The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-11
BuRLEsaUE CUSTOM HOUSES.
Ports of Entry where No Foreign
 Goods Are Landed.

iOO09 Are LumVcu.
 New York Tribune.
 Nathaniel Hawthorne once described
 the tranouilizing routine of life, in the
 cobwebted office of theyCollector of the
 Port of Salem, Mass. salem Was then living as a seapors on memories If ror-
 mer greatness. and the dusty ledgers on the Collectors shelves were seldom
 disturbed to enter a new record of val nations and duties. Between entries the great romancer had ample leisure to delye into Salem, tradition and beat into shape the raw material of his re- ' searches and his fancy. From com pilation recently submitted to the House Of Representatives we should fudge that an intelligent Government is still maintaining a full complem ent of these quiet~retreats for poets and ronancers Ports of entry without
 shipping and Collectors offices without business still figure Iibcrally in our customs establishments. The fact that they may be harboring other flaw thornes is dismissed, however, as an irrevelant consideration hy reformers who want to abolish sinecures and to abandon the pretcnsc of collecting rev. .cnue at points where no revenue is ec:abie.
 The lists of ports of entry at which customs expenses exceeded receipts for the fiscal year 1904 t9ei, is astonishing
 
 houses now kept open at an actual loss. At these ffty-one ports an average of less than $t,00o apiece was collected in 1904-19o5, while the cost of collection averaged more than $3.0o0 for each port. In ten cases no collections what ever were reported. These moribund ports were Beaufort. N. C.; Kennebunk. | Me: Little Egg Harbor N. J.; Nan | tucket. Mass: Natchez, Miss: Paducah, Ky; Vicksburg, Miss, and Yaquina, | Ore There were eighteen other Col | lectors' offices which took In less than l $100 apiece, the cost of collecting $1 running as high as $321 at Albemarle. I N C., and s200 at Cherrystone, Va. l The greatest actual outlay at any of | these non-paying points was at Brazos | de Santiago (Brownevilie) Texas but this post was established and is main tained chiefly to prevent smuggling across the Mexican border. It's ex- pense roll for 1904-1305 was $40,131, and only s5,594 was received in customs dues.
 Such offices have their uses and must be retained, whether they produce rev enue or not. On the Canadian and Mex lean bordeIs and in the Gulf States ac- cessible to the West Indies observation stations to hold smugglers In check cannot be dispensed with. but there seems to be no occasion for perpetual ing the farce of collecting dues at other ports whose commerce Is dead
 and whose microecopical business can
 be transferred to live custom houses in '~the immediate ncishborhood. It would be safe and practicable to close for
 entry such ports as Castine, Saco and
 Kennebunk, in Maine; Salem, Barnsta-
 ble Nantucket and Plymouth. in Mas
 sachusetts PatcLogue. ir. this State:
 Bridgatcn and Little Egg Harbor, in
 New Jersey: Annapolis in Maryland;
 Cnerrystone. Tappahannock, AIbemarIe,
 Beaufort, N. C.. and Pamlico on the
 Southern Atlantic Coast, and interior
 river ports like Vtcksburg, Natuhez,
 Cairo, Paducah. Burlington, Ia, Gaiena,
 Chattanooga and Rock Island. Foreign
 merchandise actually reaching these
 points for entry Is infinitesimal in
 value. and oEly local vanity is served
 by classifying as ports of entry cer-
 tain towns and cities nearly a thousand
 miles from the seaboard. Congress Is considering a measure to consolidate the present customs collections districts and eliminate some of these fictitious ports. The economy to be effected is in- considerable. but the abolition of sine cures which would result is to be com mended as step toward stricter and more rational administration.