The herald., 1893-10-26
A BILL TO ENCOURAGES SMUGGLING.

There Is Dill before congress TO ralel
the duty on opium from $l2 to SIS
pound. The supporters Of this measure
claim that it will make the drug come sc
high as to discourage the opium habit
which is fesrfully on the increase in the
United States, and especially on the Pa
cifc coast.
Up to 1880 opium was on the free list
In that year duty of s6 per pound was
established. In 1884 $40 duty was i'm
posed on the drug. The tariff OF 1896
raised the duty to $12 pound, and that
is still the rate of imposs. To people
who are familiar with the operation o.
high duties, it will cause no surprise to
say that as the duty on opium increased
the importation of the drug through
legitimate custom-house channels de.
creased. Yet it is needless to say that
the consumption of the drug has greatly
augmented in this country since 1880.
The high duty almost stopped Legitimate
importations and that supply was Sc
cured by systematic organization oi
smuggling. Nearly all the opium now
reaching this country comes by way oil
Victoria. There the duty is only 81 a
pound, and the tremendous profits ol
smuggling the drug into this country
from that point has built up rich and
powerful opium ring in British Colum-
bia.
When we consider that the law gov
erning smuggling ia that the greater the
duty the greater the profit, we are not
astonished to learn that the Victoria
opium ring has organized a strong lobby
at Washington to favor the bill to in
crease the duty from $l2 to SIS pound.
The great profits realized in the past by
the smuggling ring leave little. doubt OF
the truth OF the report that this lobby is
well supplied with money to aid the
passage of the bill by ali the devices
known to lobbydom. Should the meas
ure pass, even the little revenue that is
now collected at the custom-houses on
opium will be altogether obliterated.
Let us test by actual statistics tn e
principle that the higher the duty on an
importation 60 easily smuggled as opium
1880, when the duty of s6 a pound was
established, the imports were 5075
pounds. In the succeeding three years
the importations were respectively
12,601, 2,949 and 27 ,526 pounds. These
figures would show that $6 per pound
was not high enough duty to encourage
smuggling on large scale, and that the
custom-houee received a fair share OF
the importations. In 1884, however.
the duty was raised to $40 per pound.
In the meantime the market in this
country was enormously increased.
The augmented duty made smuggling
a paying business, and a ring to carry
on the illegitimate traffic was organized,
with it's headquarters at Victoria. So
we find that the importation of opium
to that port increased from $4,000
pounds year to 12S, 126 pounds in 1892,
and thus far in 1898 the importation
amounts to 126,72l pounds. A corre-
spending decrease in the importations
into this country through customs chan
nels shows conclusively that the Snug
glers have alone profited by the duty
raised from $6 to $40, and from $40 to
$12. As British Columbia has a small
population and comparatively few OPT
um consumers, it is manifest that the
vast importations of the drug to Victo-
rio urara not for fba Durnoaa of 10 0;t; N, a 70
commerce. The drug costs, all told, IS
per pound in Victoria. 1t sells in San
Francisco for from $11.25 to $l5 per
pound. That tells the whole story.
1t is estimated that the annual con-
sumption of opium on this coast is 2O0.-
600 pounds. From so, 900 to 30, 900 pounds
pays duty. Any one can figure out for
himself the enormous profits divided by
the opium ring which is engaged in
smuggling this deleterious drug into the
country. Now should congress increase
the duty as it is proposed the induce
ment to smuggle will become greater
and the importations that reach the
country through legitimate channels
will undoubtedly decrease. That is the
law OF the case, and that those good peo-
pie in congress who are deceived by the
claim that a higher duty ia in the inter
est of lessening the consumption OF the
drug, labor under a delusion of the
gauziest character, are inevitable con-
clusions.
That the opium babit is spreading
among our own people Is
we'll known to the medical faculty and
to our criminal judges and the police.
1t ia one of the terrible penalties we are
paying for the Unrestricted immigra'
tion of Chinese into this country. The
present consumption of opium is small
to what it will be ten years hence, and
when we consider that no tariff, how
ever high, will prohibit the clandestine
of the article. we can only
look upon a measure to increase the
duty from what it now ia to $l5 as one
to legislate increased gains into the
pockets of the organized bands of opium
The spread of the opium habit among
our people is one of the serious problems
which will perplex the humanitarians
and the legislators of the future. If the
habit can be kept within limited bounds,
that we believe is about ali that either
or moral suasion can accom-