The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-03
BY wALDoN FAwcETT.


 Since the Spanish War the American people have had new respect for the navy of the Treasury Department. Al though this police force of the sea Is older by eight years than the regular United States Navy. and has taken an active part In every naval warfare in which Uncle Sam has engaged. 1t is only, as has been said. within the past half dozen years that the general public has commenced to appreciate 1t at it's true. worth.
 Assuredly the beginnings of this great organization which protects the nation against smugglers were modest enough. It was in 17s9 that Alexander Haassiton. then secretary of the Treasury, advised the use of boats "for the security of the revenue against contrnband." Congress gave him modest sum Of money to carry out his ideas In the matter and quickly there were built 10 swift cut ters. each manned hy crew of 10 men. Although these vessels were accounted speedy, and especially well armed and equipped In their day, they were In reality little larger than the yawls of the present time.
 Yrowever. nt frst oniv small force was required to adequately protect the com merce of our extensive. yet thiniy popu- lated, seacoast, but our foreign trade grew so rapidly that 1t was soon neces- sary to increase the number of cutters. Easily the most exciting of the duties of the Revenue Cutter Service during its in- fancy wns the suppression of piracy. and many terrific hand-to-hnnd encounters on land and sea were the result
 AS hns been said. Miss Columbia's pickets of the ocean have had hand in every scrimmage In which the nation has engaged with any foreign power. Tn our little misunderstanding with the French. for instance. at the close of the eight eenth century, the revenue cutters. which then included the historic Constellation and Constitution. captured 16 of the prizes captured hy the Americans. In the War of 1872 the gritty little cutters carried off 16 prizes. including the first trophy of war which we took from the British. Tn the Civil War the federal revenue cutters rendered valuable service in a variety of ways. and finally as a crowning glory comes the record of these bantam fighters In the Spanish War. when the revenue cutter McCulloch went into Manila Bay with Dewey: the cutter Winslow pluckily rescued from the fire of the Spanish batteries at cardenas the torpedo boat Winslow. when one of the officers and half the crew of the torpedo craft had been killed and her commander wounded; and other vessels of the fleet temporarily transferred to the navy per formed services none the less meritorious. Many people associate the civil duties of the Revenue Cutter Service merely with the apprehension of smugglers and other violators of customs laws when. fin reality. that Is small part of the tasks which fall to their lot Not that this task is to be lightly regarded. either. for 1t is no easy task for the officers of the service to board and examine more than twenty thousand incoming ships each year, sealing the matches and taking. for the time being official custody of the cargo. This Is a WI k which cannot be idly at their moorings. Instead, they must stand boldly out to sea in storm or calm. keeping a sharp lookout for the cargo-carriers approaching our shores.
 But let us make a momentary review also of the manifold duties which have been showed on to the Revenue Cutter Service in lieu of the piracy suppression. the only one of its old tasks which no longer engages attention. No other single branch of the government now combines as its duties so many and such varied