Dr. Paasche Says Tariff Will Bar Out German Sugar.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 14, 1912:

Vice President of Reichstag and Economic Expert Expects No Serious Changes in Our Customs Rates — High Cost of Living Here and in Germany.
    GERMANY'S legislators must be tireless learners. That is the impression which one takes away after a talk with the Vice President of the German Reichstag, Dr. Paasche, who arrived here on his fourth visit to this country last week. Dr. Paasche looks the typical German professor, simple, democratic, and with the air of habitual studiousness that distinguishes the savant who has reached an age not greater than 60. It is therefore with some surprise that one learns that Dr. Paasche, who is 61 years old, has been a member of the Reichstag for thirty-two years, serving in that legislative body for a longer consecutive period than most of his contemporaries. And when one hears, in addition, of his extensive plans for gathering information by travel in foreign countries, and that he may revisit this country next year to take up some special studies at one of our universities, one's impression of what contributes to a career in the German National Legislature becomes somewhat complex.
    Dr. Paasche first visited this country twenty years ago, at the time of the World's Fair in Chicago. At that time he spent ten months here, giving special attention to a study of the beet sugar industry, and staying for that purpose over a week with Claus Spreckels in San Francisco. His investigations also took him to the Southern States and into Mexico, where he devoted considerable time to the sugar and mining industries, and thence, with a similar object in view, to the West Indies and the northern coast of South America.
    The results of this first trip were embodied in a volume of "Travel and Culture Sketches of North and Central America." Since then Dr. Paasche has renewed his impressions of these countries several times, notably in 1900, when he visited the West Indies shortly after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War.
    "Cuba, when I first visited the island twenty years ago," Dr. Paasche told a reporter for The Sunday Times last week, "so far as concerned its sugar industry, was in a flourishing condition, especially in and around Matanzas. When I next went there, immediately after the war, everything had changed. A blight seemed to have fallen on the principal industry of the country. The plantations of cane sugar were in ruins. The factories were falling to pieces: in some places I remember seeing trees growing out of the walls of the buildings.
    "All this might be viewed as a natural and inevitable result of the war, but perhaps the most depressing feature was the apparent hopelessness of the people in the face of the ruin. The thousands who had been killed in the war had lowered the population of the island to such an extent that it was feared labor for a long time to come would be lacking to build up the industry to anything like what it had been. No one believed that a quick recovery of Cuba's prosperity would be possible.
    "It is pleasant to know, however, that this pessimistic view was quite wrong. Cuba's progress since the war has been rapid, and this progress, so far as concerns the sugar industry, is chiefly due to changes made in the American tariff duties. These changes have brought up this industry quite to the high standard that it formerly enjoyed. In Porto Rico the advance has been even more striking.
    "Porto Rico," added the doctor with emphasis, "is one of the finest islands I have ever seen. Its possibilities, its natural resources are extraordinary. As a colony of the United States it should attain a remarkable degree of prosperity. What has been done already in this direction by placing Porto Rican sugar on the free list is significant. Before the war, when there was an American tariff on Porto Rican sugar, the annual production of the latter averaged about 100,000 tons. Since this tariff has been taken off all the sugar of the island finds its best market in this country, and the annual production is now more than treble what it was. A similar change for the better is noticeable, by the way, in Hawaii since that country came under the American flag."
    In answer to a question Dr. Paasche expressed a doubt as to any further changes that might be made in the American tariff on sugar.
    "The German sugar industry is the largest in the world," he said. "The tariff on it in this country is 20 per cent. higher than that on Cuban sugar. It is not likely that this tariff on the German product will be lowered, for the reason that such a reduction would mean injury to the large and growing sugar industry of the Southern States."
    One of the features of travel in the West Indies which Dr. Paasche hopes to find changed since his last visit to tropical America, is the steamer facilities of the Caribbean.
    "It was owing to bad steamer connections," he complained, "that I found it quite impossible to extend my investigations from the Venezuelan coast to Colombia and Panama. And the difficulties of travel among the islands were quite inconceivable. Fancy! In order to go from Cuba to Jamaica, two islands lying within sight of each other, I was forced to come back to New York, traveling thence to Jamaica in another line of steamers."
    On his present trip, which partakes something of the character of an "around-the-world tour," Dr. Paasche does not expect to remain as long as before in the tropics. This time he is especially interested in Japan and China, and will devote most of his attention to those countries. From this it is not to be inferred that the doctor is not as keenly on the watch for "impressions" of this country as ever. The fact that he has been here before apparently gives a zest to his study of what he sees. The opportunity to compare what he found here on his first visit twenty years ago, and what he sees now, is not likely to be lost on so close an observer of men and affairs.
    "But I have been here only a few days," he said, depreciatingly, when asked for this comparison, "and have seen nothing outside of a little bit of New York. I need more time to note the inevitable changes. Still, I can't help being impressed at once with the tremendous growth and improvement of this city. It has gone ahead rapidly since I was here last, and gives evidence of an increasing prosperity.
    "Such high buildings are astonishing to a foreigner. Yesterday I had luncheon on the thirty-second floor of a magnificent office building overlooking New York Harbor. Such an experience would be impossible either in London or Berlin. In the latter city the height of buildings is restricted to five stories. In London the office buildings are comparatively low and dingy, and it must be that they exert, for that reason, somewhat restrictive influence on business.
    "Why don't London business men put up higher, more commodious office buildings? Probably the physical characteristics of the city prohibit such skyscrapers as you have here. You can't erect such structures on a mud foundation. It needs the rock that forms the basis of Manhattan Island to make possible these great business palaces that have sprung up since I was first here, twenty years ago. And it is possible to keep cool in these high buildings!"
