Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-20
COLLECTOR BERRY.
A SAN DIEGO OPINION ABOUT HIS
CASE.
The Report of Special Agent Evans and Its
Weak Points = Conclusions Drawn
From Its Peculiar Features.

The HERALD has given both sides of
the controversy about Collector John
r. Berry OF San Diego. The point OF
view about the matter in that city, as
expressed by the Union, in substance,
is as follows:
ssIt will be remembered that few
weeks ago Colonel Evans, a special
agent Of the treasury department, spent
some time in this city, ostensibly in
vestigating certain charges that had
been made against John r. Berry, col
lector of customs for the port OF San
Diego. Shortly afterwards,
however, there appeared in the San
Francisco Chronicle column article
purporting to be an interview with
Colonel Evans, in which the substance
of the report which he claimed to have
forwarded to Washington was given.
whether the special agent was IN
San Francisco relieved from an OBJ
servance of those official proprieties by
which he professed to be so scrupulously
bound while in San Diego, or whether
he has been made the victim of over
jealous newspaper enterprise by being
misrepresented and misquoted, does not
appear. But if he did give the
interview as it appeared first in
the eChronicle and more recently referred
to at length in the Los Angeles HERALD,
he is as reprehensible for having COM
mitted breach OF official proprieties in
making public his report before being
authorized by his superior officers to do
SO, as he is for uttering libel upon the
people of San Diego. Among other things
Colonel Evans is reported to have said
that he discovered the existence in San
Diego OF "a powerful and well-organized
system OF smuggling, embracing promi-
nent San Diego politicians and munich
pal officers Without further specifica-
tions as to who these prominent poll
ticians and municipal officers are, the
special agents statements are an inn
famous libel upon the people of San
Diego, which they will find their own
good way of resenting in due time.
This purported interview of Colonel
Evans further states that so effective are
the operations of this organization that
during the past year 5000 horses were
smuggled on to United States soil from
the peninsula, thereby defrauding the
government OF soc, 900 revenue, and that
Collector Berry was unable to prevent
this because of unfriendliness to him in
the office OF the United States marshal.
In the first place there were not 5000
horses all told on the entire
peninsula last year; in the Sec
ond place, no such number of horses
could be smuggled across the line sepa-
rately or collectively without attracting
wide attention; in the third place. they
could not have been disposed of without
attracting general attention; in the
fourth place, if Collector Berry knew
that such Wholesale system of SNUG
Cling horses, or smuggling anything else,
was going on he should have notified the
department and asked for assistance il
the United States marshal's Office re-
fused to cooperate with him. in the
fifth place, it will strike the average
reader that the report OF the specia
agent, if the Chronicle interview with
him was actually given by him, was a
deliberate whitewash of Collector Berry,
and that both should be removed from
government employ, the one for permit
ting his report to be made public
through other than official channels
and the other for dereliction of duty,
assuming the special agents report to
be true.