Don Whitehead

“ Customs is a slender, dark-haired expert sitting in a small room in New York appraising the value of a treasure in diamonds. It is a chemist in a laboratory checking the quality of a foreign import—and its dutiable value—and arriving at a decision which may mean life or death for an American business in a highly competitive market. ”

“ Unfortunately, there is no way in looking at passengers arriving by plane or by ship to separate the honest from the dishonest. The little gray-haired lady with a shawl about her shoulders, wearing steel spectacles and a shy, grandmotherly smile, may have two pounds of heroin concealed beneath her petticoat. And the square-jawed, blue-eyed, All-American business executive with the firm handclasp may be trying to bring into the country a diamond ring and several watches. ”

“ In size, the Customs Bureau is one of the smaller Federal agencies, having approximately 8,500 employees. But being the senior service in the Federal government, its past is a mirror of the nation’s history. It is a history tinged with violence and intrigue, because there has never been a time when its agents were not engaged in a running war with smugglers—from Jean Laffite and his band of cutthroats in the bayous of Louisiana to the criminals who direct today’s multi-million-dollar traffic in contraband. ”

“ With the passage of this law, Congress automatically converted every Customs appraiser in the United States into an active critic and judge of the arts. This was so because—whether the appraisers liked it or not—they had to decide whether an import was a work of fine art and thus free of duty. No shilly-shallying about it. It was or it was not subject to duty. Juries of eminent art critics might enjoy the luxury of disagreement; the Customs appraiser had to say yes or no. ”

“ The Twenties was a time of violence and turmoil for all the nation. And no agency of the government was more actively involved than the Customs Service, which, with other agencies, had the impossible task of trying to throw up a dike against the flow of illegal whiskey into the United States. Many good men tried, honestly and diligently, to enforce the law. But the great majority of the people simply didn’t want prohibition.
In this period, Customs developed a tough and experienced corps of law enforcement agents and supervisors who were to serve the country well in future years. ”

“ There was scarcely anyone in the country who did not feel the depressing effects of the embargo. The nation’s economy had sunk to its lowest point since the Revolution.
President Wilson was to say of this period: “The States themselves suffered from the Act more than the nations whose trade they struck at. America’s own trade was ruined.”
Onto this gloomy stage in mid-July, 1808, strode the so-called Chinese mandarin, Punqua Wingchong, and before two months had passed this Oriental fraud had half the country hooting with derisive laughter and the other half red-faced with rage. ”

“ Winston heaved a sigh of relief, and when he looked at Adrian Grasseley he saw that the little diamond cutter was crying. The reaction to the weeks of strain had been too much.
The story of the Vargas diamond is only one among thousands of stories of suspense, excitement, glamor and intrigue in the world where diamonds fire the imagination of men and women and form the basis for a giant industry. And because the diamond trade is big business, it becomes the concern of the Customs Bureau. ”

“ A SLIGHT CASE OF CONSCIENCE One of the most serious problems confronting the Customs Service in this century is the control of the illegal importation of narcotics. Some of the difficulties involved in handling dope smuggling can be seen when it is realized that these drugs are being sent from all over the world, by every means of international transportation. The comparatively small number of Customs agents rely on patience, diligence and intelligence, and they are doing a remarkable job. ”

“ The sack of powder was sent to the Baltimore Customs laboratory with an urgent request for a quick test. It was turned over to tall, lanky Edward Kenney, who had received his training as a chemist at the University of Maine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University. Kenney was among the small group of men and women who had found the Customs laboratories to be a daily adventure in solving riddles posed by the legal necessity of identifying and classifying a bewildering variety of imports which poured into the United States daily from all parts of the world. ”

“ Stephen Schrieber of New York City was one of the cleverest of the chiselers. He was a tall, thin, balding man in his middle years who was engaged in the import-export business. Customs had no reason to suspect Schrieber of wrongdoing until agents got a tip that he was smuggling gold out of the United States, selling it on Europe’s black market, and then smuggling diamonds into this country. ”

“ The acceptance of piracy and smuggling as elements of legitimate trade in New Orleans was not so astonishing as it might seem because Louisiana commerce for many years prior to this time had been built on such a foundation. Smuggling to avoid tariffs and then selling at cheap prices, as one historian said, “had become a part of the habits of life there.” The people were satisfied for the most part because the smuggled goods were cheaper than they would have been had duties been paid. Merchants were satisfied because they were able to obtain scarce merchandise and make a good profit. ”

“ One lesson he had learned well was that no agent could operate successfully without reliable sources of information. That was why he waited patiently on this hot day to hear what it was that his tipster had on his mind. He had been at the rendezvous point only a few minutes when a car drove up beside his own and a Mexican got out, entered his car and began talking rapidly.
The Mexican was one of the key figures in a network of informers which the Customs agents had organized south of the border to help combat the smuggling of heroin and marihuana. ”

“ The Customs Bureau—along with other enforcement agencies—has developed a network of informers who aid in combatting smuggling and other violations of the tariff laws. Information comes from maids, disgruntled employees, ship’s officers and stewards, shop girls, bartenders, narcotics addicts, businessmen, racketeers, and jealous mistresses—each with his own motive for passing information to the agents.
Some informers are motivated by a momentary fit of anger—as was Rosa Weber. Some report smuggling activities to settle an old grudge against an enemy. ”

“ They are trying to eliminate the kind of patently absurd situation which inspired a New Yorker cartoonist to picture a stern, arms-folded Customs inspector at the U.S.-Mexico border facing a very pregnant young lady and saying, “That’s the rule, lady—if you got it in Mexico, you pay duty on it.”
The keeper of the law can hardly hope to win popularity contests. But most of the complaints against Customs spring from the average American traveller’s resentment of the baggage inspection. People simply don’t like to have a stranger poking about among personal belongings. ”

