The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-05-21
The silk frauds.

mort Of New York, having on board cargo
10 be landed here, she passes into the
hands of the collector and surveyor OF the
district, who are required to place inspect
ors thereon to examine into her contents,
and 10 prevent any merchandise to be ia
Lon therefrom without o written order
from the collector and naval officer. Ey-
erv man. woman and child, and everything
nm hoard. are under the power Of the col
iector. He can prevent the captain and
officers Of the ship, as well as the passen,
gers, from landing, till they each and all
nass his examination. He can and does
demand from the captain manifest, con-
tanning description of every package on |
board, its contents, by whom shipped, the
name and residence of the consignee., In
a word, the law places every vessel and
cargo arriving in this port absolutely and
peremptorily into the hands OF collector
Arthur and surveyor Sharpe, 10 'unlade
therefrom or otherwise remove any mer-
chandise without permit from the collect
or and naval officer and in the daytime Is
punishable by fine or Imprisonment or for
fixture of the goods. The customs law
considers the consignees OF all imported
goods holding the bills of lading to be their
0,oners, and the collector has ample time
TO examine the captains manifest for
names Of the consignees. 1t such owner
wishes to get possession of his goods, he de-
scribes them in an entry before the collect
or, and the latter takes steps to have them
appraised for duty. If no one appears
within specified time to claim the goods.
the collector directs the inspector, by "a
general order" to send them to govern
ment warehouse so as to relieve the yes
sci. IF the owner appears, but says he
does not wish to pay duty immediately, the
collector takes bond for duties from the
owner, aud then gives to the inspector on
the vessel a permit" to send to q govern
ment warehouse.
If the contents of every vessel arriving
in New York were so small that they could
be examined on the dock, and duties could
be there levied and paid before the mer-
chandise departed, the business OF the col
lector, naval officer and surveyor would be
simple enough. But that is impossible
The magnitude of the importations forbid
it. And besides, we have built up by law
system of giving a credit TOR duties
placed in warehouse, and system of ap.
praising, which warehousing and apprais
ing are carried on in separate buildings II
different parts of the city. So long as thu
merchandise is on the importing vessel Of
on the dock the collector can throw cor
don of sentries around it and hold it Sc
curely, but, with every continuance to dis
tribute it, either under general order
(when unclaimed) or to warehouses (wheI
the owner asks q credit for duties, or t
transfer to another port in this country, o
to export,) or to appraisers stores for ex
animation and appraisal, there comes risl
and danger Of fraud by cartmen and store
keepers.
To be sure, if the owner on making entr.
with the collector asks credit for dutie
the laws says he shall give good bond t
pay all the duties, and as a pledge shaI
leave the goods in warehouse in the hand
of government store keepers But if tn
store keeper be purchasable the tricks {
fraud with warehoused goods are endles:
The bonds for duties can, to be sure, onl
be cancelled by payment or by exportatio
of the merchandise. But VIC saw tn
other day how shifty importer undertoo
to substitute leakV and damaged an
worthless cases of champagne for other
in warehouse in perfect order, and then b
exporting the former and then cancelin
his bonds for the latter make good his los
What can be done with champagne in thi
relation can be done with everything, {
even worthless goods may be substitute
for valuable goods. Here, the right
export is the key which turns the lock
warehouse fraud, if the COY ernment stor
keeper be scoundrel and then, too, it'll
collector takes bonus from bogus prime
pal and straw sureties the key is useful
creased. But, for taking such bonds, ar
for not inquiring to ascertain if there
such a consignee or owner as purports
sign the paper, there is no excuse on Il
part of the deputy collector.
Besides the warehOused goods on whit
credit for duties is given, there are Il
entries for cash. And here we touch Il
Lawrence frauds. Mr.. Bliss informs IL
newspapers that the consignees, the holde
of the bills of lading and the makers of Il
entries at the custom house were myth
The names were fctitions and represent
nobody, but Lawrence or some one ell
signed these names wherever necessar
But vet, as the collector had possession
the merchandise on the vessel, he could ha
secured the duty if he could have held Il
goods as the law contemplates but he d
not Why did he not? Let Mr.. BIZ
explain. and his explanation is somethil
like this
Peter Funk, through a broker, makes
entry with the collector for ten cases
jews-harps Of specified value, as on Il
vessel in possession of the collector, as
to pay duty, and take possession of thel
The broker presents bill of lading to Il
order of Funk, emitting Funk to make Il
entry. The collectors clerk computes Il
duty on the basis of the jews-harp stateme
in the entry, tol.ich is paid, and the dep
ty collector designates, as the law require
one case of the so called jews-harps to
sent to the appraisers for examination, al
then, under the law, permit is issued
Funk to take into his own possession fro
the ship the other nine cases, on his 81
ing a bond to keep them unopened al
return them Cd the demand of the cole
tor if made within specified number
days. Then Funk gets the nine cas-
which no customs officer has ever inspe,
ed or opened, and each contains pie,
silks. The one marked by the deputy f
the appraisers contains jews harps,
therefore 'all right" and Funk is new
called on for the nine. That is the reas
why the collector did not hold on to 4
ten cases till he ascertained what tn
contained and collected the duty on t
jews harp case. This is certainly a We
stupid and vulgar fraud. There is Il
much wit in it. But the deputy on
seen" there is no end to the SUGGEST
introduction of queer" silks and other
ticles paying high rates of duty. And
so much can be done under one theor
what has happened under others?
Ii will be asked why the law did \
compel the collector to send all the t
cases to the appraisers and tins nreve