REPORT OF THE SUPERVISING SPECIAL AGENT. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D. C., November 17, 1885. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the results accomplished by the special agents of the Treasury Department for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1885: Of these reports. 129 relate to smuggling, 339 to undervaluations, 69 to misconduct of customs officers, 158 to seizures, 97 to inspection of customs districts, 23 to arrests made, 26 to suits, and 3,303 to miscellaneous subjects. The expenses of the special agents were as follows: Salaries.. Total........... $73, 308 00 14, 158 42 $87,466 42 There have been employed during the fiscal year a number of special inspectors and persons paid from the appropriation for the prevention and detection of frauds upon the customs revenue, whose salaries and expenses amounted, in the aggregate, to the sums following: Special inspectors...... $52,672 02 69, 867 14 With reference to the amount of duties reported as paid into the Treasury, it must be stated that, although it includes sums paid in on account of advances made by appraising officers, yet it is the result flowing from information furnished these officers from time to time by special agents in regard to the classes of goods upon which the advances were made. These goods include silks, woollen and worsted goods, gloves, silk and cotton velvets, wool, earthen and glass ware, embroideries, linens, proprietary articles, straw-braids, fancy articles, isinglass, varnish, cutlery, pipes and pipe materials, chamois leather, and other articles. The annual examinations of the several customs collection districts show that the business in the main has been conducted in accordance with the laws and regulations, and that all moneys received have been properly accounted for. Under special instructions issued from the Department. agents in making these examinations have recommended larger reductions in the number and compensation of employés than were made during the previous fiscal year, the difference in favor of the present year being $63,794.19. Important results have followed the work of special agents who were specially instructed to investigate irregularities in the customs service at the port of New York. Special reports were made by these officers on undervaluations, fraudulent damage allowances, improper drawbacks, and other irregular practices at that port, and their reports and recommendations caused a modification of the regulations governing the payment of drawbacks on exported bags, and the correction of irregularities of administration relating to drawbacks generally, the abolition of the practice of recalling invoices for the purpose of changing the values as originally reported by the appraiser, a change in the method of arriving at the dutiable value of cotton embroideries, and stopped the practice of making allowance for damage without proper examination of the merchandise, thus preventing the payment of improper and excessive damage claims, and made a radical change in the method of conducting reappraisements. Special attention has been given to invoices of silks consigned by foreign manufacturers to their agents at New York, and invoices of this class of goods have been, as a rule, advanced to the values reported by the silk experts employed at Lyons, France, and Zurich and Horgen, Switzerland. The consular reports now show a steady decrease in the percentage of undervaluations of this class of goods. This is due, it is believed, to the combined efforts of the consuls under whom the experts are employed and the appraising officers charged with the duty of passing the invoices. The consul at Zurich reports that for the year ending September 30, 1883, the declared value of silks shipped from his consulate amounted in round figures to $2,700,000, and that the value of silks shipped during the year ending September 30, 1885, amounted to $1,800,000, a decrease of $900,000. While there are other causes which have operated to effect this decrease, he is of the opinion that the falling off is to be attributed largely to the success attending the suppression of undervaluations. As has been repeatedly stated, foreign manufacturers have resorted to undervaluation to maintain their American trade at the expense of the customs revenue. It is believed that undervaluations of other classes of consigned goods, subject to ad valorem duties, have been to a considerable extent arrested. The investigations and reports of the special agents on this subject, and the wide publicity given thereto, have no doubt secured excellent results in the interest of the customs revenue. They have stimulated the appraising officers to a more careful examination of the goods under their charge; they have gradually compelled the importers to enter their goods at prices more nearly in accordance with the actual dutiable value contemplated by the law, and have made evasions of the revenue more difficult for those who are averse to paying honest duties, or who do not hesitate to resort to any device to gain an advantage over competitors in trade. Such efforts on the part of the customs officials, which it is their bounden duty to make, have, however, but partial and temporary effect, and do not cure the evil. It is radical, and is inseparable from the system of ad valorem duties. While there is no doubt that the customs laws might be enforced more equally and vigorously if the barriers to the successful prosecution of fraud erected by the act of 1874 were removed, yet there seems to be no certain cure for undervaluations except the adoption of specific duties. From the foregoing, it will be seen that the special agents have been usefully and profitably employed during the year. Attention is respectfully invited to the accompanying table, which shows the business transacted in the several customs collection districts, including receipts and expenses. I also invite attention to the table showing the number of packages, with the invoice value and estimated duties thereon, forwarded without appraisement, from and to the ports specified in the act of June 10, 1880, and acts amendatory thereof. Very respectfully, Hon. DANIEL MANNING, L. G. MARTIN, Supervising Special Agent. Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D. C. |