New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-18
CUsTOM-HOUSE SEIZURES.

A firm of importers in this city, having been
charged, on the testimony OF former clerk,
with defraudng the revenue by undervalua-
ton of invoices, was visited recently by
Special Agent Jayne, commonly known as
Handcuff jayne" who seized number of
books and papers, and conducted himself in a
violent and, according to the statements of
the firm, in needlessly offensive and brutal
manner. 1t is also asserted that he carried
away books and papers which his warrant
gave him no authority to touch; this in the
face of the protests of the importers and their
counsel and against the advice of the United
States District-Attorney. Mr.. Jayne has ac-
cordingly been sued for assault and trespass,
and the damages are laid at $4,000.
We have no opinion to express touching the
charge of fraud out of which the troubles
grew. If Messrs Plat and Boyd have sworn
to false invoices it is to be hoped that they
will be properly punished. But whether they
are innocent or guilty, we trust that their suit
against Mr.. Jayne may be pressed to speedy
trial. The system of procedure for suspected
fraud under our revenue laws is one under
which scandalous abuses, if not always COM
mitted, are always possible. Mr.. Jayne him
self explained it before the last Custom-house
Investigating Committee. The promise of
moiety to infOrmers induces clerks to play the
SOY and denounce the real OF supposed frauds,
| errors, and irregularities of their employers
or if no informer present himself the Special
Agent himself may apply for warrant on
his simple Conformation and belief" Mr..
Jayne then visits the counting-house of the
suspected parties, puts stop to their bust
ness, Injuries their credit, carries off their
| books, reads their private correspondence, and
| in this manner searches for evidence. IL he
find no fraud in the particular importation to
which his attention is first directed, he is at
liberty to hunt at random in the chance of
stumbling upon a wrong somewhere else. off
al were fishing for bull-heads." said Mr..
jayne to the Committee, "and' caught a
trout, would not throw it back into the
stream The books.and papers may be ran
sacked in this way for weeks and months, and
meanwhile the transactions of the merchants
are brought to a stand, and their reputation
inevitably suffers. 1t is said that innocent
men are sometimes induced to ''scOmpromise"
the claims of the Special Agent. and pay q
large sum of money to get rid of further an
noyance and Mr.. Jayne has testified that
when he wants to brighten them into surren-
der he sometimes bangles before their eyes a
pair of handouts. The cases of Naylor
g. Co. and Phelps, Dodge g. Co. will
readily occur to ours readers as conspicu-
GUS examples of the abuses of the seizure
system, and several others, of more or less
fragrant character, were brought to light
during the investigation to which we have
alluded. We recollect one in particular-the
case of a firm whose books were seized on ac-
count of an alleged discrepancy between the
Custom house weight and the invoice weight
of cargo of wool. An attempt was made to
force them to compromise for $4,000, but
they resisted so firmly that after long delay
the case was dropped, and it afterward turned
out that the Custom-house weigher, upon
whose figures the seizure was based, had never
weighed the wool at all.
Now it is very certain that the statute does
not contemplate these reckless and violent pro-
ceedings on suspicion, and 1t is OF the utmost
importance for the mercantile community to
understand just how far Special Agent may
be allowed to go. We hope, therefore, that
the Platt g. Boyd case will be made a test,
and if it should be decided that irresponsible
officers of the revenue have power to go into
any mans Office and rummagc at will among
his papers, by what is practically n summary
PROCESS an amendment of the law win un-