this point was receiving,
I changed my mind, and determined to open the old subject only enough to let
in the suggestion I wanted to make as to the obvious answer to be made to
the charge that American pork was unwholesome to those who ate it
uncooked.
This was the sole purpose of my communication of this date to the foreign
office, and anything else contained in it is put there only as a framework
or setting for that suggestion.
[Inclosure in No. 229.]
Mr. Phelps to Baron
Marschall.
Legation of the United States,
Berlin, February 6,
1891.
The undersigned, envoy, etc., of the United States of America, has the
honor to inform his excellency Freiherr Marschall von Bieberstein,
imperial secretary of state for foreign affairs, that, in a natural
curiosity to hear a debate on a subject in which the joint interests of
Germany and the United States were in question, he attended the sessions
of the Reichstag at the end of last month, when the proposition of
Representative Barth that the chancellor of the Empire be requested to
remove the restriction on the importation of American pork was the order
of the day. The vice-chancellor of the Empire, intervening in the
discussion, intimated that his Government still believed that the swine
of America were unhealthy, and was not yet satisfied that the new tests
pro Added by the United States Government, under the act of Congress of
August 30, 1890, were sufficient to insure the health of American
consumers against the dangers of trichinae, which he still believed were
to be found in American pork.
As his excellency Freiherr Marshall von Bieberstein promptly and clearly
stated
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subsequently in the
debate that under the auspices of the foreign office investigations were
being made in the United States as to the truth of both these
propositions, and as the undersigned was and is sure that such
investigations would establish the fact that this American product was
at least as free from trichinae as that of Germany, and that the new
American system of examination afforded sufficient guaranty against its
exportation if any invoice should prove tainted or unsound, the
undersigned deemed it unnecessary at the moment to formally traverse the
statements of the vice-chancellor or to file a protest against the
injustice of them.
Upon reflection, the undersigned has changed his conclusions so far only
as to think it might be his duty to complete the record of this
occasion, since the charge was made by briefly stating in behalf of his
Government its unwillingness to admit the truth of the charge against
the methods of examining it. He does not wish, in making this denial, to
open a subject which has filled the files of the foreign office, where
his excellency so ably presides, and of this legation, from which the
undersigned’s predecessors for more than ten years have sent testimony,
argument, and appeal to show how unnecessary, how unjust, almost how
unfriendly, was the exclusion of a useful American product on grounds
which the experience and science of the world outside of Germany, and
which the leading scientists in Germany, have declared untenable.
It would be useless to open the subject, for there is nothing new that
can be said. Everybody knows that 65,000,000 Americans eat American
pork, and that there has not been a case of illness or death reported as
occurring from its use. The undersigned, whose life has been a public
one, bringing him into contact with thousands of his countrymen of all
classes and in different parts of the country, never heard of a case,
nor an allusion to the subject, except one of wonder where the German
Government could have found reasons for believing American pork
unhealthy. Everybody knows that 35,000,000 Englishmen eat it, and that
it is the staple and cheap nourishment of the British laborer, whose
health and strength are models for emulation. Everybody knows that it is
eaten with only desirable results all over the world, except in France,
and everybody believes, even if everybody doesn’t know, that in France,
if American pork is longer to be excluded, which seems improbable, it is
excluded on other than sanitary grounds; for the French Academy of
Medicine long since declared it healthy, and the great French Exposition
gave it its highest award in competition with the world.
The undersigned is informed that this almost universal testimony met with
a single objection: American pork is harmless to Americans and other
consumers, because they eat it cooked; is harmful to German consumers,
however, because they use it uncooked. In answer to this statement, may
it not be urged that 6,000,000 Americans born in Germany or from parents
who were born in Germany probably retain to a great extent the tastes
and habits of their Fatherland in this particular? Yet it has never been
charged that American pork has done them any harm.
But the undersigned, as already stated, has no design to enter upon any
discussion of the case on this occasion and has addressed his excellency
at all only to place on record the denial of the charges that American
pork is unhealthy.
The undersigned gladly avails himself, etc.
