El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-01-02

HERE was never law enacted
which escaped violation This
is especially true of laws with
reference to the payment of money
the abolition of the liquor traffic and
the exclusion of the willy Chinese
coolie. With the customs laws levying
toll of $3.50. 000,0 900 year on goods
coming into the ports of the United
States, it is but natural that there
should be thousands of people who
would elude their operation if they
could. The wits used to dodge the Gus
toms and revenue laws Of the country
are worthy of a better cause It costs
millions to collect the import duties
levied by the government, and every
bit Of merchandise must be examined
as carefully as if there were reasons
to suspect an attempt to dodge the
payment Of duty. Even a minister of
the gospel must make his declaration
and have his baggage examined when
he comes into port of the United
States.
Fighting the SmuggIer.
The present crusade for the complete
humiliation of the .smuggler began
with the exposure of the sugar trust.
That corporation. with its famous
seventeen holes in an iron hook was
able to dodge the customs laws to such
an extent that it has been forced to
pay the government $3400,000 as a
restitution. It's method of operation
was to have secret hole in the mech
anism Of each. of the seventeen scales
on which the imported sugar was
weighed. With an iron hook it was
able to make each bag of sugar regis
ter much less than its actual weight.
An involved conspiracy was essential
to the proper working of the scheme,
aF
a government official detected the
trick
While the money value of smuggled
goods brought into the ports Of the
United States is greater on goods
which come in through under-valua
ton and other schemes, the larger per-
cent of smugglers are people who
bring in goods as passengers arriving
from foreign ports. Formerly few
people regarded it as dishonest to make
false declarations as to their baggage.
Not only did they smuggle by means
Of false declarations. but they bribed
the officers into collision with them.
Wealth and political influence were
usually able to hush up any discover
les. The less Influential classes felt
that if wealth and influence could
smuggle and go unpublished there was
no reason why they. TOD, should not do
likewise.
Few Can Escape Now.
The government has changed all this
Today the port of New York is col
lecting about four times as much from
incoming passengers as formerly. At
Boston the collections swelled in a few 4
years from $47O. 600 to s1.S00, 600 per
year. Much of this is due to stricter .
enforcement of the law and 70 the 1
breaking up Of the sleeper trunk i
frauds. But the major portion of it I
arises from the moral effect of the I
present attitude of the government. In I
coming passengers have learned that /
the customs authorities regard it as
criminal to make a false declaration, |
and that prosecution is bound to fol- !
low attempted evasions Of the law.
When George B. Cortelyou was made
secretary of the treasury, one of the 4
first things he did was to place decla- |
retions in the hands Of passengers Ions 4
before they arrived at port The aver
age tourist preferred to pay duty rath /
er than make a voyage across the {
ocean with a guilty conscience as his
chief companion.
One Of the favorite articles OF the
smugglers' trade is the diamond. Al i
though uncut stones are permitted to
come into the country free of duty, cut
stones are taxed heavily. The most
diamond smuggler in the
history of the country was a Belgian,
who bought his wares at Antwerp, Am
;terdam, Paris and London He had a
brother in New York. and made fire.
Iuent trips TO that city. Although the
customs authorities. suspected him for
many years they could not obtain the
necessary evidence to arrest him. He
would invariably come over to the
United States on a certain ship, re-
on its outgoing trip. always
securing the same stateroom. The only
that could be obtained against
lin was the fact that his brother al
Ways had diamonds to sell after one, OF
hese trips. But inspect his baggage
IS often as they would. the customs
authorities never could find trace of