Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-14
0UTWIT UNCLE SAM
The smugglers Flourish Along the
North and South Boundaries.
A GOOD MANY COAST MILES TO GUARD
Opium, Cinnamon, Clothing, &c.
Furnish Fat Profits.
THRILLING ADVENTURE


| One of the most serious problems of our
] national policy is the best method of guard
| ing our northern frontier-not against an
! armed enemy, but against secret violators
| of our revenue laws. We are at peace with
| our next door neighbor and are likely to be
| long in the future. But if the vicisstuies
| of events should ever result in an open rup-
! ture with our British cousins measures
| would be swiftly taken to guard against a
| hostile invasion from that quarter. 1t is
| generally admitted that our frontiers are
| not adequately protected from military
standpoint. Great reliance on this point
| however, is placed in the resourceful ca
| pacity of the American people. 1t would
| probably not take them a very long time to
| strengthen and increase their defenses all
| along the border The problem of the time
| however, is not how to avert a military in
| Vasion, but rather how to Keep out SNUG
| glers and to prevent frauds upon the rete-
! nue. resulting from evlsionS of the customs
regulation governing the admission of for
| eign merchandise. This has been a most
| perplexing question to the government ever
| since its formation, and bids fair TO be a
| source of veNatious trouble until the end of
| time unless the day comes when there shall
| be absolute free trade and unrestricted com
| mercial intercourse between the United
| States and British America.
| The boundary line between the two conn
| tries is over 1880 miles in length and is
| irregular. erratc ana diverse Ia character
Rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, plains and
| desert are crossed by this invisible but well
deilnei line. While the eastern section of
| the country on both sides ! fairly mona
| lated, and consequently is raas or.abiy easy
| OF patrol. the much longer ives tern portion
| is comparatively uninhabited ror most of lis
| length, and therefore, is practically unpro-
| tected. The security of one part, strange TO
| say lies in its accessibility while thu. ST.
curlty of the other portion lies in its inacces-
Slplity 1t is eaSie' to guard points known
| 10 be dangerous than il is TO thoroughly
patrol long stretch of country where there
Is "a mere possibility of danger
| Changed Cons.itfous
An efficient corps of customs officials
| along the entire northern rronJi,r would
entail al enormous expense, far beyond the
| saving that could be accomplished by the
! collection OF duties, yet in NJ other way is
| u possible to Put chi to the frauds on
! the revenue that are constantly being PEI
| pctratej in that REGION. !. u:l within IN,
| Fast few years, the lon,; Nnt Of frontier
| nom Lake Superior 10 she Pacific OCEAN
| needed bu: Httlc care, Is the UoIn iafy line
| mere ran through ~eEloa some hundred
| LllIeS IN with practically deserted MN
| however, all this is changed. Railways .,ln
| parallel on both SIDES II he line. inter
| sected, at intervals, BY )lhCr lines bringing
| Win them population dnS constant c0.amu-
| HicasIch betW sen the tao countries. There
are but fou- collection districts on the
!tefthein frontier hetW.ce thu Lake Of tf.
| " Gods and the Paciiic coast, Il distance Of
| about LOO miles, and the force for pre-
| NtHIlEt uul! does not exceed twenty n.Fn.
| II necessarily follows tina: they are lncapa-
| pie OF property pro.s.:ia-y The entire linz.
&Au that smuggling is Easy OF accomplish
| mcnt
The st. Lawrence, the g-eat lakes. the
lsainy Lake river and Puget sound afford
Tie n,st m ans of setting foreign gus- is into
| tGe United States without the p,vr,Tr 81
| duty Notwithstanding the vigilance and
idlthI illness Of most IF the custom Officials
| il is impossible fer them To catch eyer,
| band ot sinU-slers that sl=Etly steal across
| the Still waters under the cover of arSn.ss
and discharge their cont .tDaaI sa,.o nj
| some deserted spot where Coutei nae. are
| III waiting With conVeyduccs To take il be
ychd The jurisdiction Of tnS guardians o. the
revenue.
Great Britain Does Hotter.
Smuggling along the sea coast is almost
lost art ana is extremely difficult. com
pared with smuggling in the interior. BE
sides, our northern boundary line Is about
as long as the combined east ana west coast
lines of the United States oar southern
boundary is long also. and is wholly an
guarded for miles ana miles, but il is fairly
wen -palrolled compared with our mucn lon
ger northern border. 1t is not hat on
northern neighbors are less honest than
those to the south of US that there Is llure
smuggling done over the northern line The
opportunities are better. that is all and in
many instances, the danger Of detection is
almost wholly absent. Many remedies have
been suggested and many improvements
and reforms have been inauguratad. but
the system is still far from being perfect
ana it is by no means certain mat a sys-
fer sol and, \
render smuggling over the northern bound
airy impossible
The British side of the line is mucn better
protected than ours. u hi.c Ne depend al
together on a small bat efficient force of
customs officers Chinese inspectors ana
special inspectors for the enforcement Of the
customs regulation i'll the comparatively
deserted country west of Lake SupgriCr tn
British patrol includes a force of one thous-
ana mounted policemen in addition to the
regular revenue fierce. These policemen do
REGULAR police duty, and also assist in the
CnfOrCem9 nt of the revenue laws. The en-
tire number is assigned to duty along tn,
line from Manitoba to the Pacific ocean
and constitute an efficient patrol both fo-
the preservation of order ana for the pro
lection OF the revenues. The United States
| inspectors are few in number, and are sta
toned long distances apart.
Chinese and Opium.
CnGer the tariff systems of the two coun-
tries there is no very tig money in smu--
gllng, except in the case of the prohibited
Gnu anan and the seductive opium. One
is excluded by special statutes and the
other is dutiable to its full market value
namely. $l2 per pound. According to some
tarln students the pTOhibitive duty on
opium Is primarily resi- CnSible for the des-
perata chances taken to Smuggle 1t into the
United States. The duty was formerly SO
pA- pound but in the Mckinley law it was
raised to 81 per pound. The pending tariff
bill provides for a duty of S. per pound.
| This prospective reduction is expected TO
| decrease the smuggling of opium and 10
| benefit the revenue accordingly. There are
several large establishments in Victoria
Vancouver and Nanaimo British Columbia
devoted to the preparation of the drug for
market use
| 1t is mairly the product of these manu-
factories that is SmUggled into the United
States. Numerous ingenious methods are
resorted for getting the opium to San Fran
| cisco and New York, which are the prin-
| cipal markets for it Some of these fac
tories ship their products over the line of
the Canadian Pacific railroad to Montreal
and Quebec, thence to Windsor and Sarnia
Canadian ports opposite Detroit and Port
Huron, respectively where the opium is
surreDtitiously taken across the line and
distributed. Another route is by way of
Suspension bridge to Buffalo But by far
the most popular route is by way of Puget
Sound The Golfers which bring coal from