Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-28
ESPECIAL rELEoHAM TO THE DIsPArcH.l

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importers.
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH
WASHINGTON, December 81 Soon after
the reassembllng of the Supreme Court in
January decision will be handed down in
the silk ribbon cases. Should the Govern
ment be defeated in this suit, there will be
refunded to importers in various large
cities, principally New York and Philadel
phia, an amount of money estimated BY
Treasury officials and others who have in
vestigated the case for the Government TO
be somewhere between Sc, ,000, 900 and 81, ,000,-
900. OF this amount very large portion
probably one-fourth-wOu1d go into the
pocket of John Wanamaker, Postmaster
General.
The case argued in the Supreme Court,
last week, is one of the so-called Edelhoff
cases. Edelhoff has two of these cases pend
ing in the Supreme Court, and John Wana-
maker is the defendant in another. The
Edelhoff case No 1, is put forward to test
the legality of ex-Collector Robertson's ac-
ton in assessing duty on silk ribbons at 80
per cent instead of 20 per cent, and the deci-
sion in this case will make it unnecessary to
try the others.
MAY BE ARGUED.
The Wanamaker case, however, may
come up for argument, as the facts set forth
in it are trife different from those in the
Edelhoff cases.
In addition to these three suits now on the
docket of the Supreme Court there are hun
dreds of others on file in the customs d.
vision Of the Treasury Department, some of
them from Chicago importers. The depart
ment wlthholds action in them, with the
consent of the parties interested, in order to
await the outcome of the test case, in which
the Supreme Court will soon render an
opinion.
John Wanamaker is one of the most ex-
tensive importers of silk ribbons in the
United States, and the case against him is
brought to the Supreme Court from the
Court of the Eastern District of Pennsyl-
vania VS. John Wanamaker and Thomas
B. .Wanamaker and Robert c. Ogden, trading
as John Wanamaker. The lower courts in
which all of these silk ribbon cases have
been tried have, as rule, returned vsrdicts
in favor of the importers. The collectors of
customs then had the cases appealed to the
Supreme Court.
VAST SUMS INVOLVED.
The parties most interested with the Gov
eminent in securing reversal of these decis-
ions are the silk manufacturers of this
country. These manufacturers, through the
National Silk Association, have always
claimed the case of the Government against
the importers has never been properly pre-
sented or argued, and claim that If it had
been, the importers would stand no chance
of compelling the Government to refund the
vast sums of money involved.
Last winter a gentleman from Philadel-
phia who has made special study of the
silk ribbon cases prepared brief which he
filed in the Treasury Department for the in
formation of the Government officials In |
the cases against the importers. |
In this brief the author confined himself |
strictly to the points of law involved, and |
filed it with Judge Maynard, then the As
sistant Secretary of the Treasury, who had |
charge of all customs matters. Judge May
nard, in writing to a member of Congress in |
reference to this legal brief, said that it was |
an unusually strong document, and that it
eertainly added great strength to the case of
the Government, and intimated that any |
court would be compelled, after an exami-
nation of this brief, to decide the cases
against the importers.
BEST SIDE OF THE CASE.
The law officers of the Government have
much the best side of the argument, and
have felt greatly chagrined that the deeis-
ions have always been against them. They
now entertain great hopes that the case OF
,he Government will be upheld by the forth
coming Supreme Court decision, although
hey prefer that the chief defendant should
be some one less influential than John
Wanamaker.
Solicitor General Chapman, who argued
,he case last week for the Government, saws
hat he was somewhat embarrassed in his
work BY the existence of decision rendered
~ his predecessor, Benjamin H. Brewster,
when Attorney General, that the attitude
If the importers was sound.
Attorneys in Washington, who have kept
rack of these celebrated cases say that there
S little doubt that the Government has not
lad fair show in the arguments that have
AIKEN place, as the importers, having great
wealth at their command, have been enabled
o employ the best counsel to be had in the
titles of New York and Philadelphia, while
he Government has been represented by the
rdinary law officials.
TWO PROFITS IN 1T.
The representatives of the silk manufac-
urers say that it would be a double wrong
0 refund money collected as duty on the
Importation of hat ribbons, because the i'm
orters have already received from the pur-
hasers of their goods the advanced prices
nat followed the assessment of the high rate
duty. For instance, all the goods that
ave been sold by John Wanamaker in
brought prices based upon the
of 30 per cent duty on the rib
ons used in their manufacture.
If, therefore, the difference between the
of 30 per cent as silk which the !
Importers paid, and 20 per cent, the duty on
elyet, which they claim is all they ought
, have paid, should be refunded, Mr.. Wan
maker would pocket s., ,000, 900 or so, in ad- a
ition to the advanced price which he re- c
eived for his goods by reason of the higher .
ssessment; in other words, he would receive .
pure gift all the money involved in the
asst number of cases which he has pending
the Treasury and in the courts awaiting '
le decision of the test case. :