Omaha daily bee., 1911-12-17

paper with the stories of smugglers who
have been fined and with those who have
come forward upon being caught and
have compromised by paying the duties,
Take the wife OF millionaire ship owner
OF Boston. who tried to sneak in a pearl
necklace via Canada. The necklace was
valued at $4,000 and she paid $5,OOO fine.
Ex-Governor Rollins paid 5000 and Jules
and Hugo Rosenberg gave back TO Uncle
Sam $4,000 each The wife OF former
head Of the Panama canal work made
an characterization Of the stuff she
brought In, and her husband cough0d up
$4,000 to settle the trouble 4 prominent
woman OF Wisconsin had 5000 in iewelry
in her baggage, II was all new and she
did not declare Il, she was compelled to
pay 500 fine and forfeit the goods.
with the other seizures made was one
OF two C-karat diamonds, which be-
louged TO the Princess Montylgen. She
claimed they had been In The family for
years, and were not subject to duty. An
other was thirty trunks of Paris finery,
which was valued at sO,OOo and third
was one OF sleeper trunks which contained
$4,000 moro.
The sleeper Trunk Frauds.
This sleeper-trunk game Is one which
was worked very largely before the adj
vent OF Collector Loeb. Il consisted OF
leaving trunks on the dock and Of sneak.
ing them off after the inspectors and
other custom officials had left. Some OF
the custom officials were In this con.
/ spiraoy TO defraud, but when Mr.. Loeb
camo In he appointed a new set OF watch
men and reorganized the old force. He
now has the docks under inspection daJ
aud night. and any one attempting C
take away trunk uninspected Is ar
rested. The business has been probed e
the bottom and one OF the chief souroei
OF smuggling stopped.
Another means OF passing the customs
was by sponglng off and changing tn,
labels, and others got goods through II!
bribing the officials. Not many year
ago / am told that one could lay a SO
u $40 or even so bill ON the tray OF hi
trunk and the inspector who examined
thought nothing OF putting the bill in hi
pocket and closing the I'D. Even nov
checks are sometimes sent TO the inspec
tors by passengers who have been wei
treated but such checks are invariably
turned in to the collector. for II the mai
did not and Il was discovered he woul'
surely be dismissed.
Our BIR Customs BuaiRess.
Let us here stop q moment while tel
you how big the customs receipts bull
in the treasury OF the United states gov
eminent. have been looking up tn
figures and find that last year the
amounted to more than sSS millions o
dollars. That was more than 100000 70
every working day OF that year, Indeed
the customs Is the biggest gold mine tina
Uncle Sam has, and ever since the be
ginning lie has relied upon It TO pay hi
employees. The total amount so far re
celved since 1889 has been something Hk
tlt. 900, 100000, and this Is equal to NOR
than one-half OF all tho taxes which hav
: ever been collected for the national goN
ernment. In this statement include IN
internal revenue and all sorts OF direC
taxes.
Collector Loeb tells me that 70 per ceT
= OF these customs receipts are now comm
! into New York. and that this port in q
tariff duties Is now paying about 10 ~
cent OF tho working expenses Of the go
!. lernment. From this 1t will be seen no
o important II Is that we have an hone
man at the head OF H. and that tn
: honest man have the nerve and abilit