The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-01-20

millionaire ship owner of 10 who
tried TO sneak in a pearl necklace via
Canada. The ne ,kace was valued at
$4,000, and she paid $4,000 fine. Bx-
Governor Rollins paid $4,000 and Jules
and Hugo Rosenberg gave back to
Uncle Sam $4,000 each. The wife of
a former head of the Panama canal
work made an differentiation of the
stuff she brought in, and her husband
coughed up $4,000 to settle the
trouble. A prominent woman of
Wisconsin had $4,000 in iewelry in
her baggage. 1t was all new and did
not declare it. She was compelled to
pay 500 fine and forfeit the goods.
With the other seizures made was
one of two 42-karat diamonds which
belonged to the Princess Montylgen.
She claimed they had been in the
family for years, and were not sub
ject to duty. Another was thirty
trunks of Paris finery which was val
ued at 100000, and a third was one
of sleeper trunks which contained
$4,000 more.
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 customs 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 trunk uninspected is ar
rested. The business has been probed
to the bottom and one of the chief
sources of smuggling stopped.
Another means of passing the Gus
toms was by sponging off and chang
my the labels, and others got goods
through by bribing officials. Not many
years ago l am told that one could
lay a ten, a twenty or even fifty
dollar bill on the tray of his trunk
and the inspector who examined 1t
thought nothing of putting the bill
in his pocket and closing the lid.
Even now checks are sometimes sent
to the inspectors by passengers who
have been well treated, but such
checks are invariably turned in to
, the collector, for if the man did net
and it was discovered he would
surely be dismissed
' let lis here stop a moment while
1 tell you how big the customs re-
ceipts 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 1888, 100000. That was more
than a million dollars for every work
ing day of that year. Indeed, the Gus
toms is the biggest gold mine that
Uncle Sam has, and ever since the
beginning he has relied upon it to pay
his employees. The total amount so
far received sinve 1889 has beeen
something like eleven billion dollars
and this is equal to more than one,
half of all the taxes which have ever
been collected for the national gov
eminent In this statement l include
the internal revenue and all sorts OF
direct taxes.
Collector Loeb tells me that 20 per
cent of these customs receipts are
now coming into New York, and that
this port in its tariff duties is now
paying about 40 per cent of the work
ing expenses of the government
From this it will be seen how impor
tant it is that we have an honest
man at the head of it, and that that
honest man have the nerve and abil
ity to collect what is really due tC
our own Uncle Sam. l believe this tC
be the case with Collector Loeb. He
is running the customs as a business
institution and his only requirements
of his employees are efficiency and hon
esty.
During my talk with the collector
today l asked him as to his work
He replied:
"All have attempted to do is Il
take this place out of politics and ad
minister it on the plane of honesty
good government, and in accordance
with the laws. I did not make tn,
laws, I am here only to enforc,
them"
How about politics and politica
appointments?
Politics does not enter into thi
, office. If a man does his duty we d,
not ask him what party he belong
to- Our promotions are by merit, an,
by merit alone"