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Show ISALT LAKE MOT PORTOF ENTOY Iformer Customs Official Talks Entertainingly En-tertainingly on City's New Fed-oral Fed-oral Office and Its Benefits. Recent Congressional action malclnc Bait Lake City a customs port has mado many persons curious. They -want to know what advantage the city will derive from such action and what the newly appointed Collector of the I Port of Immediate Transportation la expected to do. 1 Knowing that Mr. William H. Alexander, Alex-ander, now a citizen of Salt Lake, was for several years a Surveyor of Cus-' Cus-' toms at Omaha, and tliat he had made an exhaustive study of the customs cus-toms service, a reporter for The Tribune Tri-bune sought and obtained a very Interesting Inter-esting and timely interview with Mr. Alexander on this subject. What Mr. Alexander had to say to the reporter covers the points very generally inquired in-quired Dto by Salt Lalcers. I "The teal advantage to saituane City in making this a customs district." dis-trict." said he. "cannot be told In a few wordo. The prime benefit, however, is had through the advantages of direct importation of merchandise. Information Informa-tion on the many points touching this matter should be furnished by the surveyor sur-veyor to the local merchants .pr a proper Interest may not be displayed. The force of this suggestion can be bet- ter Illustrated by my own experience. Salt Lake Not Port of Entry. t "During the four years or more shlch as Surveyor of Customs, I cheerfully gave my services to the Federal Government, In exchange for the customary emoluments, there were frequent Inquiries concerning the duties du-ties of customs officials, the details of importation, and the several kinds of customs ports and offices. As I 'shall explain to you Salt Lake is not and cannot be made n "port of entry," being be-ing a long way from the coast and the border. "In the earlier dealings of our people peo-ple with foreign nations, all commercial commer-cial transactions were carried on at the seaboard. Imported merchandise was received, examined, appraised, and duties determined and collected, at the several ports of first arrival. As the trade of the country developed and large business centers like Pltts-W Pltts-W burg, Cincinnati and St. Louis were W built up far Inland, It became very bur-i bur-i V densome and was a great inconven-rII inconven-rII lence to Inland Importing merchants, 111 t0 pay duties and attend to other de-Hl de-Hl tails of Importation at the seaboard. Il As a partial relief, sub-ports in charge III ' deputies, were established at varl-111 varl-111 ous small points along the coast, and ill later on regulations were framed by the Treasury department under which AM merchandise could be examined and Jfk duties determined at the port of orl-"ji orl-"ji glnal entry, then forwarded in bond to FW ultimate destination inland. There the kl collection of duties could be made by L r customs official. These Inland points iHr were called ports of delivery. Lj jDeslro of Inland Importors. jrg . Vhat -was chiefly desired by Inland Y jcporters was to have their merchan-' merchan-' I Ji sse forwarded without being opened A for examination or otherwise dls-pK dls-pK turbed or delayed, leaving all thoso f:H details, together with the assessment Mk! of duties, to be performed at the place V of final destination. To meet this de-H de-H manil, Congress passed an act which oM conferred upon most of the more im-g'M im-g'M portant seaports-the privilege of for-ivH for-ivH -warding merchandise, after prellmln-orl prellmln-orl ary entry had been made, without ex-Jfl ex-Jfl amlnatlon or appraisement, to certain JMt of the larger Inland cities. At these TM latter points Surveyors of Customs H wcro appointed, with authority to per-,JH per-,JH form the duties which had previously HI been attended to at ports of first ar-rival. ar-rival. The- cities to which these ad-vantages ad-vantages had previously been extended arc called ports of Immediate trans-OH trans-OH portation. In this list, I am told, Salt Lake City has been entered, lac "As '8 renuently the case in such matters, these privileges have some-.( some-.( I times been injudiciously bestowed, thereby creating ports at which the expense of operation largely exceeded V the income, and sometime ago a bill t,f(! was before Congress to abolish be- on tween forty and fifty unimportant of- fl flees. 