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Show BUSINESS METHODS. Figures we get. from a newspaper report f that customs collections at the port Alexaud-ii Va., amounted to $10 during the past year, ami tha ' expense of mi rntaining the port was s . Crisfield, Me., it cost $3,286 to collect $:.-; a: por j mouth, X. II., $3,573 to collect $221.f.;. ; r i-; jf I bor, X. J., $4,221 to collect $167.00. and at Ar.nap.j. lis, Md., $956 to collect $3.00. By a lirti- ti-urii-,. one may arrive at the result that it en-t t i,.- 20Ypn. ment $13,200 to collect $406.83 in eu,t.,I:i f; f at these five ports, or that they were maii!r,;;:il a, a loss of $12,763.17. There are J60 r,,ru ,,f Pnt j under the supervision of the treasury ;';;rfnlf,rr forty of which are said to have bigger -x;-.-ri.;i-nrr. than receipts. The natural inference haj t'h(1 treasury department is not pursuing modern l,,,, ness methods in the conduct of its affairs. y. an inference would be entirely erroneous. I no. the fault of the treasury department that tlu- forty ports are maintained. Instead. thr fault lie with congress. Repeated requests have Lien mail by the secretary of the treasury to have tlir pnrt; which fail to make expenses abolished, but eomrreH has so far failed to act upon such request-. In the political life of a congressman, the abolition abo-lition of a port of entry with a fat federnl ?alarv in his district would spell his defeat at the nex: election. The congressmen are ambitious, and thrv band themselves to defeat legislation which would lessen their prestige in their home district. And the people in the districts which would lose the unprofitable un-profitable port by the enactment of the legislation suggested by the secretary of the treasury don't want their ports abolished. ! However, the administration of President Taft is definitely pledged to economy, and if thr ad- .; ministration can bring its power to bear thrre may I be accomplished what has heretofore been amon? the impossibilities. The perpetuation of those ports of entry where the receipts fail to equal the expenditures, and of others where the receipts do not justify their continuance, is not in accord with the proposed government economy as undertaken by the administration. If congress can be made hi abolish those ports it will be accepted as an indication indi-cation that business methods of administration are really supplanting the methods of those statesmen who have favored legislation of benefit to a very limited constituency to the detriment of the nation. |