The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-25
TO ABOLISH USELESS CUSTOM
HOUSES.

If Representative Hemenway continues on
the line in which he is now moving. he will
soon have the reputation OF a practical re-
former and real watchdog of the treasury.
His opposition to increased appropriations
for department clerks, resulting in an ex-
ecutive order extending the hours Of work,
and his cutting out carriages for assistant
secretaries and heads of bureaus were steps
in the right direction, and now he has taken
another.
The emergency deficiency appropriation
bill. as reported TO the House by the appro-
priations committee. contains a provision
authorizing the President to consolidate or
rearrange the customs collection districts
throughout the United States. The object
of the provision is to abolish a large num-
Der of ports of entry and customhOuses
which do not pay expenses and which for
many years past have been a source of an
nual expense to the government This has
been suggested or talked of before, but no
practical steps have been taken toward
accomplishing it. AS chairman of the House
committee on appropriations Mr.. Hemen-
way is in position to do it. 1t requires
some nerve, because the abolition of UNI
profitable customhouses means the aboIi-
ton of official patronage, and congressman
who affected will probably oppose that.
There are in the United States 156 collec-
ton districts and customhouses. Most of
these are along the two ocean coasts, but
quite a number are i'm the interior. goods
being transported thither in bond by rail
and entered at the customhouses as direct
importations. Most of the ports of entry
and customhouses on the coast were estab-
lished Immediately after the organization
Of the government. when the channels OF
trade were entirely different from what
they are at present and have been for fifty
years past. Some ports of entry that had
large trade hundred years ago have
scarcely any now, while other ports which
have very large trade now were not es-
tablished even fifty years ago. There was
time when Alexandria, Va, carried
large foreign trade; now it has very little.
Fifty years ago Port Townsend, on Puget
sound, was unknown; last year 2.O6S foreign
vessels entered the port, the receipts at the
customhouse were sl,027,774, and the ex-
ports of domestic products were 500. 41O. 1861.
Port Townsend is the port of entry for Sc
attic and Tacoma, both of which do a much
larger foreign trade than Port Townsend
Seattle IS per cent, Tacoma Il per cent. of
the importations at Port Townsend. Seattle
should be made the principal port of entry
for this district. The history of the rise
and fall of the various customhouses in the
United States would furnish an interesting
chapter in the history of American COM
merce and the shifting channels of trade.
OF 156 customhouses in the United States
the expenses of forty-five exceed the re-
ceipts. In other words, at these forty-five
customhouses every dollar that is collected
in duties costs the government more than
dollar TO collect The cost of collecting one
dollar at these custom houses runs from
s1.O9 to $54007. Some of the worst cases are
AIbemarIe. y. c., s2O.35: Burlington. N J..
s33.75; Cherrystone Va. S31.S9; Crisfeld.
Md. sSS1.64; st. Marys. Ga. s23S As; York
Me, $45A; Galena. H.. $54O.O7. Besides the
seven ports here named there are thirty
eight others at which the cost of collecting
every dollar is more than a dollar. The
customhouse at Salem, Mass, where Ma
thaniel Hawthorne once served and wrote,
collected last year $500 at cost of So. III.
The collector at Wilmington, n. c., served
the government by collecting $4.76O at a
cost of s., 30 At Castine Me, a popular
seaside and summer resort. the overworked
collector turned in 1850 a cost of 4,542.
The Industrious collector at Newbern, n. c.,
succeeded in collecting 81 1924 at a cost to the
government in salaries and expenses of
80 SCI. Beaufort hardly be called a
mascot name for Uncle Sam, for at Beau
fort. S. c., il cost him 1855 to collect s761.
and at Beaufort, n. c.. sl,775 to collect $l3.O1.
Beyond a doubt these forty-five custom
houses. where for a great many years past
| it has cost more than a dollar to collect a
dollar. should be abolished and the collec-
| ton district consolidated with another. This
is what Mr.. Hemenway proposes shall be
done, and IL Congress gives President
Roosevelt authority to do so it will be done
without delay.