National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-06-23

clerk letter of the Secretary Of the Treasury
of July %, 1854, and beg him TO read tne
portion between the brackets.
ISIR: Your letter Of the 18th instant Is received,
requesting to be instructed In writing IN ~
to the proper construction OF the langunge u 80
second paragraph on the ninth page OF the printe9
tariff OF June 20, 1884, Wis: "On tin plates, ana
iron galvanized or coated with any metal by elec,
tric batteries, or otherwise, ~ cents per poun.99
It would appear that an error OF punctuotIvvn
has been made by some one; most probably ~ ne
clerk who engrossed that part Of the act; II tn me
comma which Is inserted after the word pilates !,
i.iron the true sense viii Sc had, which unques-
tionably Is that the tin plates well rs the iron,
electric batteries or otherwise, In order 70 bring
them within the provision
And that construction remains even unto
this day. For we find In the authorized tariff
of the Treasury Department, published after
the act of June 9, 1879, which took off 10 per
cent. from the duties, the following remarks-
BILE announcement: -
otherwise than by electric batteries, ~ cents per
pound. Ordinary tin plates or tins other than the
above, Is per cent. ad yalorem. p.
And yet, with this vast fraud upon the rere-
nue. by this firm staring them In the face, II
they had chosen to examine 1t, the COMMITTEES
diminution OF duty on tin plates upon the petit
ton of Phelps, Dodge & Co., TO cent per
pound, and passed the bill through under sus-
pension Of the rules.
Such being the undeniable recorded facts In
regard to Phelps, Dodge & Co., what was the
special agent Of the Treasury to believe when
he found them charged with fraud, especially
when false and double invoices were produced
to him In December, 1871 Why, he could
not but believe that these men were continu-
ing to take all manner Of unfair, fraudulent
and swindling advantages of the Government,
and doubtless he examined their books with
that belief. .--
And what did he fndi He found that they
had q corresponding house in Liverpool, and
that that house was engaged in consigning IN
voices Of tin-plates to the house Of Phelps
Dodge g. Co., In this country, daily, and some
times three or four invoices per day; that II
every case those invoices were sworn to as {
purchasers invoice-that is, that the good
had been purchased In open market by the
house of Phelps, Dodge & Co., and that the
prices annexed to the articles therein were the
true and genuine prices paid for them. But ht
found that In the only kind of tin-plates II
which they could cheat-because the prices O
the ordinary kind of tin-plate were as staple a
gold eagles would have been If imported b.
that frm-ln every instance they had a double
invoice from the manufacturer, and that thos'
specially large sizes Of tin were not purchased
BY Phelps, Dodge s. Co. or Phelps, James
Co. in open market at all, but were manufac
tured for those firms, which are one and tn
same firm; and that in every instance, whel
they swore they had bought these articles II
open market, they swore falsely, and knew
1t, because they knew the article wa
manufactured to order for their firm, AM
they should have sworn to the cost price of tn
manufactured article, which he found eacl
time had been In the possession of the firm
before the oath was made, and 1t was highe
cost than the invoice price to which they mad
oath. So that they and those whom they EN-
Moved had been guilty of deliberate and corrup