n affairs till the first week in October, has thus far been
withheld, the French Government taking the ground that its production in
response to our demand would establish a bad precedent. The efforts of
our ambassador to procure it, however, though impeded by recent changes
in the French ministry, have not been relaxed, and it is confidently
expected that some satisfactory solution of the matter will shortly be
reached. Meanwhile it appears that Mr. Waller's confinement has every
alleviation which the state of his health and all the other
circumstances of the case demand or permit.

In agreeable contrast to the difference above noted respecting a matter
of common concern, where nothing is sought except such a mutually
satisfactory outcome as the true merits of the case require, is the
recent resolution of a permanent treaty of arbitration between the two
countries.

An invitation has been extended by France to the Government and people
of the United States to participate in a great international exposition
at Paris in 1900 as a suitable commemoration of the close of this the
world's marvelous century of progress. I heartily recommend its
acceptance, together with such legislation as will adequately provide
for a due representation of this Government and its people on the
occasion.

Our relations with the States of the German Empire are in some aspects
typical of a condition of things elsewhere found in countries whose
productions and trade are similar to our own. The close rivalries of
competing industries; the influence of the delusive doctrine that the
internal development of a nation is promoted and its wealth increased
by a policy which, in undertaking to reserve its home markets for the
exclusive use of its own producers, necessarily obstructs their sales
in foreign markets and prevents free access to the products of the
world; the desire to retain trade in time-worn ruts, regardless of
the inexorable laws of new needs and changed conditions of demand and
supply, and our own halting tardiness in inviting a freer exchange of
commodities, and by this means imperiling our footing in the external
markets naturally open to us, have created a situation somewhat
injurious to American export interests, not only in Germany, where they
are perhaps most noticeable, but in adjacent countries. The exports
affected are largely American cattle and other food products, the reason
assigned for unfavorable discrimination being t