“ These cases and others moved leaders in the world of art to petition Congress to change the tariff laws governing the entry of works of art, and to remove the absurdly restrictive language which had caused so much embarrassment not only to the artists and to museums, but also to Customs and the government itself. As a result of these petitions, Senators Jacob Javits of New York and Paul Douglas of Illinois introduced in 1959 a bill to amend the tariff laws to permit free duty for all fine art and to eliminate the old definitions which had bemused Customs examiners. ”

“ Nathanson is a small, bouncing man with a bristling black moustache and an infectious enthusiasm for his work. He was reared in Brooklyn and as a boy served as a jeweler’s apprentice. He became fascinated with metals and gems. The youth haunted museums, art galleries, antique dealers’ showrooms, and libraries, studying everything he could find on the subject of silver and old jewelry. He pursued his interests with study at Columbia University and then joined the Customs Bureau, where he quickly became recognized as an authority in his field. ”

“ What few travellers realize is that there is no automatic movement of merchandise arriving by ship from overseas. Someone has to be on hand to clear each shipment with Customs and pay any duties that might be due. Someone must see to it that the merchandise is moved from the piers to its destination. And this is usually the job of the broker, a point which many people do not understand and which causes considerable difficulty.
The broker is the expediter of the multi-billion-dollar flow of merchandise through the ports of entry in the United States. ”

“ X had decided it was foolish to bring $200,000 worth of cut diamonds into the United States, to declare the gems on his customs declaration, to pay the government the required 10 per cent duty, to pay the Federal luxury tax on retail sales, and then to pay another tax on the profits from the sale of the diamonds.
He had learned there was a more profitable way to do business. True, it had its risks—but no one ever made money without risks. The trick was to buy insurance which guaranteed duty-free delivery of the diamonds in New York City. ”

“ To qualify as an artistic antiquity—free of duty—a piece of jewelry (or any other object) must have been produced prior to 1830. This arbitrary date for determining antiquity is a sensitive point in the import trade. As Pipino explained it to one puzzled inquirer: “Anything that was produced before 1830 is permitted into the country free of duty as an artistic antiquity—and not as an antique. We don’t presume to tell a dealer or a curator what is to be considered antique and what is not. But an antique is not necessarily an artistic antiquity. ”

“ Indeed, if it was not for sweet music, human life would be so dreary as to be unbearable. It matters not whence it may arise, from the throat of the opera singer or of the bird. From the scintillating trills of the flute or the low notes of the Chinese gong, music is yet the curious and most harmonious succession of sounds conceivable. ”

“ THE STORMY WORLD OF ART The Korean War was still raging in April, 1951, when Sgt. Elverne Giltner left the American Army’s Tenth Corps Headquarters for a stroll about the war-battered streets of Seoul. Four times in less than one year fighting had washed through the city as the United Nations forces battled the North Korean and Chinese Communist troops across the mountains and through the valleys of this unhappy land. Sergeant Giltner was only one of thousands of American soldiers in Seoul at this time. ”

“ It was Grasseley’s job to divide it into twenty-three smaller stones which would be worth $2 million if he did his job well. The Vargas was one of the largest and most valuable diamonds ever to pass through Customs.
For forty years, Adrian Grasseley had cut, sawed and cleaved diamonds in Antwerp and in New York City. But this slender man with the thin, tapering fingers had never had the responsibility of splitting a Vargas. Few men ever had. ”

“ They would be driven to a hillside point on the American side of the border. A hut would be built in such a way that, when a stone was kicked from the foundation, the hut would collapse, the floor would tilt and the contents would roll down the slope of the hill into Canada, where men were waiting to receive it. Who was guilty of smuggling if barrels of merchandise, of their own momentum, suddenly rolled across the border into Canada? ”

“ The examiners—trained by years of study and on-the-job experience—have become experts in appraising the quality and the value of a staggering number of imports. Whether the import is wool, cotton, silk, sugar, hog bristles, furs, diamonds, ore, chemicals, exotic foods, or an antique table, there is someone with a background of knowledge on the subject.
One of the largest single sources of Customs revenue continues over the years to be duties collected on raw wool which has not yet been processed for manufacturing. ”

“ It is not unusual for Customs agents to work for as much as two years in tracking down a single narcotics smuggler and removing him from circulation. These cases require endless hours of surveillance and hunting for the one bit of information which will trap the quarry.
Such a case was dropped in the laps of Customs agents in San Francisco and Seattle on August 2, 1954, when an informant tipped Customs agents at Seattle that $30,000 worth of heroin was to be smuggled into the United States aboard the SS M. N. Patrick by a Negro seaman named Robert King. ”

“ Music is the one harmonious science that dispells discord, softens the winds, and makes all nature kin. It has quickened the step for the warrior in the field of battle; has riveted the attention of the savage on the march of his enemy; has stirred the ambitions of men to higher ideals ”

“ Merchants in Philadelphia and then in Boston decided to follow the lead of the New York merchants. Orders went out to English shippers not to ship more goods to America as long as the Stamp Act was in effect. In this tempest the seeds of revolution were broadcast, and it was a tempest that would not subside until the Colonies had won their freedom from Great Britain.
Despite the jealousies and the conflicts between the Colonies during and after the war, the people realized that only in unity could there be any real hope for survival. ”

“ While taking these precautions, Jackson argued that if the doctrine of nullification of customs duties by the states were ever established, then every Federal law for raising revenue could be annulled by the states. He denied the right of secession, declaring that “to say that any state may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States is not a nation.” ”