Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-02

WAYS OF SMUGCLERS
Petty Cases Frequent on the
Borders.
CONSTANT WATCH KEPT
ATTEMPTS TO BRING IN CANA
DIAN DAIRY PRODUCTS.
tho boundary
Stores Established on the Boundary
Line-A Sharp Shopkeeper Out
witted-Goods From Mexico.

Assistant Secretary Armstrong, VINO mas
charge of customs throughout the country.
has given notice to all customs officials
that there must be unceasing vigilance in
the pursuit of smugglers and smuggling.
Eternal vigilance is the protection OF the
United States against customs losses, re-
marked Mr.. Armstrong today, speaking of
his instructions, 'and I have determined
that there must be more than a perfunctory
warfare against smuggling. Customs off,
GERS cannot break up smuggling by waiting
for information to come to them of illegal
operations. They must hunt for the infor-
nation themselves and then vigorously
punish the offenders to the full extent of
the law"
There has always been smuggling. and
there will always be smuggling. AS long
as there are dishonest people there will be
smuggling OF course, the dishonest are
tine principal offenders in smuggling opera
tons. but there are a great many persons
who have always been honest in their BUSH
ness dealings with their fellowman who
sometimes give way to the temptation to
defraud the government. These people are
usually travellers, Americans who have=gone
abroad and returned with a number of
things that they do not care to pay duty
on home people who have taken short
trips into Canada or Mexico, and want to
buy something that they can get so much
cheaper in those countries than in their
own.
The customs officers, however keep pref
ty close watch of these people and they do
not give the officials half so much trouble
as the professional dishonest men who
make business of sneaking goods across
the boundary lines between Canada and
this country and Mexico and the United
States. 1t is on the borders that Assistant
Secretary Armstrong means that there
shall be eternal vigilance and energetic
prosecution of offenders.
Tried to Smuggle in Butter.
The government is getting ready to try
the cases of some men who were recently
arrested for smuggling butter across the
Canadian border into the United States.
They lost 1000 pounds of splendid butter,
their wagon and their liberty, all in trying
to escape the payment of cents pound
duty. Dairy products cheaper in Can
ada than in the United States, and if the
duty on butter could be left off there would
be a considerable profit in bringing Cana
dian butter to this country. The butter
smugglers loaded wagon one night with
LOCO pounds of fine butter. The duty would
have been $50. Just they crossed the
Canadian boundary American customs Off
GERS arrested them and seized the entire
outfit. They are soon to be tried.
Chicken smugglerS are frequent along the
CANADIAN DOrQeT. some Ilrne ago q cana
dian took a large wagon loaded with chick
ems to the American side. He drove on to
the scales as ordered by the customs officer.
AS the officer started around the
wagon to the head of the scales the
Canadian cunningly backed the hind
wheels of his wagon, Off the scales.j
The trick was not detected and the trick
ster porarily saved himself a small
amount of customs duties. He thought it
was such a sharp trick that he went back
to his home and boasted about how he had
beaten the United States out of customs
dues. A few weeks later he went back into
American territory on business He was
promptly arrested and had to disgorge all
he had made and large sum besides, be-
cause Uncle Sam always makes these fell
lows pay about double the amount they
have filched from the government
Stores on the Boundary Line.
The greatest scource of annoyance and
| trouble to the United States and Canadian
| officials is the. people up in Vermont, Maine
| and border states who build stores directly
| across the International boundary line
about half of the store in each country.
| Away up in northeastern New York the st.
| Lawrence river ceases to be the boundary
| line between this country and Canada and
| the line after that is an imaginary one.
! The customs tricksters build what are
| called line stores and buy their stocks of
| goods from whichever country they can Sc
| cure them the cheapest. If an American
officer suspects that they have evaded the
| customs laws and smuggled Canadian goods
| into the American side of their store and
| steps in to take a look around he finds
| everything all right. as the goods have
been moved back to the Canadian side The
| Canadian officer who does the same thing
finds the same state of affairs. The viola
tors of this character are really hard to
catch.
Some time ago, however, one of the pro-
prietorS of line store was caught at the
trick. American customs officers discovered
that he was accustomed to securing Ca
madam whisky and selling it on the Ameri-
can side at such cheap rates as to induce
much trade. Every time they went in the
whisky had been removed to the Canadian
side. The American officers found that the
Storekeeper in handling his whisky had
violated some local Canadian law and they
interested the Canadian officers. stimuli
taneous raid from each end of the store was
planned. The Canadian officers appeared
on that side first and demanded admittance
The storekeeper promptly rolled his whisky
across to the American side of the store and
admitted the Canadian officers. He felt re-
leved but just at this minute the American
customs officers appeared on the other side,
were admitted and found the whisky which
had not paid duty. on the American SIDE
They arrested the man and seized the wfis-
ky. In some stores there are cases that
move on wires from one side to the other
| In which are contraband goods
The smuggling of furs diamonds. etc.
| across the Canadian border is often at
tempted. The duty furs is very large
| and there is great temptation to people of
| this country who visit Canada to bring back
| fur on which the duty has not been paid
| All American visitors to Quebec and Mon
| treai know how much the cheapness of
! furs appeals to them and how great the
longing to get them back home If the pay
ment of duty could be honorably avoided
- On the Mexican Border.
| The line stores flourish on the borders of
| Mexico just as on the northern border.
| The smuggling along the southern border
| is mainly In cigars tobacco and drawn
work. Every woman knows the beauty of
| Mexican drawn work, the product of the
| skill and patience of Mexican women. The
| duty on 1t is 70 per cent The temptation
| is great to smuggle in pieces of this beauti-
| full work, which the line stores deal in ex-
| tensively. To escape the duty on drawn
work enterprising firms dealing with Amer
| lean tourists have established places lust
on the American side of the border.
and employed Mexican women to make the
| artistic linen pieces thereby escaping the
payment of duty and making the goods
nearly half as cheap as with the duty
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