Show F J OUR KNOCKER IS SIS IS IN GERMANY GERMA Y 4 There here With His Little Hammer Doing Business t THE MEAT QUESTION AGAIN DO NOT FORGET CANNED EPISODE 4 Berlin Dec Dee American in hi Berlin 00 so tur Mi M ar It relates to com cent commercial mercial controversies is hampered by the Interference of the private inter later interest est em eat concerned con he force of qt U the tIIe rep representations r rTE TE of the state department has been n continually impaired by Amer American AmerIcan ican tean business ir 1 men l n acting independent 1 I of diplomatic channels THIS cuts is ill tin th startling purport pur of a made today y a per closely related to the foreign t of fice Ace from whom something was waa sought snore more candid than the foreign forel R g carefully framed statements usually are Naturally this personage can only speak peak plainly for tor publication abroad When Wh n speaking he builes the essential wooer under the less important statements He said aid I r suggest these the e anda ands for explaining German govern governmental governmental governmental mental views on three or four topics t that are ar the subject of correspondence With our ur foreign forel o Bce There is 1 the meat question always with us and likely to be again troublesome in the spring if it ear w new ht inspection reputations ns become imperative Underlying U the meat dispute is of course the i tive five tariff idea in which your states statesmen statesmen tat men have haft educated 11 us But beyond that how bow can you blame us if we ex ex dude clude canned meats meata after the med be beef f testimony te Remember Our Canned Beef Public opinion here has hu mot moat un fi peasant pI recollections of that testimony and is 18 now irritated by the boastful ut tit of representatives of 0 the great met meet firms whose attitude is that whether the meat is 18 good or bad Ger G r many must buy bit it as they cannot raise enough for their own use These firms t I may say aar are striving to reach the th German government by influences out side elde of or your state department Much of ot the trouble we are arc giving American insurance a companies originates in the intrigues of or these thase great gNat concerns concern each othe other in order to secure a field They have filed several cases in our foreign office with secret documents against their Amer ican rivals such as exposures res of n A thuds of doing business bu lne a and at tacks en on n the integrity of lr their financial operations and aucI investments ts Our case ease against the foreign insurance companies AS upheld by briefs against them pre ared p II by b their rivals in their own coun COUT try a Germany Wants Reciprocity Alluding to the approaching period whoa a new commercial treaty will Witt probably be negotiated with the United r States the informant of th the pott dent said MId Germany will 1111 want her he full share of the advantages of the tb United States reciprocal arrangements arrn with other countries We justly con sider eider it a grievance that the United States under the most mo t favored nation idea ide Is kt able to profit by any new Dew com mercial convention we ent enter r into w wih another country while Germany G f is 18 un ua able to o participate in a s reciprocal treaty which the United States makes make J with H ith another er country The general business situation occa pies vies increasing lag attention As the year Y r closes clo e careful observers ob admit that the situation grows worse The he recently ex cx pressed premed pre ed hopes that an improvement had begun have been disappointed The railway earnings show a decrease as compare im 1600 A significant fa fat fact t is that Berlin BerUn foundries machine shops and electrical elee tl l establishments have petitioned the Prussian ministry for tor orders even at prices s involving a loss loa in order to avoid discharging their laborers Jb Iff E Elsewhere where the dismissals of ot people the curtailment tf of t wages and the shortening of hours of oJ labor continue The greatest iron com pany in Silesia SUe la has hu just reduced wages 15 p per r cent Christmas Trees Declined The distress 81 in Berlin BerUn is shown by DY the fact that the sales gales of Christmas trees tree were 1 ee es than in 1808 1800 The mer chants have be begun to feel the effects of ot the lower purchasing powers of or the people Some financiers refer to the low I money rates and to the demand for tor for eign elga eI loans cans as indications of ot returning confidence More careful critics of the situation however see therein evidence of det eted lack of ot confidence in Germanys Gen a business situation which pr pro vents gents any new industrial ings in spite of ot the low prices of raw materials material and low ow rate of ot wages The papers say no Improvement may my be ex while the uncertainty regarding re commercial treaties lasts Jut A summary of Germanys naval Davat ac during th the year 1901 IHl shows that tha four battleships b hl were launched and aDd t that one Ofte armored cruiser crUl er one gunboat several large torpedo boat destroyers and nd fo r coset defense have been remodeled remo Other vessels L I have also aleo Won fegen en remodeled |