The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-16

Editorial Opinions ofth Leading Journals
upon Current Topios Complied Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
PERILs AT THE CUSTOM HOUSE AND
THE RELIEF.


From the NJ I. World.
The tariff laws of this country, the circular
of the Treasury Department recently issued
and which we published entire last Monday,
and the practical administration of all COM
bined, make the perils of traveller arriving
in the United States something teartul TO
encounter. .lfa
THE provision of the law of 1866 which
authorizes the appointment OF female lnspec-
fora To rummape the dresses and examine
ladies arriving in the great republic will be
.especially attractive to delicate natures.
We explained in recent article how the
Constitutional Congress of 1893 enacted that
''the wearing apparel and other personal bag
gage of persons who arrive in the United |
States shall be free and exempted from
duty" and how it remained for a succeeding
generation to restrict the free list of travel |
lera by an amendment which limited the
wearing apparel exempted from duty to that
Gin actual use" 1t was sufficient seventy |
years ago for a traveller to declare that his
packages contained ''no goods, wares or
merchandise whatever, other than the wearing
apparel and other personal baggage, all of
which are the property" of the persons ar
irving at our shores, and not directly or indi-
rectly imported for any other person or per-
sons or intended for sale.' The test then was
Does the baggage contain merchandise in
tended for sale? and does it belong to some
questions were answered and found in the
negative, the baggage was passed at once
exempt from duty. But now, under modern
rule, not all clothing belonging to the pas
senger is free, but only that actually in use as
such. Presents are liable to duty, and all
such gifts of affection and mementoes of
foreign travel Articles of ''Uertu" are in
terms dutiable by Secretary Boutwells circu-
lar, as we'll as little articles bought for and on
request of friends
Every one understands that an article of
merchandise brought in for sale should, under
tariff system, pay duty. but not small arti-
cles, expensive or inexpensive, purchased as
gifts or procured at the request of friends.
There is something harsh to the sensibilities
in being compelled to produce on the wharf
such token of friendship and affection for
vulgar gaze and valuation for the assessment
of duty. But the protective monopolists de-
mand it and it is Idao.
Let us emphasize the things which the
recent circular declares are, in the luggage
Of passengers, liable to duty, and failure to
place which under the head of "dutiable
merchandise will ''render the baggage liable
to detention and confiscation, and subject
the owner to other legal penalties"-
IL. New wearing apparel in excess of that
in general use.
2. Excessive amounts of iewelry.
3. Extra watches.
4. Articles of Uertu.
5. All presents.
6. Piece goods.
Z. All articles purchased for other persons.
8. All articles not essential to the personal
comfort and convenience of the traveller
II will not avail for Secretary Boutwell, and
his partisans to say that his circular in respect
to all these things is matter of mere form
for it makes them substance He compels
every person to make statement in writing
what his luggage contains, distinguishing
therein between the dutiable and the not
dutiable. He authorizes the customs official
to require an oath to the statement, and he
visits severe penalties on failure to separate
the free list from the dutiable list. To con-
form to this circular and prevent overhauling
of every trunk to the bottom, the traveller
must keep wearing apparel in actual use' to
reasonable amount, and articles essential
for the toilet or other necessities of the pas
.senger, in trunks separate and distinct from
an unreasonable" quantity of wearing appa-
rel, presents, things purchased for friends,
and from objects of ''g6rtu!" Great and
generous country Who shall deliver thee
from the body Of sucn meanness, selfshnsss,
and sin 4r1 7err b
But, says another, this is only contri-
vance to compel one to 'stip" the officials
This is undoubtedly the average tone of Re-
publican party ethics; but the difficulty is
that the new regulations, by their minuteness
put at the outset the responsibility of a decla-
ration conforming thereto on the passenger
This is quite different from the old system.
Read the laws and the recent circular and
then reflect on the consequences of false
'declaration, or tipping the inspector with a
sovereign or two.
If under oath, and one fails to declare,
after reading the circular, present for a
friend elsewhere than under the head of
''dutiable articles, perjury stares him in the
face. And if not under oath, then loss of
self-respect confronts him. Ponder, too, on
the punishment of fine or imprisonment
which is, by the law of 1868, suspended
over the passenger who gives customs
officer so much as cigar, or the official who
takes it.
'Relief:-Labor and vote for free trade !
Beat back and down the monopolists of the
Tribune school Remove the barbarous in
spection and espionage of persons and their
luggage which now repels from his home
every returning American!
THE ST. DOMINGO swINDLE.
From the NJ Y. Sun.
The meeting at Cooper Institute on Thurs
day evening was called for the purpose of
promoting the ratification of the ''pending
treaty for acquiring the right to occupy and
hold the Bay of SANTANA in the island of St
Domingo; but the resolutions of the meeting
and all the speeches that were delivered re.
lated, not to the question of Samana, but to
the annexation OF the entire republic As
Mr.. Moses III. Grinnell expressed it,. it was
ga movement for the acquisition of the nobIa
island of st. Domingo. :" This being the case
who did not the authors of the demonstration
frankly state its real object in their call?
Was any false pretense necessary to attract