Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ A government wants to know, without being put to a search, what articles are brought into the country, and to make up its own mind not only what duties it will demand but whether it will allow the goods to enter at all. It would seem strange if it should except from the manifest demanded those things about which it has the greatest need to be informed-if in that one case it should take the chance of being able to find what it forbids to come in, without requiring the master to tell what he knows. ”

“ It is argued that this is a definition; that 'capable of being imported' must be taken to mean capable of being imported lawfully as otherwise the phrase hardly would do more than exclude chattels real, and would want the poignant significance attributed to every word of legislation; and that therefore the merchandise to be included in the manifest does not embrace opium for smoking which the law has done all it can to exclude. ”

“ That is merely saying in another way that a manifest is not necessary for goods forbidden to enter the country. All that remains is the suggestion that smoking opium has no value. But assuming it to be established that the statutes require the manifest to disclose prohibited articles the penalty imposed implies that such articles may have value and oes not require the Courts to set up a technical rule in face of the plain truth. So the provision that smoking opium shall be forfeited implies that however evil it may be it has an owner. ”