St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-11-20
Supervising Agent Tingle, in
His Report, Uncovers the
Source.
The Heavy Duty on Opium Is
Prohibitive Of Legitimate
Trade.
How the Canadian Govern
ment Is Gathering in Rich
Profits.
Cinnamon Also Swelling the
Dominion Revenues by a
Head Tax.

w ASHiNGTON. NOV. ia. ~. LINZ IL.
supervising special agent of the treas
ury department. in his annual report to
the secretary of the treasury. shows
that during the past fiscal year the spe-
cial agents seized goods TO the value of
SAB, 236. and recovered 1925. 600 or ac
count of seizures, fines, duties. etc. He
gives several instances of fraudulent
impOrtationS, and refers to the difficult
ties under which the agents conduct
their operations. Mr.. Tingle says:
The work of the Office has not been
accomplished without some irritation.
and, in instances, criticism in the pub
lie press, inspired doubtless by those
whose invoices have been called in
question as well as by merchants of UNI
questioned integrity who have unad-
visedly given complaints of agents
of foreign manufacturers seeking adj
mission of their goods at fictitious
values. to the manifest loss of revenue
and injury to honest trade. 1t is, I'M
fortunately, true that public officers. on
account of such opposition and crIti-
cism, sometimes shrink from the per-
Torrance of a plain duty. A serious
question is the great difficulty under
present conditions of enforcing the
Laws Against Smugslers
who make the Dominion of Canada the
base of their operations. The number
Of officers for preventive duty upon this
long line of frontier does not exceed
twenty. and the present customs apprO-
priatiOn will not admit of any material
increase of this force. 1t is APP
parent that their efforts TO prevent
smuggling are in large degree
exists upon the long boundary line be-
tween the United States and Mexico.
The district of Puget sound, comprising
many islands within a few miles of
British territory, and a long line of
water front, furnishes facilities for
smuggling and the clandestine INTRO
duction of Chinese, against which the
customs officers have valnly cOntended.
l am reliably informed that during
the last year $4,000 pounds of crude
opium were imported and manufactured
at Victoria. making about 10000 pounds
of the prepared article for smoking
purposes, and that nearly every pound
of it was struggled into the United
States. 1t is more profitable to take the
risk of an occasional capture and con-
fiscatiOn than to pay the enormous duty
of S12 per pound. VIII ich is prohibitive
of legitimate impOrtationS, and is the
essential basis of
The Smugg1er's Profit.
Reduce the duty to 81 per pound and
his occupation will be gone. The pres
ent arrangement benefits the Canadian
government, which collects 81 per pound
upon the crude opium used in the man
ufScture of the prepared article. Our
tariff act of 1890 admits crude opium
containing per cent OF NOR phia free.
but imposes a duty of $12 per pound
upon opium of lower grade, such as is
used in the preparation of the drug for
smoking purposes, the same rate as is
imposed upon prepared opium. The
practical effect of this is that the rev.
enue formerly derived from imported
opium is turned to Canada and the snug
glers. 1t were better to declare all
opium free of duty than to leave the
present laws on the statute book. The
enormous profits in opium smuggling,
due entirely to the high duty, have in
duced the employment of large capital
and a great numer of bold. skillful men
to engage in the illicit traffic, made so
alluring by existing laws.
But the smuggling of opium is not the
on ly alarming consequence following
the opening up of the railways through
Manitoba, the Northwest territory and
British Columbia. The various acts of
congress having for their object the eX-
clusion of Chinese laborers from the
United States are practically nullified
by the clandestine introduction of
Chinese coming direct from China
through the Dominion of Canada. The
system of the Canadian Pacific Railway
company lands Chinese at Vancouver by
the thousands.
Canada's Profitable Tax.
The Canadian government collects a
head tax of $50 on each Chinese person
and gives him certificate which enables
his return to ICanada without payment
of the tax the second time. should he be
detected in entering the United States.
The courts in several cases have given
the construction that Canada and not
China was the country whence these
Cinnamon came. within the meaning of
the law. The effect of this is that Chi
nese persons once returned to Canada
again enter the country. and repeated
instances of this kind have occurred.
Thus the object of the Chinese restric-
ton act is practically defeated.
The necessity for a revision of the
customs laws, and particularly for the
reorganization or customs districts, with
q view TO the adjustment or consOlida-
ton of districts in which little or no
customs business is done, is shown by
the business of the several districts
during the last fiscal year. In thirty-One
districts and ports no duties were col
lected, and in forty-three of them the
expenses exceeded the receipts. The
decay of commerce in many of the old
customs districts, coupled with the rapid
growth of the Northwest and the need
for the creation of new ports an0 dis
tricts upon the coast as we'll as frontier,
would seem to demand new and COM
prehensive legislation upon the subject,