Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1919 — NEW YORK MADE RAT TIGHT [ARTICLE]

NEW YORK MADE RAT TIGHT

Phrase Means That Enerny Agerts and Spies Were Driven From Great United States Port. “The port of New York is rat tight.” This is the phrase in the vernacular of the sea is going around the workh to every quarter of the globe since the customs intelligence bureau was organized in New York a year ago. Paraphrased in the speech of the average American it means that it has been impossible for an alien enemy or spy. any article of contraband, or any secret message or forbidden Information that might benefit the cause .of the enemy, to come or go out of this port without being detected by the vigilant eyes of Uncle Sam’s guardians, a New York Pittsburgh dispatch states. More than 75 per cent of the immense volume of munition shipments sent from the United States to Europe passed through the port of New \ ork, which has been the most important war port in the world. Moreover, It has been the main gateway through which travelers have passed either *n going to allied or neutral countries or coming from such countries to the United States. Because of this volume of travel and traffic New York has been the spot from which enemy agents have worked most assiduously to send information and supplies to enemy countries. And it is because of these conditions that it has required more force, more determination and constant scrutiny to afford the protection which the vast interests centering here have received. The best evidence that these conditions have been adequately met is found in the motto of seamen quote 1 above: “New York is rat tight.” It suras succinctly the full measure of value which has been rendered to allied nations by an agency of the government which has worked so quietly here that many citizens even have n >t known of its existence. This agency is the customs intelligence bureau, organized at the beginning of last year by the collector of the port. Up to the time that America entered the great world war persons desiring to travel abroad found no trouble in leaving the United States. But with the opening of the war the customs branch of the government became an agency of grave importance. And the work they have accomplished without any question has saved many lives and millions of dollars.