Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 291, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1911 — IN THE TOILSOF THE CUSTOMS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IN THE TOILSOF THE CUSTOMS

CAMELS, duty free or taxed specifically or ad valorem, might pass through, the eye of a needle* with a deal more of ease than through the New York custom house. Rescuing one’s own property from the clutches of Uncle Sam is a fearful experience. Expert knowledge and almost superhuman patience are required to pass goods through the government red tape factory, once they have landed from a foreign country, even though not a cent of duty Is to be paid and all the laws of the land declare such goods have a right to enter without challenge. It is well nigh impossible for an ordinary citizen to get goods out of a custom house in this port without employing an expert A large amount of business is done by professional “brokers,” who devote their whole time to steering bills of lading and other documents through the circumlocution of the New York custom house.

1 received from England recently a consignment of “household effects” on which no duty was to be paid. Naturally one would think that it was only necessary for the customs authorities to make examination. This is far from being the case. It takes as much time to get the bill of lading and consular invoice through the Bowling Green offices of the custom house as it does to get the goods themselves off the slip and through the custom house public stores As a matter of fact, the actual examinar tlon at the stores in such cases occupies about fifteen minutes, and Is more or less perfunctory, whereas the passing of the papers Involves hours, and might take days. ’

How to Qo About it

When I received formal notification that certain “household effects” had arrived for me from Europe and were at the docks “awaiting removal,” I presented myself at the shipping offices In Broadway. With my bill of lading In hand, reinforced by a consular invoice from the London representatives of this government abroad, I asked for a permit to be allowed to take the effects from the steamship. The agent looked at me in awe. He asked: “Hadn’t you better get a broker to clear this stuff for you?” “What do I want a broker foi-?” I asked. “Can’t Igo down to the docks with a wagon and just get the stuff, after a customs Inspection?" “Oh, , nothing like that in the world —but still. If you won't have a broker, that ends it. Take the bill of lading and go over to the docks with it; somebody over there wIU tell you what to do.” 1 Off to the docks 1 went The clerk in the delivery office carefully examined the bill of lading as if he had never seen one before, and then looked at me. “Wane a broker for this; don’t you?” he asked, looking over his spectacles. “Not much; if I can’t get this myself, I guess nobody else will. They said at the office you would tell me what to do.” “Whoi Me? I have nothing to do with it You had better go back to the office and ask for Mr. B.—”

In the Custom House.

Mr. B — shrugged his shoulders, directed me to the custom house and gave me a parting glance as R ho looked with sad eyes upon one who was going to his doom. Just Inside the rotunda of the custom house a horde of brokers stared hungrily at. my papers. One or two asked me it I wished assistance. At the center deck on the left, in the big rotunda, I explained to a customs officer that I did not propose to employ a broker. “Oh, of course, you don’t have to have a broker,** replied the officer. "All you have to do is to go to Mr. Baker’s office tn room 236 down the hall and ask him to give you an entry slip in duplicate; a household effects oath; a memorandum of entry; and a free inspector’s permit When you have filled them all out correctly, you must have them lodged for entry, where they will be examined fir error. If they are passed, you bring them back to the bond window, and got the free permit checked. Then come back here and HI tell you the rest’’ -L Hers was a chance for a broker to get a job, but no broker camo near. They wore watching my downfall, f know. Mr. Baker supplied mo with

the necessary blanks and charged me five cents for one of them —the entry blank. This blank had a form of oath on the back, which I had to fill out and sign. With all my papers in hand, I went back to the deputy who had steered me thus far. “Go back and fill them out,” he said. This deputy was patience personified. He showed me three or four times how to out each blank and I went back into Mr. Baker’s room and filled them out It took an hour even with the assistance of my deputy collector guide, philosopher and friend. I brought them back to him, but J had forgotten to sign the oath on the entry slip. So I went back and filled out the oaths on' both entry slips and signed both. :.9~ “I only told you to give one oath, but you have signed both,” he said. “I suppose the whole thing has to be done over again V’ I began. ' "Oh, no,” he answered drawing his pen through one of the oaths, **we can fix it up here.” He went through the papers for the last time and pronounced them correct In the Merry-Go-Rqund. It was now ten minutes to three, and if the papers were not passed before 3, it would be too late for that day. Perhaps in the morning a new system would be inaugurated by the government and I might have to get a broker, after all. The officer at the bond window sent me further down the line with my “bunch of papers,’’ and I found the right clerk- I had been to him before, but he had sent me away tn error. He‘took my papers, looked at them, threw my green bill of lading into one box and the yellow consular Invoice into another; distributed thd declaration of free entry Into one pigeon hole and the memorandum of entry Into another. I asked if he intended to keep all the others. 1 had become somewhat attached to them. All authors have a fondness for the original manuscript of their literary products, and I had worked hard over these papers. “We keep these—you take your permit to a deputy collector and get hlin to sign it." T went back to my old friend, the deputy in the rotunda, and he signed the permit “Thank goodness, that’s all over.** I sighed as I put the green document in my pocket “Not so fast," said the deputy, “It has to be passed by the naval officer —back there In the hall where you had your papers lodged for entry.” Back I went The naval officer was. sitting on a high chair at a little window. He was a big man- and filled all the snace. “Do you sign this?** I asked. It was now a few minutes to 3. He looked at the slip. ; “You better go down there to that last window and ask for Mr. 0.,* he said. “If he stamps the paper, bring it back to me. Tell him to Stamp it “free on oath." Once More to the Deputy. I went down and inquired at several windows for “Mr. C." One office? took the paper, stamped it “Free on Oath,” and signed it over to the space left for the deputy naval officer. “Do I have to take this back to the naval officer now?” 1 asked“No; not at all—he shouldn’t have sent you down—it’s all right as It Is now.” I went back to the deputy. "Take your green permit over to the docks,” be said. “Hand it to a customs Inspector, and ask him what to do.” The examiner at the stores after the boxes were at last In his depart-ment-spent about fifteen minutes in prying up the lids of the boxes. ,He turned over a few packets of old books; asked If they were not old -books—to which I assented—and with one or two perfunctory queries, “passed" the consignment. It took nine days to bring the goods from London; but nearly five days to get them through thv customs. And I was told that I had established a “record * for speed.