2i' Three Kinds of Ports. M "Ye have, then, three technical des-lgnatlons, des-lgnatlons, viz., ports of entry, where sHI merchandise first arrives In tho Unit-ijtlH Unit-ijtlH ed States, and where original entry rW must bo mado by tho Importer, or some tm one duly qualified to represent him, J either for consumption, warehousing, nl or immediate transportation to some HI other customs district- I may add, parenthetically, that If no one appears S to claim the merchandise within a h brief period, It Is-sent to some ware-houso ware-houso under control of Government I ffl officials, and unless called for within f I one year or o.therwlse accounted for, a it Is i-old at auction to satisfy the Gov- crnmcnt's claim for duties. B "Next come ports of Immediate trans- B portation, to which merchandise can be Hj ' forwarded for examination and ap-Ha ap-Ha pralsemcnt, without being disturbed at the port of entry. Being transported B in bond means that goods arriving at fljl New York, for instance, must bo ac-HH ac-HH jcounted for by the collector at that mm. port- If the importer desires to have them forwarded to another porU ho must become responsible to the New York collector for duties. He must give bonds, usually in twice the amount, that the duties will ultimately be paid at point of destination. The goods can ,then be loaded for shipment, but they must bo taken In charge by a common carrier, railroad, steamboat company or other Institution, which is also undr bonds to the Government for safe de livery to the customs officer at the port of final destination. In this waj the duties are secured and the custody of goods is covered, bo that the Gov-ernment Gov-ernment takes no chances. Nearly all '(railroad and steamship companies doing do-ing Important business in tho United States arc bonded to cover such tranK-actlons, tranK-actlons, "When the transported merchandise Is finally entered for consumption, or I "warehoused under other bonds, ccrtifi-9 ccrtifi-9 c&tes are sent to tho New York col-1 col-1 lector, notifying hlra of such dlsposl- tlon, and the first bonds are canceled. I Through all these several stages goods II are under custom locks absolutely. I "Porta of delivery are those at which 1 the customs officer has little to do but 1 collect duties already assessed else- whero, deliver the goods and report the I tiarisactlon. New York, St. Paul and San Francisco are ports of entry. Cln-clnnatl, Cln-clnnatl, Omaha and, now, Salt Lake ;rM City, are ports of Immediate transpor- nrlH tatlon. Yd Groat Growth of Busine3n. l-mm "It may be interesting to note hero liiat Tvkllo Omaha became a customs point in 1S72 only $10,000 In duties were collected there, in tho first ten years: In 1S8S. when it first became an lmmodlnto transportation port, duties amounted to 130,000. I took charge of tho offico in December, 18S0, end tho third year thereafter had Increased In-creased collections to $160,0PO, which mado Omaha seventh in rank among interior in-terior ports. This Item I mention to show a good result of personal effort among morchanta and manufacturers by the surveyor. 'Another item which perploxes people peo-ple not a little la the titlft of the chief customs officers at the several porta. At tho larger seaports there is a collector, col-lector, who Is the head of the department; depart-ment; a surveyor, who has immediate supervision of all out3ldc details, and a naval officer, who is practically the auditor. At the smaller port3 and all inland border porta no naval officer is required, and at Interior ports only a surveyor is appointed, but he 1b clothed with all powers of a collector which are essential to the performance of duty, and is really the collector. It has beon urged by the chief of the special spe-cial agents' department that the term collector be applied officially to all chief customs at interior oorts, and in time it will doubtless be done. An Erroneous Supposition. "It is generally supposed that warehouses ware-houses are furnished by the Government. Govern-ment. This, however, is not the case, excent such limited enaco as mav bo made available in or connected with the customs office, or so-called examination exami-nation room:. The Government desires Importers to take out their goods and pay duties upon arrival. If, however, us Is frequently the case, the importer prefers to have the goods stored a while, he can make what la called a warehouse entry, or, If previously 6tored at port of original entry, a re-warehousing entry. Then tho merchandise may be deposited in a bonded warehouse, ware-house, provided there bo one, always under customs lock. The Government ncvor relinquishes control of merchandise merchan-dise until duties have been paid. Goods May Bo Removed at Will. "Goods stored or-warehoused can be taken out a little at a time, If desired, upon what are termed warehouse withdrawal with-drawal entries, and dutleB paid only on the portion so withdrawn. This method meth-od of handling Imported merchandise, especially by the larger importers, has become so common that nearly every port where any considerable amount of importing Is carried on has one or more bonded warehouses. Any person having hav-ing stprage room which meets the physical phy-sical requirements of the Government can bond the premises, but all merchandise mer-chandise warehoused must be under direct di-rect control of the customs officers, and no goods can be stored there except such as have been imported and aro held for duties. "In this somewhat general way I have outlined the essentials of customs service at the several ports. Tho details de-tails of the process of importing, Invoices, In-voices, bills of lading, entries, examinations exami-nations and so on can be found In "Treasury Regulations of Customs Service," Ser-vice," and should bo looked into pretty closely by Intending importers, in which, of course, thoy will get their chief aid from the customs officer of their respective ports." |