Show A HUGE SWINDLING SCHEME THE birz dis discovery covery of a scheme by which the united states government was swindled out of thousands of dollars dolian to is making a sensation in the commercial world the whole matter has baa been made clear to the collector of the port of new york the swindling was effected by the of goods passing through the custom house but not by the aid or counis connivance of any of the government officiate lehmaier co of now new york city W were ore importers of dry goods ghods and woolens T they h ey did an extensive bust basi new ness on january last they made a trade statement which showed that their house was in a sound condition this statement was accepted by the commercial agencies and the firm was able to secure extensive credits for the spring trade in march however the house assigned to mr meyers a wall street lawyer the schedule issued stated that the assets almost covered the liabilities the firm endeavored to compromise with its creditors at 35 cents on the dollar it succeeded succeed eti with all except two these two secured judgment and be gan proceedings to enforce th judgment the proceedings are now in progress resep and enough has transpired to show how the government was swindled and that the assignment was fraudia lent the statement of last january which showed a surplus of should have been less it was wac also shown that the branch house in saris was merely an invoicing agency V tor bor its french importations A double tot bet of books was kept one set showed the prices at which the goods were In invoiced voided for custom house purposes it was clearly shown that the consular invoices for the french business were undervalued on an average to the extent of 20 per cent it is estimated that the government has baa been defrauded out of in this manner since last august it is claimed by free traders that dishonesty of this kini kin I 1 has always prevailed but with the connivance of the government political favorites were supposed to invoice their imports according to their own ideas of value thus enabling them to make immense fur fortunes tunes as well us as to crush out rival houses that were not in the swim it is possible that in the past fast many oblique transactions have taken place under the guise of protection but probably owing more to the venality of customs officials than to any political agency in this case however it has not yet been shown that any official of the customs department was cognizant of what took place though as the case cam stands the united states consular agency in france may have much to explain the question is are other firms on engaged in similar criminal work the dishonesty of lohmeir co would never have been discovered had it not been for the two creditors who took the case came into the courts so that if this firm were content with comparatively moderate gains they could have kept on making yearly by beating the mckinley bill but their greed in making a fraudulent assignment brought them into the tolls toils tariff is all right if regulated and carried out properly it Is discrimination or dishonesty that makes the great evil |