New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-10
ORGA NIZED RASCALITY IN THE CUSTOM


The recent TRANSACTIONS OF tne - DetecLlVe
Bureau" of tho CustOm-house, under the
name or pretense of protecting the revenue,
are so questionable and anti-American in
character, and so suggestive Of" Ring thiev-
ing and blackmailing, that the public are very
rapidly coming to the opinion that the sooner
the whole system of arbitrary seizure of books
and papers, of espionage and mOieties. is done
away with, the better alike for our morality
and our commercial and mercantile interests.
No one at all cOnversant with the history of our
customs laws can doubt that, in the outset, and
up to within a very recent period, the laws
and penalties enacted in respect to smuggling
or the unlawful importation OF foreign goods,
wares and merchandise, were intended to apply
to offenses detected rs it were in the act of COM
mission and that il was never even so much
az contemplated, that after an invoice OF
imported goods had once been in the
possession of the Revenue officials, subject to
their unrestrained scrutiny, and having passed
the ordeal of examination and appraisement,
the case could be again opened for adjudica-
ton, and that. too, not primarily IN the inter-
est of the Government but rather for the
profit of detectives, spies, and informants. Ii
seems almost superfluOus to say that such
system as this exists nowhere outside OF the
United States, and that the only one in any
country in any way comparable with it is that
which Spain has enacted for regulating the
foreign commerce of her remote and uneasy
dependency of Cuba. II is also worthy of
note, as illustrative of the theory and practice
in respect to these matters in other European
States, that in Great Britain, where the
guards against frauds upon the Gus
toms revenues are, as the result OF long
experience. most stringent and effective, the
law makes broad distinction between direct
smuggling, or the attempt to import without
the knowledge of any revenue officials and
undertaking. of goods subject to ad raiorem
duties, which, like recent United States cases,
have been through regular channels. In the
former alone are the officers of the customs
making seizures entitled to moieties or par
ticipation in penalties; while in the latter, the
Government, relying on its own officials, ex-
acting no Oaths or evidences from the i'm
porters, and making no confiscations, takes
the goods, in case of reasonable suspicion of
intended fraud, on it's own account, paying the
owner the price at which they. are valued,
with five per cent additional, and afterward
disposes of them by sale or otherwise.
AS already intimated, the present Custom
house method of procedure, the latest exhibit
ton of which is the arraignment of Jordan,
Marsh g. Co.. is of comparatively recent origin.
The way was indeed, prepared for it by the
law of 1863, which for the first time sanctioned
confscation of imports for omissions, or ir-
Irregularities, other than actual frauds but its
real inception must undoubtedly be referred
to the extraordinary internal taxes which the
expenses of the war rendered necessary-par-
ticularly the high taxes upon distilled spirits,
cigars and tOb&eeO--the. enforcement of which
called into existence as a part of the Govern
ment machinery small army of detectives
and informants. so long as these exceptional
taxes were maintained, the harvest of these
professionals was very great, and the rascality
developed something astounding and when
these taxes were repealed, and the placers
under the Internal Revenue worked out, the
same system gradually, and contrary to the
original intent of the law. transferred itself to
the Customs We say gradually. because if any
man will take the trouble to inform himself
as to the authority under which the head de-
tective Jayne and his satellites and cOadjutors
Operate--a thing in itself exceedingly difficult,
if not impossible--he will find that there has
been no special and complete act of Congress
on the subject of Custom house seizures, con-
fscations and compromises, but that from
time to time, during the last few years, in
addition to numerous and discOrdant Treasury
rulings, there have been smuggled through
Congress, by incorporation with bills OF an
antirelv foreign and irrelevant character, sum
dry provisions and amendments OF the rev.
enue laws, designed solely to favor the Ring
interest, and which, il properly understood at
the time of presentation, or which. If pre-
sented separately, would have stood no chance
whatever of acceptance and enactment At
the same time, when any attempt has been
made in the interest = commerce aud the