Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-17
MORE ABOUT BERRY.
San Diego's Collector and
Agent Evans.
A Treasury Agent Hauled Over
the Goals.
The Outcome of the Horse Smuggling
Fairy Tale.
A Letter from San Diegan on the
Agents Report-A Strong Pro-
test Against Berry's
Conduct.

EDITORS HERALD: In the San Fran
cisco Chronicle of the 9th inst. ap-
pears what purports to be an interview
with j. F. Evans, special agent of the
United States treasury department. Mr..
Evans is reported as saying that a
wholesale system of smuggling has
been carried on in San Diego, and the
collector in thwarting the smugglers has
caused considerable prejudice against
himself" Although this conscientious
official did not, as he states to this in
terviewer, feel justified in entering into
details, yet he allows some other re-
porter to read his report, covering, as
the reporter states, "thirty closely writ
ten pages" and to make synopsis of
it, which he furnishes to the Chronicle.
The object OF this whole article. which
no one here doubts was prepared
by Berry and Evans themselves. was to
Offset the movement which they knew
was on foot, to obtain Berry's removal
from an Office which he disgraces, The
| mere fact of a special agent of the
government allowing any one to know
what he intended reporting to the de-
partment, is clearly a violation of
his duty. 1t places the govern
ment which he is employed to protect,
at disadvantage, by allowing the par
ties accused an opportunity Of eluding
justice.
The gross libel on San Diego in the
following extract from Evans's report
as published in the Chronicle, and tel
egraphed all over the United States by
the Associated Press, cannot be too
strongly denounced: "a score of pIom-
inent San Diego politicians, several mu-
nicipal officers, rich rancher, Lower
California cattle-raiser and Collector
Berry, are the persons who figure in the
affair"
j. F. Evans, in any other capacity.
would only be laughed at for such utter
ances, but Evans as special agent OF
the government must be met in differ
ent manner. Can San Diego afford to
be silent, under such libel as this on
twenty OF her most prominent citizens
and her municipal officers, branding
them as criminals engaged in such ne
farious traffic, and sent on to Washing
ton City as the report of government
investigating official? Our citizens are
accustomed to John R. Berry's unwar-
rantable and libellous attacks upon any
one of them who incurs his mali
cious hostility, but when it comes
to acting in collusion with another fed
eral official, to label citizens of our COM
munity, including our municipal Off
GERS, 1t becomes a matter to be at once
taken in hand, and punishment meted
out unsparingly to this public enemy i.
Like the thief, who, to elude pursuit
himself, cries out stop thiefp' these
two worthless imagine that they will
thus stay the proceedings that have al
ready begun at Washington, for Berry g
removal. With the aid OF this special
agent, Berry hopes to convince the
government that he is very vigilant
officer and a very much abused man in
consequence thereof.
In the Chronicle of the 9th inst.
Evans bodily asserts that the United
States marsha's Office has assumed a
hostile attitude to Berry. The fact is,
as is we'll known in San Diego and Los
Angeles, that it was Berry who assumed
and maintained hostility to the United
States marshals in thwarting them in
every way possible, in their endeavor to
arrest the Chinese when attempting to
enter the United States from Lower
California. 1t is well known that Col
lector Berry threw every impediment
possible to prevent the United states
marshals from performing their duty in
the Itata matter. The president of
the United States in his
message to congress, sustained the ac-
tion OF the marshals and virtually de-
nounced the collector by declaring that
the Itata entered the port of San Diego
as an armed vessel.
The extent which the personal rancor
of these two worthless reaches is shown
by the many remarks made by them in
the hearing of reliable citizens reflect
ing upon the honor and integrity of the
United States commissioners presiding
both in San Diego and Los Angeles, in
consequence of their releasing the ''rich
rancher't alluded to in the report from
the unwarrantable and malicious arrest
to which he was subjected by Berry.
The truth is, that the United States dis
trict attorney pushed the cases with
great ability, and many thought with
unnecessary ferocily.
Evans is stated as reporting that in
the past nine months 5000 head of horses
have been smuggled into California, and
that the government has thereby sus-
tanned loss of 500, 900. There are not
5000 horses in all of Lower California.
The horses of the rich rancher alluded
to are never brandsd, and are blooded
stock, heavy draft and trotting stock,
while all horses raised in Lower Cali
fornia are branded, and these
brands are known to all stockmen in
this country. Therefore, it would have
been an easy matter to distinguish
Lower California horses from those of
the Erich rancher"-and to find contra
band horses anywhere, and to ferret out
the smugglers.
With regard to Evans's report that
the boundary line between Lower 'ali-
fornia and the United States is poorly
defined, and follows zigzag course over
mountains, is absolutely faise. The
fence OF the ''rich rancher" is built on
the boundary line for one mile, and be-