The Calumet news., 1910-11-05
GUILTY IMPORTERS
FEAR PROSECUTION
THEY WISH TO MAKE PRIVATE
SETTLEMENTS WITH COL
ecToR OF CUSTOMS LOEB,
AT NEW YORK.

u,a.bineton, Nov. 5.--According 10
no,vmous correspondent of Sec
..,orv of the Treasury MacVeagh' the
,..o,nment could secure "A mint OF
'.orev without expense to itself by
anietlv passing the word In New YORK
no publicity would be given and
'"' arosecutions follow If all importers
,..ho had cheated the government out
", customs duties could be allowed to
make private settlements with Collect
ah Anonymous letters usually
80 thrown into the waste basket
',,.rover received. whether the gov
,ocnt office or not, but this one,
norbans written by woman, presents
- striking a confession and hints at
y, much of Illicit practice In the pas'
NOT II has provoked more or less com
mi IN the treasury department The
Liter was written in New York and
4, as follows:
..poadlnp the article I'm the New York
,1orald regarding the proposition oil
.oyoral importers who ask Mr.. Loeb to
~, them 10 make restitution To the
e.a,.orrment for undervaluations that
hove occurred in the past, with the
,,ro,nise of immunity from, and avoid
ance Of publicity and prosecution py
49, courts. | take this opportunity g.
.onorvmouslv supplicating you to give
~. ,,Ioa a good deal of confederation.
"rhe laxity of customs authorities
horore your and Mr., Loeb's admins
,ration left the importers and even tho
,o,,rist without any compunction or
,orsciance as TO the defrauding of the
,,.orrnent The differentiation of
merchandise coming into this port is
,yithout doubt the result of tho prac-
,ices of the old-time commissaire IN
r,ropean capitals. Bills Undertaking.
acods were made out in the commis-
.oiro's office without even any soliclta-
,ior on the part of the customer, II
having been the practice in the past TO
do so. I will even go further in stat
ING that every dressmaker, jewelry'
house or any other business that cat
ored to the American buyer In Europe
made the Sdlnt piioi w W.
without being asked
"If the present government SHOULD
decide TO acquiesce i'm the prayers OF
the importer, as stated in this morn
inps paper YOU wfli earn the blessings
If many good citizens who have sinned
this way in the past without CONSIDER
inc it a sin: and money VIII come
into the government to the conscience
fund from sources you never had any
idea of. Allow us to come in. to purge
our souls of this weight. which units
ms for business and our home life. The
Almighty does not destroy, he merely
pnnishes us as a father does a child
ard says, Sin no more" nsF
Considering Plans.
Although this letter. Of course Is
not the handspring of such action the
treasury officials are having very busy
conferences these days to try to ar
rive at some plan of dealing with the
cases of undervaluation which nave
been disclosed in New York. 1t is the
snsr,leion of the department that so far
no importer has come forward ana
confessed his guilt unless he was rea-
sonably sure that the special agents
already had a line on him. How
ever that NAV be. hundreds Of thou
sands OF dollars undoubtedly are
awaiting the decision of the depart
ment before being turned into the con-
science fund. Assistant Secretary
Curtis states that since he has been In
office he never has compromised n
case OF undervaluation without first
submitting II to the United States dis
trict attorney He states that now
ever. tusinesslike it might appear to
be to settle the cases privately, ana
thus avoid expense and publicity, such
a course might be very dangerous. II
Is illegal to defraud the customs, ano
the crime is punishable, hence no oih-
cial outside the district attorneys OF
flee or the courts could accept settle
ment without violating the law No
doubt, however. the department is try
ing TO arrange settlements even though
Il be Lccessary to refer all cases To
the department of Justice or some OF
its branches for final disposition. At
this writing the department officials
have been unable to decide just what
course to take. 1t appears to be fair
ly well settled that as long as William
Loeb, Jr. remains collector of tie port
Of New York. the government will suf-
Ter very little from undervaluations or
With this assurance In
hand, 1t may be that the department |
Will see its way clear to arrange that |
transgressors Of the past may ~ettle |
their accounts quietly and sin no
more