The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-14

Customs Headquarters May Be
Removed FromPt. Townsend.
Globe Special Washington Service,
1417 q CfraaE

fflI q Street.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. 10
Secretary Shaw is now about to rec
ommend to congress that the head
quarters of one of the most important
customs districts in the country be
changed from Port Townsend to Seat
tie. For many years the conditions re-
sulting from the location of the chief
customs house in the Puget sound dis
trict at small, out-of-the-way town
have been an anomaly from the stand
point of both the importers and the
treasury department. About four
htths of the imported merchandise re-
ceived in the Puget sound district is
consigned to Seattle. The Seattle COM
mercial interests complain bitterly that
the isolation of the customs headquar-
tiers at point at least forty miles
from nowhere is gross injustice to
them and to the government itself De-
livery of goods is hampered. and con-
vement admins tration of the laws is
hindered
A few weeks ago Assistant Secretary
of the Treasury Armstrong, who is in
direct charge of the customs admins
traton, made a visit to Seattle and
the sound. His opinion that the GUS
toms headquarters should be removed
TO place nearer the geographical and
commercial center of the district was
confirmed; but he discovered that the
opposition to the change would be very
great. Nevertheless, Mr.. Shaw and
Mr.. Armstrong are determined to urge
the matter upon the attention of con-
gress. The move will probably COM
mend itself to everybody except Sena-
tor Foster, of Washington, and one or
two members of the state delegation in
congress. Mr.. Foster lives in Tacoma,
and Tacoma would rather go without
customs house than have it removed
to the hateful town of Seattle.
Representative Cushman also lives
in Tacoma, and he will be expected to
represent the dog-in-the Manager policy
of his town. Senator Ankeny lives in
Walla Walla, and will probably keep
hands off. Representative Jones, whose
home is in North Yakima, an interior
town, will probably execute a side
step" This leaves Representative
Humphrey, Seattle's new, young and
enthusiastic member of the house, to
do the fighting on behalf of the largest
town in the state, but he will be backed
by the treasury department. The de-
partment has prepared a mass of mat
ter from official records of the late
fiscal year showing what a great bulk
of the customs business is transacted at
| Seattle; how long it takes for the col
| lector of customs to travel between
! Port Townsend and the several sub
ports in the sound district; how Taco
ma is almost as poorly situated as a
proposed headquarters as Port Town
send is, and how great an economy in
administration could be effected by
| establishing the headquarters at the
commercial center-which is no other
place than Seattle.
Port Townsend was a busted boom"
town as much as ten years ago, and
it has never recovered. There is moth
ing there except the anomaly of a GUS
toms headquarters in a district where
the imports amount to many millions
of dollars every year, and where the
purely local imports amount to only
a fraction of one per cent of the total
merchandise receipts of the sound re-
| gion.
| Secretary Shaw is determined to
| fight to carry his point, but the pros
pect is that he will become as unpopu-
| lar with Senator Foster as Secretary
of the Interior Hitchcock is.
Walter b. Clark.