The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-06-26
AN ENCOUNTER.
Butler On the Rampage.

n I "a
Il large portion of the members were
3 in their seats. The speaker himself
vas in the chair. The galleries on
four sides of the Hall were crowded
with spectators, and correspondents
Mr. Butler spoke at length in de-
fence of the moiety system. No per
sonal relations, he said, should enter
into what he was about to say. He
desired only to raise q warning voice
against what he regarded as unEise
legislation.
After comparing the revenue laws
Of England with those Of this coun-
try, Mr.. Butler said, the mere snug
Ter brings in his goods in small yes
sells, but the great importer brings in
his in 5000 tons ships, and bribes
custom house officers to let them in,
or by q confederate partner sRears
them through, and makes hundred
of thousands of dollars BY a single
venture, and becomes a merchant
prince and probably builds a church
out of his gains and becomes noted
for his charities, which adyertises
his house and brings it custom This
is no fancy picture. But it is said
that we must take it for granted that
merchants are honest; that it is not
to be assumed that they will defraud
the government; and that all this
machinery only serves to oppress
and vex them when they hBppen to
make mistakes. The committee
seem to have forgotten that when a
merchant makes q mistake the law
provides a remission of the penalty.
No penalty can be inflicted on a mer-
chant if he can convince the secre-
tary of the Treasury that it was only
mistake. Before an informer cod
make money by detecting a crime. a
crime must have been committed.-I
| Somebody must cheat the revenue
before anybody can inform against
him. He declared as a startling an
nouncement that the United States
did not receive more than 81 per
cent of its duties where the tariff is
advalorum; in other words, ii the
government should collect its pres.
ent duties honestly, it could paw 100
millions of the national debt every
year, and yet the people would have
no higher taxes than they have now
Fraudulent importers, by fraudulent
invoices, charged the people those
duties and pocketed them as part of
their profits. By these enormous
frauds the government and people
were losers, and the importers only
gamers. He would not have dared
to make this very startling and Won
derful-almost incredible
of frauds perpetrsted by undervalua- /.
ton and false invoices, if he were not
fortified by proof, to which he pro-
ceeded to call the attention of the |
House. Having given some figures /
to show the frauds committed in the
importation of Worsted goods, silks
velvets, ribbons, &c, he came down
to the case of Phelps, Dodge & Co..
which had been put forward, he said I.
by the committee of ways and means =
bataille of encounter. If the story
told By Dodge senior member of the =
firm, were true, the government sho'd
reyerentially beg pardon of the firm, :
and pay back all it had got from the :,
firm and large sum for smart mon =
ey besides. But If it was not true,if =
there was not one single substantial I
word of truth in it all, then then they = :
we're simply smuggling, perjured VII = :
lains, and they ought to have been = =
followed great deal more strictness 7
instead of less. Dodge has stated, :
before the committee of Ways and I
Means that up till 1879 no charge 7
had ever been made against his firm, . .
was that so? Not at all. Congress u
had to alter its revenue laws in order y
to meet the frauds, and marauding. =
and cheating, and swindling of these = =
christian merchants. Laughter. q
That was a pretty harsh accusation, y y
and it would require to be fully sus. y
tanned. q
Mr.. Butler proceeded TO relate how Il Il
the law which authorized American y
statuary to be imported free of duty. "
had been taken advantage of by "
Phelps, Dodge d Co., who imported !" "
statutes of the Goddess of Liberty. ~
Of Washington and of Jefferson, in u u
ead, tin and copper, and they turned L
hem from the warehouse into the
melting pot, and he quoted from the p
Globe what Thaddeus
Stevens stated in the 3Sth Congress, +
md yet William E. Dodge stated in L
he committee room of the Ways and
Means that up to 1872 his firm had eo @
never been charged with anything " ~
lgainst the revenues, and he had a. a.
irawn tears from the eyes of the com I, u
nittee. If the reporters were to be 8
laughter he could imagine eO y
low old Mr.. James, the Liverpool ~
partner Of the firm, laughed as chuck ~
ID down the Goddess of Liberty into p
he hold. Laughter. He knew a ~. ot
Boston merchant, alluding to Will ~
Jams, wine importer, who having p
,een detected in frauds on the reven- Az
committed suicide, there
" confessing his guilt,and if old Mr. SD
lanes had done the same thing, it
Eould only have been a like confes- IA IA
in Of guilt. ~ ~
But importing lead, tin and cop I'LL
,er, as statues of the Goddess of
liberty, Of Washington, and of JEFF m' rs
erson, was not by any means the "a
lost serious raid that Phelps, Dodge
, Co., had made on the revenue. Du
n 1854, before Grant had organized
be army of the Potomac to cross no
be Rapidan, when gold was $50.
congress passed q resolution in leV
ressing all tariff duties fifty per al
ent. for sixty days. Dodge went to
be Treasury Department and had a CeI
emma taken out of one place and ls
ut in another, and thereby cleared ge
{, 2,250,000. In comparison with
lat,what signifed the 100000 fraud eV'
n importation of fruit by the change yus
a comma. He had read a letter enS
ON Fessenden, Secretary of the
'reasuTy, on this point and his COM Ge
lent on it was that Fesrenden was hel
good lawyer but poor tinman. mo
An interruption by Dawes and an my