The Portland daily press., 1872-01-17
THE PR ESS.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JAN. II, 1879.
The General Order System-What 1t
Means.

|
papers throughout the country, and have
read the testimony before the Senatorial Com
mittee on the subject of General Order" i
am SO astonished at the ignorance of the one
and the gross mistatement Of the other, that
feel compelled to give my testimony in re-
gard to it, and give you my name for refer
ence.
And to preface: 1 have no interest in the
present possessors of this business, and no
particular reason to wish them well, and I
am most pronounced Democrat, and there
fore do not write in defence of the Admins
tration. have been nearly quarter of a
century in the bonded warehouse business,
and can therefore give an opinion "as is an
opinion"
What is General Order store ?" 1t is a
store for unclaimed goods. What are these,
and how do they come to be unclaimed? A
vessel arrives in port, and the law requires
her to lie two business days after entering to
enable the merchants to claim their goods.
either by paying duties ON them, or by giving
bond and having them sent to warehouse
This is fair to the merchant and the ship
owner; but suppose they do not claim them
The ship cannot lie at her berth forever. She
must discharge, reload and go to sea. How
shall she get rid of her cargo? The ship
owner goes to the Collector and tells him of
this, and the Collector gives him general
order to discharge everything. But what
shall be done with these unpermitted goods?
The merchant doc not claim them; the ship
owner cannot take them; the government
nru,t kocp thonr a. lion for the duties on
them. And so the collector, who is response
BILE for them, makes some warehouseman his
agent and sends them to him. This is the
General Order business. 1t is, and always
has been, as much a part of the collectors
patronage as any other appointment in his
gift Under Mr.. Buchanan it was given to
John c. Mather; under Mr.. Lincoln to Hen
ry G. Bowen. Neither had warehouses both
farmed it out to those in the business. Mr..
Murphy or Gen. Grant has at least given it to
those who have warehouses and personally
work them. But Mr.. Stewart says, 'We are
not allowed five minutes to enter our goods
before they are thrown on the dock" Amen!
But, then, how does this work? We will take
one line, for example-the Inman. These
steamers leave Liverpool on Thursday, and in
the pleasant summer days arrive on
the Sunday or the Monday but one
following. They sail ON Saturday. This
gives them a week to discharge and re-
load. But in the stormy winter weather they
do not arrive until Wednesday or Thursday.
They must sail on Saturday. They carry the
mails, passengers are anxious to go, and it
would cause inextricable confusion if they
were held over. So it is optional with the
Secretary of the Treasury to permit them to
discharge all their cargo at once with this
proviso-that to every merchant who gets out
his permit within. the two days, the steam
ship line pays all charges at the General Or
der store for the first month. Mr.. Stewards
clerk says his house pays one-half the Gener-
al Order charges. l don't believe they pay
one-tenth.
And now how does it work? Suppose the
steamer lies out the two days. She discharges
her goods as they come. In a cargo of
thousand cases there are fifty or seventy con-
signees. Their carts will be at the pier each
for his merchants goods; the first man will
have ten cases, and he will find them scatter
ed on the dock-a hundred on top of them
he must get them all out before the next cart
man can get in; the work is interminable the
quarreling continual, time and patience worn
out. At the same time the steamer is taking
in her outward cargo, and this makes confu-
sion worse confounded.
Look at the other side; the goods are all
sent to General Order warehouse; taken
there by Government cartmen, they are care
fully assorted and TERED, each mark and
number visible. The cartmen come for them,
and they are at once put on their trucks. No
time is lost, nor patience no i'll will accrues.
The charge for storage labor, and carriage
from ship is paid by the steamers agent. who
is only too glad to do this and get his ship to
sea. These people pay most of the General
Order charges. Why are they not called to
testify?
Then as to the amount charged. During
tho last for tho nripaipol ri Of tba
General Order has been held by Mr.. Bixby
1.-THE largest, Mr.. Squire, Mr.. Myers, Mr.. Ed
wards, Mr.. Mason, Leet & Co. Mr.. Bixby
charged $1.50 for ordinary packages; Mr..
Squire $1.20 Messrs. Myers, Edwards and
Mason S1.50; Leet & Co. $1.25. (Mr. Myers
did charge Stewart only 81, but this was the
exception; he made it up on the rest.) So in
stead of Leet & Co. charging double, as
Messrs. Lindsay and Stewart say, they charge
much less than has been charged for the last
ten years. Packages from Jersey City and Ho
boken are charged twenty-five cents more be-
cause the carriage is higher.
As to General Order charges being no high
er than warehouse charges, this is simple nom
sense. Almost all the General Order mans
expenses are higher than those at a ware
house. He must have very large store, and
he must keep part of it empty always to be
ready for goods that may never come. He
carriages, machinery, ship timbers, dead men,
(all of these l have known to be in General
Order store.) He must pay for two store
keepers instead of one-$1, 800 additional.
He must keep private watchman at $3.50 a
night, and for his store alone; he must work
all night when so required. Sundays and
holidays form no exemption to him when
steamer must discharge. His-insurance is SO
high that it drives away all hope of profit
FROM, Whan tho Ganaral
Order man loses his labor and carriage and a
years storage, the Collector may die or
change his mind, and he finds the direction of
the unclaimed goods diverted to another
warehouse, and he has an empty store on his
hands and a heavy rent. This has happened
many times and several firms have been we'll
nigh ruined.
Mr.. Stewart says it is an outrage that the
Hoboken and Jersey City General Order
should be brought to New York; but the
goods for examination are brought to New
York and no one has ever thought of protest
ing against this, and there is no earthly diff
ference in the status of the two.
But why should they not be? The propri-
etors of these steamship lines and Mr.. Ste
wart are the ones chiefly clamorous about it.
These lines make great deal of money on
passengers, frieghts, mails-must they be al
lowed monopoly on storage also? For, re-
lneInDcT, uO llne lndt HAS us uOCk III new
York city has ever been allowed to have a
warehouse of their own, although they have
often asked for it. These people have gone
out of New York because rents. labor, &C.,
are cheaper in New Jersey. They can easily
underbid our people, but, is it any cheap
er to the merchants of New York? Except
the giant Mr.. Stewart These lines charge
81 per package, and Leet & Co. charge 81 so.
But the merchant who sends his cart to Ho-
boken, pays 50 to his cartman if he only
brings single package. To Leet & Co. he
pays rs cents-a clear saving of Is cents. The
Hoboken ferry-boats only sail every twenty
minutes. If the cartman is a moment late he
must wait these precious minutes. Fogs and
ice often delay him, and it is long way
round from the ferry to the bonded stores ov-
er there. A single load will average about
two hours, and this in the best part of the
day. Mr.. Stewart, doing an immense busi-
ness, and obtaining many facilities which
others cannot possess, may find it to his ad-
vantage to store in Hoboken and Jersy city,
but to smaller merchants and to cartmen it is
most expensive and vexatious inconven-
ence. Some people are malicious enough to
suggest that this commends it to Mr.. Stew
art. AS to the danger of losing a package and
such loss falling on the merchant, it is the
oI,,,xt