Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-07-25
ING, JULY %, 1879.
A Lying Report.

From the ST. Adams Messenger.
The Democratic campaign document
known as the Glover Report contains the
following in relation 10 the revenue service
i'll Vermont:
BS arrangement OF the secretary Of the Treasury
the small town Ot Island Pond, VI, On the Grand
trunk railway, was made port OF entry for Cana
man goods. The penal bonds required amounting
10 hiiiOhs "i dollars AZ lime, all hal 10 he exc
tuied 10y TWO persons who were worth but few
Thousand dollars, which made the bonds worthless,
and showed that the stoppage al Island Pond gave
no security against smuggling. The irst effect of the
order was 10 enlarge the compensation Of the col
hector OF customs Island Pond Ia $40 OO1 or $50 900
year: three or f1ur times that of the collector OF
New York hut The second result was Ia destroy the
intran>iiu trade, To drive II uui "f the States down
the ~. Lawrence river, Ia rum the owners
OF a hundred bonded wlrrhuIi-,.s ut pnrt
land To break up the steamship lines from that mort
AMI 10 lnIlirt heavy losses on the owner. uf the
Grand Trunk railway. To tins outrageous piece nf
tyranny Is due much al the hard times that has
lately prevailed in northern New England. II IS
said that this exploit engineered hy Judge Po-
land in exchange for his support OF Secretary Brs-
tow AT the Cincinnati nominating COuV entiou. where
Poland violated his constituents Instructions by
such support. Senator Edmunds, however. wrote
letter the Glover committee claiming Tor himself
the credit of arranging the Island Pond achieve
ment and satedin the committeeman that he lid
II 10 benefit the collector, who was III some WAY re
laiedtO HIM,
This is tissue Of falsehoods. To begin
at the beginning, it is not true that Island
Pond was made a port OF entry by any re-
cent arrangement 1t has been such for
lector at Portland (the whole Washburne
family being very intiuential) u law was en-
acted for sending goods under seal, the car
doors being fastened by wire and lead seal.
The design of this law, and the practice under
fAr 20 hnl, d a .
its standing as a first class port, by having
the entries made there instead of at the first
port of entry, which was Island Pond But
this was obviously unfair to the collection
district of Vermont, and dangerous to the
public revenue, because the seals could be
easily broken on the long journey to Port
land and the goods spirited away without
paying duties. When these facts wert
shown TO Secretary Bristow (and We have
no doubt Senator Edmunds and Judge Poland
did their duty in the premSes), he made a
ruling, in accordance with the law that the
goods should be entered ut Island Pond
That is all there is of the arrangement
The deputy in charge at Island Pond is ex-
Lieut.. Gov Geo. n Dale His salary is
only 81 800 and he has two assistants who
are paid less. His income has not been in
creased by the change that was made, so the
forty or fifty thousand dollars story is all
moonshne. Neither has the income of the
collector of the district Gen. Wells been in
creased bS it, and his total income has never
been ten thousand, nor anywhere near it.
Neither OF these gentlemen are in any man
ner related to Senator Edmunds, and if they
WERE Mr.. Edmunds would never have been
weak enough to present that as II reason for
any action of Il public nature The trans
of pt,.t. 20
denim the report.
Nor is it true that the change had the
effect to destroy trade across the States and
drive it down the st. Lawrence The rail
road authorities say the traffic between Cam
ada and the States over their lines has
steadily improved for years. What differ
encc it could make to Il shipper of goods
from Canada whether they were inspected at
Island Pond or At Portland is not apparent,
though il any, il would seem to he in favor
of Island Pond. because the sooner done the
better, unless he intended to break the seal
and abstract the goods. II is doubtless true
that owners of bonded warehouses in Port
land may have suffered some, but nobody
believes that IA hundred" of them have, for
there probably never was half that number of
bonded warehouses there. Besides, il is
the business of this government to help peo-
pie Ia rent their buildings?
OF piece with this charge is the one that
the business of the Grand Trunk has been
made TO suffer and steamship lines from
Portland have been broken up. The Grand
Trunk is the only road running through
Island Pond. How can these deputies make
forty or fifty thousand year unless the
Grand Trunk carries the freights! The re,
port condemns itself. As for the steamships,
hn MI i'm hat l.. 4
has now, the Allan line in the winter But
the richest part OF all is the assertion that to
this change is due much OF the hard times in
northern New England Not one in ten
Thousand of the people in Northern New
England ever saw Island Pond or shipped
pound OF freight through it, or had any in
tereSt, near or remote that could he affected
hy It's custom house any more than by II
change OF postmasters at Duluth Such Il
ridiculous assertion is fit only for laughter
and We ought to apologize 10 our readers for
taking their time in exposing falsehooIs -
apparent, political animosity 81 obvious and
fustian 50 weak and contemptihle