The times., 1899-02-09
DECENT PASSENGERS
TREATED As SMUGGLERS
The Gage Regulation That
Makes Travel 0dious.
Luggage Trifes Scattered Over
Piers Without Reason.
A General outcry against the Fool
ish New Persecution by the
Customs Service.

tinue to complain bitterly against the
treatment they receive at the hands OF tle
Custom House officers at New York, un-
der the new regulations. Every liner that
comes in brings people who. as soon as
they have escaped from the officers, spr, ad
broadcast among their friends excited
statements that they have been grossly
insuited. Within the last two weeks d
number of prominent men and women
whose names are well known all over the
country have made the case OF the travel
ers AGAINST the Government conspicuous
by their wrathful declarations or the piers
at New York, and afterward at various
places at their homes.
This new rule has been printed hereto
fore in The Times. but it is here published
again, as it was officially promulgated by
kr. Howell in a letter 10 the Collector of
Customs at New York:
Referring to your letter of the 2sth
ult in the matter of certain charges pre-
ferred against Inspector - for passing
free of duty dutiable articles found in the
baggage of passengers arriving al your
port, have to direct that hereafter when
ever the baggage of passengers arriving
from aboard is found TO contain any ar
ticies purchased abroad which have not
been declared by the passengers, they shall
be described on the back of the baggage
declaration by the inspector and submitted
TO the appraising officers for appraise-
ment, and the inspector will be held Te-
sponsible for the failure TO so find and re-
port such articles, regardless of their value.
You will please see that this rule IS strict
Iy enforced at your port"
Ii viii be remembered that Assistant
Secretary Howell, of the Treasury Depart
nent. who is in charge of the customs SER
vice, gave to a reporter for The Times on
Saturday. January Is a statement of the
Governments side OF the new regulations
MIR. Howell seemed TO believe that there
was nothing obnoxious in them. nothing
very new, in fact. He suggested that the
public was under a misapprehension, and
that in reality there was no outrage and no
Inconvenience. This difference of opinion
between the people whose luggage is over
hauled by the customs officers and Mr..
Howell may be thus strikingly illustrated.
We quote from the interview with that Of
hcial:
Il understand that there has been some
thing of commotion over the matter. 1t
is surely based on an entire misapprehen-
sion. The rule of the service under the
present tariff law and, indeed, for long
time, has been that the baggage of passen-.
gers must be examined We are making
no innovation in this respect. 1t seems to
be the impression that trunks have never
are responsible for this
Mr.. J. ". Duntley. OF New York. on his
arrival from Europe on the Lucania last
Tuesday, after his numerous trunks had
been ransacked from top TO bottom and
their entire contents strewn over the Lu-
csnia pier, said: This is an outrage. We
come back to America TO be treated like a
lot OF ticket-of-leave men. ex-couyicts and
thieves"
Mr.. Howell, in the same above-quoted
interview:
The meaning Of the new regulation is
simple. II has been the custom of the
inspectors TO appraise the value of unde>
clared dutiable articles heretofore except
in cases which seemed 10 them 10 be of
more fhan ordinary importance They
have been somewhat lax in their appraise-
ments, il has been found. and sometimes
have passed over articles which should
have been made 10 pay duty. II is this
defect in the old system that We are en-
deavoring to remedy, and that Is the whole
of The story. You will notice that the
words articles purchased abroad which
have not been declared by the passengers
are part of the order and a very i'm
portant part. Returning tourists have al
ways been required TO declare all dutiable
articles in their baggage. They make out
regular declaration describing all the
articles. This is no new fad of mine
FiAntI- ne NoTuS bl Tue rule ana the IN
spector will be held responsible for the
failure TO so find and report such articles
may sound harsh and suggestive Of yery
rigid examination OF baggage, but inspec-
tors have been expected 10 make exactly
this examination heretofore. The only ef-
feet OF the new order will be 10 cause the
inspectors TO attend to their duties II any
returning passenger is incommoded by it,
there is no escaping the fact that such a
passenger must have expected to evade the
law. No new duties are added to the list -
Mr.. Duntley in further remarks against
these new regulations. on the same Oc-
casion said last Tuesday:
"A mans dishonesty, provided he is IN
American is presumed until he proves
himself honest. II makes me ashamed 10
be an American. II makes the nation a
laughing stock and gives the lowest and
most degraded foreigner the right TO af-
front us publicly"
II is related on behalf Of the people that
Carolus Duran. the French artist was q
passenger on La Champagne, which ar
rived on the same day in New York snd
that he also was full OF vehement protests
against what seemed 10 him TO be an
warranted and unnecessary inQuisitiveness
NJ. Chartrand, a French artist of New
York. was on the pier TO meet VI. Duran
The two surveyed with silent emotion the
way the inspector shook NJ. Duran's white
silk paiamas out into public view and
pulled and heaved at the clothing in the
bottom OF his five trunks. 1t was not until
the inspectors began to rip off the tor
of q great crate stuffed with straw that
VI. Duran was reused 10 open protest His
valet by this time was almost in Mysteries
VI. Duran, through his friends. explained
that in the crate were only two old easel,
which he had used for ten years. The in.
spector wanted TO see The side of III,
crate came of and the straw was scattered
all over that side OF the pier before ne wai
satisfied that the distinguished artist wal
truthful NJ. Duran made the foreigner
declaration. saying that everything h.
brought with him he would take back bu
for some reason his goods were gone owe
with as much care as II he had been moth
ing but an American citizen.
There are innumerable cases Of thi
kind mentioned in the New York paper
and described by the returning traveller
themselves.
The Panama Dock Labor-rs' Strike
Colon Colombia. Feb. s-There are nos
signs of termination OF the strike of tn
dock laborers at Panama The Warehous