    It was on last week's hottest-day, in a hotel overlooking Central Park, that Dr. Paasche was speaking.
    "No, I do not suffer too much from the heat here," he declared. " In Berlin it is just as hot at times. But then, in Berlin the streets are broader, and everywhere there are rows of trees for shade. That makes a great difference when one wants to keep cool. The strange part of it is that one never feels the heat as much in the 'hot countries,' the tropics, as one does in these Northern cities!"
    "How do you find labor conditions, living conditions, here as compared with similar conditions in Germany?"
    Dr. Paasche, besides being First Vice President of the Reichstag and a Privy Councillor, is also Professor of National Economy at the University of Berlin. The question, therefore, taken in connection with his extended travels, is one that touches a subject with which he is peculiarly familiar.
    "The cost of living in this country is everywhere higher than in Germany," he answered, "Americans, as a rule, are more extravagant than Germans— and, perhaps that is one reason why the cost of living is so high. Look, for instance, at the matter of house rents. In the small German towns, a family can rent a modest apartment of two or three rooms for $30 to $40 a year. In large cities, such as Berlin, the same-sized apartment would rent for $80 to $100 a year. Similar apartments in America would probably command a rent three or four times as high as that. To a German, of course, such a rental would appear the height of extravagance. Most food products, however, should be cheaper here than they are with us, as this is the great food market of the world. Germany buys much of her food from the United States, and one would expect, therefore, to find the same article selling at a higher price in the land to which it is exported than in the land where it is produced.
    "In most industries labor is paid a higher rate in Germany than it is in Great Britain. In this country, however, I think it is possible for the laborer to get higher wages than he could in Germany. By this I do not mean that American labor is everywhere better paid than the German.
    "In any comparison of the living conditions in the two countries their dissimilarity as to size should not be forgotten. Germany has a population of 70,000,000; the United States, 90,000,000. In area the difference is enormous, when you remember that Germany is no larger than one of your States, Texas. That means, naturally, that in Germany labor conditions are everywhere comparatively uniform; the laborer finds, on an average, the same rate of wages wherever he goes. But in a country so vast as the United States the rate of wages is bound to vary— as, for instance, in California, where wages are very high compared with what one finds in the Eastern States. Owing to these geographical conditions, it is possible for the American laborer to better himself by simply moving to another part of the country.
    "Extreme pauperism is a condition that has now become comparatively rare in Germany. This is due to the compulsory insurance of labor which is now in vogue with us. By this law a pension fund is maintained by the State, to which the latter, as well as the employer and employe, contribute. The employe's contribution is about 1 per cent. of his wages. As a result of this pension fund, the laborer is insured against accident, sickness, and old age. The consequence is that with us there is scarcely any pauper class— a satisfactory condition that is beginning to attract the attention of Great Britain, and that may ultimately appeal to other countries which have not as yet adopted State insurance of labor.
    "Another condition having a direct bearing on the labor problem that is attracting a good deal of attention with us is the use of alcohol as a beverage. A year ago, in a speech before the naval cadets, the Emperor said: 'I believe that that nation which is the most temperate, which lives without alcohol, will have the future of the world in its hands.'
    "This temperance movement with us is not a prohibition movement. Orders like the Good Templars, for instance, about 600,000 strong, do not favor prohibition. But they do wage an educational campaign, the aim of which is to substitute the drinking of tea, coffee, milk, beer in moderation, for alcoholic liquors. Although in Eastern Germany, on the Russian border, our people still drink too much brandy, and in Bayern and Munich too much beer, the temperance movement is taking a strong hold with us, and throughout Germany its good effects are already seen."
    "Have you noticed any difference in this respect in the United States?" Dr. Paasche was asked.
    "From what I have seen there is, a great deal more drunkenness here and in London than there is in Germany. Especially in the celebration of holidays in this country I have noticed that many people drink until they are intoxicated. Another curious feature in this respect in the United States is that there are women who drink to excess here. In Germany that is a rare thing. Indeed, with us a drunken woman is scarcely known."
    Remembering the change in the political complexion of the Reichstag brought about by the recent elections in Germany, Dr. Paasche, who belongs to the National Liberal Party, was asked how it was that a Socialist majority had found seats in the legislative body.
    "The Socialists are not in the majority in the Reichstag." he said. "There are in all 397 members of the Reichstag. Of these, 110 are Socialists, who thus have more votes than either the Clericals or the Conservatives. Joined with the Liberals, the Socialists have a majority of a few votes.
    "But adequately to explain why it is that so many Socialists have been elected to the Reichstag would mean a long story. For one thing nearly all the labor associations in Germany are in the hands of the Socialists, and the laboring classes are more actively interested in the elections than formerly. Then, we have a free press; the cost of living is now higher than it used to be, and this condition has been made the subject of appeal by countless Socialist agitators, who have addressed themselves especially to our large agricultural class.
    "There are several notable leaders among the Socialists, many of whom are extremely well to do, as for instance Herr Bebel, a fine man, although not so energetic, perhaps, as he was in former years. The personal influence of these leaders, together with the other conditions that I have noted, may account in some measure for the partial success of the Socialists."
    Dr. Paasche expressed great interest in the forthcoming elections here, and remarked the coincidence that two of his former visits to this country were made during the progress of Presidential campaigns.
    "But I can't help thinking," he added, "that the election of a President every four years must be rather disturbing to the country at large. The practice of the French republic in electing a President at intervals of seven years would seem to be wiser in this respect. By this method, at least, the emotional unrest, the political instability incidental to a great Presidential campaign, must be less frequent, and the country must consequently enjoy longer periods of industry and social tranquillity."