The daily gazette., 1875-04-01


missions of relatives and friends, and
science has them passed by the Custom
House officer as his own. Thousands of
dollars worth Of fine clothing may thus
be sent free of duty in the course of the
year to the fashionable smugglers of
Philadelphia, who take the ground rents
and interest moneys Of Philadelphia tai
lorS to pay their bills to London tailors.
But scarcely less guilty is he who bar
gains with foreign houses for his cloth
thing, conscious that they will be sent
to hun uninyoiced and by way of Canada.
Bogus emigrants' trunks, dishonest ap-
praisers, lying tourists-all conspire, not
merely to cheat the Government of its
legal dues, but to ruin the trade of our
merchants and increase the general de-
preston in business. From the most
careful estimates of our leading tailors
the direct loss to the trade in this city
through these smuggling operations may
be safely stated at two hundred thou
sand dollars yearly, quite three times
that in Boston and Baltimore together.
The actual loss in this city alone would
be sufficient for the maintenance. OF
three orfour large establishments, and
it is the more grievous from the fact
that it is caused by the selfshness OF
those who can best afford to be gener-
Gus. The Merchant Tailors' Exchange,
which includes nearly all the principal
firms in the trade, numbers now about
sixty houses and represents @ capital of
about two millions five hundl ed thou
sand dollars. Inquiry among the mem
bers of this organization elicits the fact
| that nearly all have suffered from the
system of smuggling which we have ex-
posed, and that this crippling process ia
steadily on the increase. So far against
this wrong they are equally powerless
with the Government, the rigor Of whose
laws is nullified by the practice of false
officials and the careless dishonesty OF
her citizens. The tailors who are fire.
quently called upon to alter garments
| made by English OF French workmen
may know precisely who the smugglers
are, but they are not willing to inform
upon those whom society regards as gen.
tlemen, and whose wealth would easily
| secure them from punishment. And on
the other hand Custom House officials
are often powerless' against the oath OF
the smuggler, however strongly they
may suspect them.
The case then is briefly this:
Amount sent by Philadelphia
gentlemen to foreign tailors,
yearly $500 900
Amount of unpaid duties. .......... 200, 900
Loss to merchants. .........,..,....... zoe, 900
Loss to the Government, ....,...,.. 200, 900
Loss to the Nation ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 100000
1t is useless in the face of these facts
to characterize the action which we
have described as it deserves. What is
true of this single mercantile interest,
is true of all the rest. Our most fash
ionable teams are decked out in snug
gled harness, our ladies are arrayed in
, smuggled silks and laces and jewelry.
Some of our stateliest drawing rooms
, shine with smuggled carpets and Snug
gled furniture the costliest sideboards
are furnished with smuggled wines and
smuggled cigars. Everything serves,
for the Atlantic ocean is almost bridged
: with steamers, and across it more people
: 90 in the course of the year than fifty
years ago crossed the Alleghenies. Fiji
1 teen steamers sail from our ports week
Q ly, carrying in twelve months nearly
. forty thousand cabin passengers, and
: draining this country yearly of forty
: millions of dollars in gold, for which
, there is no return to our mechanics, our
manufacturers. or our, tradesman.o And
Philadelphia is ut the mercy of this
smuggling and these smugglers, who
3 having exhausted their city of her pro-
Y ductive power. are well content to leave
her sterile.
We commend to them this review oi
their work, not so much in the hope that
they will find it profitable reading, as il
the belief that it will awaken our mer.
G chants to the necessity of prompt anc
united action against Il system which
already pernicious, threatens seriously
: to impede the future prosperity of oul
Industrious.