Mr. Sherman to Mr.
White.
Department of State,
Washington,
D. C., March 31,
1898.
No. 424.]Sir: I inclose for your information, copy of a
letter of the 26th instant, from Messrs. Haebler & Co., asking for
the intervention of the Department in their behalf as shippers of
American evaporated apple waste, which is threatened, it is said, with
exclusion from the German market on the plea that it is well-nigh
impossible to examine it properly in order to ascertain whether or not
it is free from the San José scale.
From the statements herein made it would seem obvious that if any
measures are contemplated for the exclusion of apple waste (evaporated)
the necessity therefor should be first demonstrated by the actual
finding of living San José scale insects in said waste, a thing which is
believed to be impossible owing to the great heat used in the process of
evaporation. It should also be remembered that in putting the apple
waste to its intended uses, namely, for the preparation of jellies,
vinegar, etc., it is immediately subject to boiling or other destructive
process on being removed from the packings in which it is shipped, so
that a double security against the survival of a stray insect is
afforded.
[Page 327]
In case the German authorities shall refuse to admit the shipments of
apple waste made by Messrs. Haebler & Co., you will promptly take
such action on their behalf as you may deem expedient.
Respectfully, yours,
[Inclosure in No. 424.]
Haebler & Co. to
Mr. Sherman.
New
York, March 26,
1898.
Sir: As shippers of evaporated cores and
skins of American apples, also called apple waste, we beg by the
present to bespeak your assistance and intervention in our behalf,
and in behalf of other American exporters, as against the threatened
attempt of the German Government to exclude such evaporated apple
waste from that country, on the plea that it is well-nigh impossible
to examine it properly in order to ascertain whether or not it is
free from the San José scale.
This is a wanton interference in a legitimate trade, simply to
conciliate agrarian interests in that country at the prejudice and
expense of the American exporters, as the futility of the
supposition of the insect being found in evaporated cores and skins
is evident, owing to the great heat to which these cores and skins
are subjected during the process of evaporation. In fact no San José
scale has ever been found to exist in these evaporated cores and
skins.
We have several parcels of the article afloat and other lots in
course of shipment to Germany, and would respectfully request your
intervention in the matter through our ambassador in Berlin, in
order that we, as well as the other American exporters, may not
suffer through unwarranted and untoward interference by the German
Government in our legitimate business.
Yours, respectfully,
Haebler & Co.
