Evening star., 1928-11-18

operating out of the Treasury Build
ing in Washington.
Consider what this business means
to the poor garcon working for 900
or 1000 francs per month. With one
stroke his commission for informing
Uncle Sam of purchase may amount
to five years. salary. The suave French
man takes your money with one hand
and reports your purchase in the next
moment. Yet he is in his rights, and
rest assured the names of informers are
kept sacredly by the Government.
On the Continent, these informers
flourish from the Cote d. Azure to
Russian tundras. They are among the
elite. They infest gambling halls at
Monte Carlo and the Casino at Nice.
They are in the guise of walters on
wagon Its and chambermaid in
hotels.
p ECENT excursionists to Europe
bring back tales of new species
of informer. He is the mustached
clerk who whispers discreetly into your
ear this dangerous news:
Don't worry about customs and du-
ties, madame. The sale shant be report
ed. What you save, you make. See?
And the price is SO cheap!"
This is plain fraud practiced by a
mountebank whose greed inspires him
to force the sale on one hand and
report the transaction no sooner than
your foot has crossed his threshold A
full report is in the hands of inspectors
when you step off the landing plank
Before 1922 the largest reward al
lowed informers was $1,000. At that
time Congress allowed only $4,000 an
nually for conveying such intelligence
The deficiency appropriation bill added
$120,000 to that sum. Then the 25 per
cent law came into force, and the max
imum reward allowed informers was
raised to $4,000. Reports and anony-
nous letters came in such abundance
that the business of reading, sorting
and investigating occupies a staff in
itself.
In many cases the work of the moiety
man Is unnecessary, since there are
conscientious Americans who never fail
to deliver full accounting of all their
purchases. The Government needs
moiety as insurance against fraud.
Moiety men are divided into three
classes-the professionals, amateurs and
personal friends" Latterly, some
fragrant cases of friendship" have re-
suited in Uncle Sam becoming privy to
secret importations by the elegantsia.
A brewers widow, returning to this
country after number of years abroad,
was apprehended at the docks, and in
stead of allowing her courtesy Of the
port and unhindered entrance, the Gus
toms officers made thorough rum
mage through her voluminous baggage
and earned for the Government some
hundreds of thousands of dollars in
legitimate duties. The informer was
said to have been woman-an old
friend-whose friendship had thinned
from bonds of steel to liquid butter
milk. Her bounty from the Govern
ment constituted an endowment for
family.
Another friend of the rich but igno-
rant is the London haberdasaer who
announced that from now on he would
consider only American customers.
Among his confreres there was no Sc
cret about his announcement. Moiety
would mean bigger profits; besides,
American customers are here today and
gone tomorrow.
The following year your merchant
swaggers down the plank and finds the
customs officers all prepared for inSpec-
tion. Attention Is focused on the wife.
A secret communique alleged that it
was she who harbored the contraband.
It was before the day of X-ray exami-
nation, SO the woman was spirited away
from her husband and searched by an
| inspectress. Nothing was found on her.
But one sleuth hit upon an idea. He
caused messenger to appear before
/ the wife and say, your husband has
admitting bringing over the diamonds
and asks that you give them up"
removed her chapeau and hairpins.