The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-12-19

oS HlldiItt. I
All Must Pay.
But | might fill a page Of this
with the stories of SNUG
gers VINO nave been fined and with
those VINO have come orwar unon
oeing caught and have com--omised
by paving the duties. Take the VIII
OF a millionaire ship owner Of Boston
VINO trled 70 sneak in a pearl neck
Iace VIA canada. The necklace was
ea'uen at $4,000 and she paid $4,000
me. Ex-Governor Rollins paid 81 600
ana jules and Hugo gave
pack to Uncle Sam $4,000 each. The
Wlte OF a former head of the Panama
canal work made an underUaclar afion
or the stuff she brought in. and her
husband coughed up $4,000 TO settle
the trouble. A prominent woman y
Wisconsin had $4,000 in icwelry in
her 1t was all new ana
n did not declare it. She was COM
PEELED t" poy 500 fine and forfeit the
goods.
With the other seizures made was
one of two 42-karat diamonds which
belonged to the Princess MontyIsen.
She claimed they had been in the
family for years, and were not sub
]ect to duty. Another was thirty
trunks OF Paris hnery which was val
ued at $4,000 and a third was one
Of sleeper trunks which contained
%5V,VVO more.
The Sleeper Trunk Frauds.
This sleeper trunk game is one
which was worked very largely before
the advent of Collector Loeb. 1t con-
sisted Of leaving trunks on the dock
and Of sneaking them off after the
inspectors and other customs officers
had left. Some OF the custom Off
Gals were in this conspiracy to de-
fraud, but when Mr.. Loeb came in he
appointed a new set of watchmen and
reorganized the old force. He now
has the docks under inspection day
and night, and any one attempting to
take away a trunk uninSpected is ar
rested. The business has been prob
ed to the bottom and n OF the chief
sources Of smuggling stopped.
Another means of passing the Gus
toms was by sponging off and chang
ing n labels, and others got goods
through by bribing the officials. Not
many years ago I am told that one
could lay a ten, a tWenty or even a if-
ty dollar bill on the tray Of his trunk
and the inspector who examined it
thought nothing Of putting the bill in
his pocket n closing the lid. Even
now checks are sometimes sent to the
inspector by passengers who have
been we'll treated, but such checks are
III q iLoiS III ~ Si1S
for if h man did not and it was dis
covered he would surely be dismissed.
Our Big Customs Business.
Let us stop a while I tell
Q how big the customs receipts
bulk in the Treasury of the United
States Government. I have been
looking up the figures and find that
last year they amounted to more than
332 millions of dollars. That was more |
h n n million dollars for aUarU 1
that Uncle Sam has. and ever
working day Of hat year. Indeed
the customs is the biggest gold mine
that the Uncle Sam has, and ever
since the beginning he has relied upon
it to pay his employees. The total
amount SO far received since 1889
has been something like eleven billion
dollars, and this is equal to more
han one-half of all the taxes which
tional Government. In this statement
I include the internal e. and all
sorts of direct taxes.
Collector Loeb tells me that 70 per
cent of these customs receipts are
now coming into New York, and that
this port in it's tariff duties is now
paying about 40 per cent of the work
ing expenses of the Government.
From this it will be seen how import
ant II is that we nave an iOneSt IidI
at the head of it, and that that hOn-
est man have the nerve and ability to
collect what is really due to Il own
Uncle Sam. [ believe this to be the
case with Collector Loeb. He is run
ming the customs as a business inSti-
tuition and his only requirements Of
his employees are efficiency and hon
cSty.
The Collector and His Job.
During my talk with the collector
TODAY I asked him as to his work. He
replied:
"All / have attempted to do is 70
take this place out of politics and al
minister It on the plane OF honesty
and good government, and in accord
ance with the laws. | did not make
the laws. | am here only 10 enforce
them"