The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-14

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$50, 900 GOO on State and municipal account
in 1874. and twice that amount the year be-
fore.
How Excessive Duties for Protection Pro.
mote Frauds.
The following article is from the Phi!adel-
phia Times, q high protection organ, and Is,
in effect. q confe ssiOn of how excessive duties
levied for protection defraud not only the
Government, but mechanics out OF bust
ness:
For number Of years past the mercha ant
tailors of Philadelphia have complained of q
uniform decrease in the patronage OF their
most wealthy customers. The solution OF
this matter was and is simply this, that they
had transferred to English tailors the trade
which formerly was bestowed at home.
BY eluding the vigilance Of the customs
officers it is possible to purchase
clothing at about so per cent less in England
than Philadelphia tailors can afford to sell it,
The duties on ready-made clothing, together
with other charges attendant upon its impor-
tation, very nearly equal those upon the raw
material, SO that it would be impossible for q
private citizen to purchase his clothing from
an English tailor by order to any advantage
But the methods Of evading the payment OF
00tleS on goods OF THIS CHARACTER arc AumeI-
GUS and easy of adoption.
A prominent Chestnut street merchant
states that one of his customers-a gentleman
widely known in this city and State, and gen
orally esteemed-was the recipient recently of
an offer from q famous London house to fill
his orders and deliver clothing in this city at
precisely the same rates which they charged
in England, and a similar proposal from q
Montreal Canada) firm. To do this, recourse
must be had to smuggling.
This, as We have said, may be accomplished
in many ways; out the most fashionable is
that practised by the European tourist, who,
returning from the Continent brings with
him the commissions of relatives and friends,
and without the slightest twinge OF con-
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 Phila-
delphia tailors to pay their bills to London
tailOrs.
But scarcely less guilty is he who bargains
with foreign houses for his clothing, conscious
that they will be sent to him uninvoiced, and
by the way of Canada. Bogus emigrants'
trunks, dishonest appraisers, lying tourists
all conspire, not merely to cheat the govern
ment 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
5000, 600 yearly, quite three times that
amount in New York, and nearly that in Bos-
ton and Baltimore together.
The Merchant Tailors' Exchange, which in
cludes nearly all the principal firms in the
trade, numbers now about sixty houses, and
represents q capital Of about 50, 100000. In
curry among the members of this organization
ELECTS the fact that nearly all have suffered
from the system Of smuggling which we have
exposed, and that this crippling process is
steadily on the increase. The case then is
briefly thus J.:
Amount sent by Philadelphia gentlemen
to foreign ia lOrs. yearly. ........... S2OO,OOO
Amount of unpaid duties. ............. 2OO.OOU
Loss to merchants ................. NOOoO
Loss to the government. .......... 2OO,OoO
1t is useless, in the face of these facts, to
characterize the action which we have de-
scribed as it deserves. What is true of this
single mere sntile interest is true OF all the
rest Our most fashionable teams are decked
out in struggled harness, our ladies are ar
rayed in smuggled silks and laces and jewel
ry. Some Of our stateliest drawing-rooms
shine with smuggled carpets and struggled
furniture; the costiiest sideboards are fur
nished with smuggled wines and struggled
cigars. Everything serves, for the Atlantic
Ocean is almost bridged with steamers, and
across it more people 60 in the course OF
year than fifty years ago crossed the Ale
ghanies. Fifteen steamers sail from our
ports weekly, carrying in twelve months
nearly 40, 600 cabin passengers. and draining
this country yearly of SAC, 100000 in gold.
for which there is no return to our mechanics.
our manufacturers, or our tradesmen. And
Philadelphia Is at the mercy of this SNUG
Cling and these smugglers, who, having ex-
hausted their city of her productive power,
are we'll content to leave her sterile.
The editor who wrote Of q man that the
thoughts from his hard heart were as the
products of the neither milestone, excused
club, on the ground that it was merely foury
language and meant nothing.
He had jockey style of cap on, leather
band around his waist, his trowser-legs tucked
inside his boots, and was aged fifteen. milk
and spelling matches for babies" he ex-
claimed, curling his upper lip; 81 but as for
me, gimme base ballv'
Broaies Cordial, the best diarrhea medi-
cine in the world. I. L. Lyons, Camp and
Gravier.
Moral-If You were always to hide wife beaters,
one would perhaps never find them.
NOTIcE.-The unsteady inclined will miss their
best opportunities if they don't call on our old
friend Werlein, 80 Baronne street. See his ad-
vertisement
Shadines-now at all grocers.
Ask your grocer for Paragon yeast powders.