POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 253 



I took an active part in the sittings of the committee 

 and party meetings on the three only bills which ob- 

 tained legal force by arrangement with the Government 

 and the Upper House. I was special reporter of the 

 division "Metals and metal goods" of the Franco- 

 German commercial treaty, and believe that I materially 

 contributed to its final adoption by a minute report 

 which I drew up on this most hotly disputed part of 

 the treaty. Unfortunately this report brought me 

 into conflict with my constituents. The latter sent a 

 special deputation to the Chamber, to protest against 

 the article which forbade the marking of manufactures 

 with the names of firms and trade-marks of the manu- 

 facturers of another country. The Solingen and Rem- 

 scheid manufacturers declared that it was a customary 

 practice to label the better class of goods, principally 

 ordered by English manufacturers and dealers, with 

 an English trade-mark, and that their business would 

 be seriously injured if this were disallowed; the con- 

 sequence of such a prohibition would be that they 

 would not only lose the English, but also the German 

 market for their superior goods, as even in Germany 

 English goods were preferred. 



In spite of long discussions we could not arrive 

 at an understanding. The deputation admitted that 

 German industry was acting suicidally in representing 

 its good wares as foreign and only its inferior wares 

 as its own manufacture, it threw the blame, however, 

 on the purchasing public which demanded it. We 

 accordingly parted in disagreement, and I believe I 



