New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-10

either in the Committee or under the pressure
of other business the project is quietly
strangled or made way with.
| OF enactments of the surreptitious character
| above referred to is remarkable paragraph
inccrDOrated, no one knows how. in the Leg
islative, Executive, and Judicial Appropriation
bill of May s, 1872, and smugg1ed through
Congress in close connection with apprOpria
| tons for salaries of Treasury officials, for
dies stamps and stationery, soap. matches,
| brooms, and Wallpaper. which reads AZ fol-
| lows
"And from aud after the passage Of this sct the secre
ary OF the Treasury shall have power to employ not
more than three persons the proper officers OF
the Government in discovering and collecting any
moneys belonging 10 the United States Whenever the
same shall be withhold by any person or corporation.
upon such terms and conditions he shall deem best
for the interests Of the United States but no compensa
hOn shall be pad such persons except ont Of The money
| and properly secured; aud no person shall be EN-
ployed under provisions Of this clause who shall not
have fully set forth, written statement under oath.
addressed the Secretary Of the Treasury tho charac
of the claim out of which he proposes to recover
mot word said about the evidence or probable cause
OF sIspicOn or assist in recovering moneys for the
United States. the laws by the violation Of which the
Same have been withheld. tho of the
firm corporation having thus withheld such moneys;
aud the person employed shall be required to make
report his proceedings under such contract at anu
time vhcn required 10 do so by the Secretary OF the
| Treasury" ... ..I
| 1t is safe to say taat the existence of this
| act, constituting secret commission OF per-
sons not necessarily holding any other office
under the Federal Government, ia not known
| to five members of the present Congress; and
yet it is we'll understood that such a rowing
commission has been apDOinted-or, to follow
the language of the statute, contracted NTH
that a prOtege of Gen. Butler has been placed
at the head OF it and that its business, chiefly
confined to Boston. has been TO bully and in
| timidate merchants and others in respect to
| alleged deficiencies under the defunct income
and other internal revenue taxes, and to ex-
tort hush money without any other publicity
than reporting ostensiby to the Treasury, but
in reality to some subordinate official, whose
interest it is to say nothing about it. But
the Ring have not been content with weaving
the snares of the law to suit themselves, aided
withal by a system of Duties under which
the revenue is collected, so mixed and con-
fused that it is no exaggerlti0n to say that no
member of Congress, nor any officer OF the
Treasury outside Of the appraisers office. can
pas complicated invoice of merchandise
through the Custom house without exposing
himself to suspicion of fraud and irregular
ity. Something more to bring game faster
into the trap was necessary, and this the fer
tile mind of the head detective and his legal
advisers have found in the miserable and con-
temptbe device of tempting, through pros
pective share of conscatiOns and moieties,
merchants clerks occupying confidential posi-
fI,air rnnln
This plan, so far as the public know was first
tried on a large scale in the case of Phelps,
Dodge & Co., and it proved 80 successful,
and brought so large reward to the chief
rascal that it has constituted a sufficient in
ducement for persons in the employ of at least
three other great firms to put themselves at
the disposal of scOundrels in the Custom house,
and in place of preventing technical violations
of the law on the part of their employers, as
was their duty. conspire to plumber and betray
by cOncealing irregularities, and, perhaps, even
originating them. That the CustOm-hOuse
authorities were actuated by spirit quite as
mercenary IA that of the informers and spies
with whom they cO0perated, and that pro-
fessed desire to subserve the interests OF the
Government and protect the revenues was amere
pretext and sham, is made clearly evident
Also by the circumstance that In all OF the
cases that have been cOnspicuOusy brought
by them before the public, the maximum profit
that could have accrued to the parties ac-
cused-even supposing every allegation pre-
ferred against them to have been true-was so
absolutely insignificant as to render from the
very outset the supposition of intentional
fraud an absurdity. Thus in the case of
HI, Cd e., 20 hay thp
of the DistTict-Attorney, Judge Davis. that
during period covering five years, and
involving payments in duties of Millions the
aggregate loss sustained by the Government
was nOminally less than three thousand dollars.
In the case of Woodruff & Robinson, where
the frauds have been represented as amount
ing to millions about four thousand dollars, like
wise spread over period of years. covers all that
has been reported for settlement; while in the
case of Jordan, Marsh g. Co., the latest news
is that the case has settled down to some four
| hundred doUdrs-the value of cartons and
packing cases not included in reckoning up
invoices, and the absence of which, it is more
than likely, was tho work of the very clerk =,
whose business it was to see that the in
voices in this and other particulars were not
faulty. In the case of leading German
crockery importing firm in this city, some
thirteen thousand dollars worth of merchandise,
it is understood, has been held for forfeiture,
merely because the freight on the same from
the inland place of manufacture to the port of
shipment, amounting to comparatively small
sum. was not found included in the invoice
exhibited at the Custom-hOuse which item.
there is every reason to believe was intention