The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-20
SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1871.
DISTRIBUTION OF FOREIGN CON-
IMERCE

O0Auay III tnis Guy Dy the Couector OF the
Port, and the discussions it elected between
the agent of the Treasury Department, i'm
porters, Congressman, members of the Board
of Trade, and others interested in the revival
of the foreign commerce of Philadelphia, can
scarcely fail to exert an important influence.
The new law providing for the transporta-
tion of goods arriving by foreign steamers to
interior ports before the duties are ascer-
tanned, has already been enforced with suffi-
cient success to demonstrate that the object
at which it aims will ultimately, and, we hope,
very speedily, be completely attained. The
nation has listened and obeyed the demand,
made time and again, and often in an ex-
ceedingly rude and ungenerous manner, that no
local distractions should be raised against the
free transit of internal commerce; and it is
the accepted doctrine of the day that mer-
chandise of every description from every in
terror town and city must be transported in
the shortest possible time from the original
point of manufacture to the ultimate destina-
ton. In accordance with this doctrine Phi
ladelphia has lost all her old agencies for the
Capitalization of local trade. No unnecessary
transhipments are required here for any class
like nearly all others in the Union, is in one
sense only way station on her own railroads,
whether they lead from the North to the
South, or the East to the West. If
this doctrine is good for domestic commerce,
why should it not also be vigorously applied
to foreign trade? Since local peculiarities
count for nothing in a commercial account
aggregating thousands of millions, why should
they be made omnipotent in foreign trade
amounting at most to few hundred millions?
There is really no good reason for such dis
tinction, and as soon as this subject is tho
roughly understood the American people will
not tolerate attempts from any quarter to
perpetuate these red-tape barriers to free
commerce. New York has insisted,
perhaps not unwisely, that there
shall be no break of connection or gauge in
sending to her wharves the wheat, flour,
petroleum, iron, cotton, coal, and corn of the
country; and whenever the interior cities de-
mand that she shall not be permitted to unne-
cessarily delay or obstruct the free transit of
goods arriving at her docks in foreign stea-
mers, they only mete out to the metropolis the
measure she inexorably and mercilessly metes
out to every inland town.
Artificial causes have made New York the
point of arrival for nine-tenths of the foreign
steamships arriving on our shores; the em-
ployment of these steamships in transporting
goods across the Atlantic is a necessity to the
modern importer in an age when tickle
fashion is forever changing; but it is not
logical necessity that the importing houses
identified with this trade must necessarily be
located in New York and obliged to transact
their Custom House business there. That
result is due wholly to arbitrary laws and
official regulations; and the recent relaxation
of the rigor of these laws and regula-
tions will, if followed up properly,
redistribute all the foreign commerce of the
country into its natural channels. New York
could not find words sufficiently insulting
and abusive of the Pennsylvania city of Erie,
some years ago, for her efforts to insist upon
the execution of laws providing for break of
railway gauges and a transfer of packages
within her chartered limits; but the New
York efforts to compel every American i'm
porter to pay tribute to her bonded
warehouse proprietors, her owners of
real estate, and to swell her Custom
House returns, are prompted by
On infinitely more selfish and contemplate
spirit than that displayed by the city of Erie.
Above all things, it is wrong for the nation
to assist any one locality in depriving all
others of their legitimate share of foreign
commerce. more especially since it is de-
monstrated fact that the unnatural, unjust,
and unnecessary concentration of Custom
House business at a single point causes an
annual loss of gold revenue variously esti-
mated at from thirty to fifty millions of
dollars.
An auspicious and vigorous effort to re-
form this great national wrong, and to treat
all large American cities with impartial
justice, has at last been fsirly commenced;
and we earnestly hope that these efforts will
be continued until they are completely
triumphant. Nearly all the machinery ne
cessary is already in existence. Custom
houses are established in every interior
city of Importance, many of them creating
officials who waste e large portion OF
their time in sheer idleness. The law and its
officers recognize the principle contended for.
and it only remains to render the proposed
new system thoroughly effective by the pro
per adjustment of q few minor details
Surely this is not too great task for Ameri
can statesmanship; and its success means
that every importer who finds a marke
for his goods in Philadelphia, or whose goods
are distributed from this point into the inte
rior, shall have his store located here, ant
as New York has made all other American