The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-06-20
What 1t Costs.
BY J. ". JENKs.

great system of accounts It goes
into details with an inspiring indus
try Of research resulting in a perfect
labyrinth of averages and percent
ages. The Treasury Department is
one huge ant-hill of "fggers," and
succeeding generations OF burrowing
accountants have wrought some won
drous things with the maze of mathe-
matical records AS might be ex-
pected, there are some interesting
conclusions and comparisons. and not
the least is the series of books-they
constitute a veritable library every
year-in which is kept the tally of
the receipts of this great and grow
ing government through its 1853 Gus
tom-houses. The aggregate of the
receipts last year was nearly $685.
100000, while the cost of collection
amounted to within S2400 of being
an even S9,00O,00O. This means that
it costs the United States two and
nine-tenths cents to collect one dollar
of customs revenue.
A dissection of the returns from
the various customs districts and
ports shows how this is accomplished
with a widely varying result. and the
comparison of cost cannot fail to be
enlightening as well as entertaining
to people who do not have to be stu
dents of arid governmental statistics
to appreciate It.
The port of New York, which, of
course, yields the most in the way
of customs revenue, cost the Gov
ernment one and eight-tenths cents
for every dollar taken in last year, a
rate which was beaten by the record
of Springfield, Massachusetts, where
the expense was one and four-tenths
cents, which was the most favorable
rate in the whole list.
The star record in the opposite di-
rection was made by Little Egg Har-
Dor (Tuckerton), New Jersey, where
the sole business of the single en-
ploye of the institution in the course
of year was the issue of some forty
documents to vessels, the aggregate
receipts for this service amounting
to the munificent sum of forty cents,
while the outlay was $505.31; so the
cost of collecting one dollar, IL such
revenue had been possible at Tuck
erton, is reported in the painfully ac-
curate decimals of s1263.275. That
is an achievement which stands prac-
tically by itself, for the next best
record is that of Paducah, Kentucky,
where two employees issued fifty doc
uments to vessels and took in dollar
and seventy cents, the cost to collect
one dollar being $27S.735. Then
comes Elizabeth City, North Carolina,
with its three employees and it's an
nual revenue of ten dollars, requiring
the expenditure of $246.645 to col
lect one dollar.
The one other notable case of cost
is Annapolis, Maryland, $203.964
being the rate of maintaining two
employees who took in $3.50 in
twelve months. Places where the
cost to collect a single dollar is great
er than that amount are Alexandria,
Virginia, $1.015; Barnstable, Massa-
chusetts, $4.55; Beaufort, South
Carolina, s2.553; Bridgeton, New
Jersey, $2.505; Burlington, New Jer-
sey, $16.979; Castine, Maine. s1.956;
Crisfield, Maryland, $42.118; Els
worth, Maine, $8.5SS; Great Egg
Harbor, New Jersey, S1.663; La
Crosse, Wisconsin, $2.722; Grand
Haven, Michigan, $1.472; Newbern,
North Carolina, s1.979; Rock Island,
Illinois, $26.0S4; Sag Harbor, New
York, $3.415; Salem, Massachusetts,
$1.992; Coos Bay, Oregon, $30.473;
Waldoboro, Maine, $1.2O5; York.
Maine. $2S.27O; Apalachicola, Flor
lda.' $2.7SS; Beaufort. North Caro-
lima, $1.9SS; Brownsville, Texas,
s7.17; Burlington, Iowa; $4S94;
Cairo, Illinois, s6.SS1; Chattanooga,
Tennessee, $16.1S2; Edgartown.
Massachusetts, s5.776; Georgetown,
South Carolina, $21.019; Humboldt.
California, s1.76S Machias, Maine,
$4.217; New London, Connecticut,
$1.33S; Portsmouth, New Hamp-
shire, $2.651; Saco, Maine, $4,053;
St. Mary's, Georgia, s3O.34S; San
dusky, Ohio, $1.126; Brashear, In
LLAMA, $2.492; Wheeling, West Vir-
ginia, $3.50; and Wiscassett, Maine,
s5.375.
But, as the final cost, counting the
aggregate revenue expenses, was only
two and nine-tenths cents to obtain
one dollar of the customs receipts of
the country, the situation on the
whole is not discouraging and the
investment may bo said to have been
profitable one.-Harpers Weekly.