| Show CUSTOM HOUSE CLERKS u ty of computing compound duties mad by there is one department in the custom house for alich there ire are not many is as pir auts though the pay is good it is the liquidating department she work Is hard and puzzling and it requires a man of peculiar temperament temperament to make his way in n it the liquidating office is ie place where the final calculation of the duties to be paid on oil imported goods is made when the goods are first entered a rough est estimate imato of the duties as per invoice is made and effic duces are deposited then after the work of the surveyors office is completed and the appraiser has examined the goods and placed on the invoices their classification and rate of duty the work ot of the liquidating office begins begin one or of the liquidating clerks in speak ins inato to a reporter about the work of the office said to one who is not acquainted b by y actual experience with the work it is a hard matter to explain it I 1 have never known such difficult work antho in the first place the invoices come to you in every know knon it language and the measures of quantity and value are expressed in the same tongue as that in which the invoice is written all these in the first place have to be reduced to american measures and values and is trying work then a nan man 1 in our department has to bo be a walking encyclopedia of commercial and trade technical technicalities one of the most puzzling things thing sin in our work is the ngi figi nine wing out of the duty on ait cles which pay a compound tax take for instance dress goods the tax is 5 cents a yard and 35 per cent ad va lorem or krents a yard and 40 per percent cent according to whether the value is over or under 20 cents a yard say we have it a consignment of 1000 yards of dress goods from en england land which are billed in the invoice ata at 2 shillings and 6 pence less a ivorite favorite f discount less 5 per cent less 2 per cent find and with charges say of 13 the charges must be deducted and discounts taken off in order to find out just what aliat the cost per yard is and on this the duty is assessed this is a simple operation compared to many wo we have on all worsted goods there is a specific and ad valorem valoree duty duly tor for goods weighing under four ounces a yard and another for goods over four ounces becs and on some other woolen goods wa we have to find out whether they cost 40 CO 60 or 80 cents a i pound because different rates of duty are charged I 1 have had sometimes to trial make cc as manyas many as twenty five different calculations to ascertain what the rate of duty was on a certain line of goods we cant go by the appraisers calculation at all his work Is done hurriedly in many cases and we cant afford to trust him about the most tedious work we have is on invoices of glass it comes in all sizes and weights and there is a differ different eat duty for each size and weight I 1 have known of invoices that required the making of figures to ascertain the duty sugar is another tedious article to figure on it is graded by test and a different rate of duty is charged for every degree above 75 wines liquors and tobacco all have compound duties which as I 1 said give us the hardest work the work never gets easy as puzzlers are liable to come up at any time there are men in the office who have been there fifteen years and they will frequently come across something in an invoice which they have never met before it is like sitting down to solve a chinese puzzle and keer keeping ilg at 1 l for eight or ten tell hours every day it helps a man very little to bo be i mathematician young g mat mathar h or who committed suicide dg was in the office and was a splendid mathematician math cin alician at ician but lie was of a nervous temperament and I 1 dont docu that puzz puzzling lin over some of those infernal over or under conr our ounce iivo invoices ices drove him crazy 11 new york press |
