DESPATCHES, EEPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 617 



What has happened in the execution of the free-fish clause, during 

 the last quarter of a century, whether the clause required " daily " or 

 " immediate "consumption, is exhibited in the subjoined Appendix A. 

 It is an unsatisfactory record of an effort to discover and execute an 

 intention of the law-makers which was so ambiguously expressed as 

 to lead to doubt and dispute. In 1877, and after the law of 1870, 

 the difficulties were increased, partly by reason of new contrivances 

 for the artificial freezing of fish. 



At first it was doubted by collectors whether or not a fish caught in 

 winter, thrown on the ice and frozen stiff while lying there, and im- 

 ported in that condition, could be a " fresh fish," as if either a fresh 

 fish cannot be frozen, or a frozen fish cannot be fresh. It was also 

 insisted that a fish caught in summer, and frozen by an artificial 

 method could not be deemed fresh, even though as fresh as one frozen 

 by the natural coldness of winter air in a northern climate. Then 

 it was said that the produce of American fisheries could not be car- 

 ried into Canada, there artificially frozen, and afterwards be exempt 

 from tax when entered at our ports. It was argued by customs officers 

 that the quantity entered could be made a safe test of '''immediate con- 

 sumption," as if customs officers could correctly ascertain and decide 

 on the " immediate " buying and consuming powers of the people. 

 There were customs officers who urged the department to make the 

 distance of the probable place of sale from the place of entry a test 

 of " immediate consumption," as if transportation from Portland 

 in Maine to a market at Boston could be a legal test, and " immedi- 

 ate " referred to place rather than time. One collector thought 

 twenty tons of fish on one entry at a port on the lakes, could not be 

 for " immediate consumption " by subsequent shipment and sale in 

 the great markets ftf Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. It could 

 not be affirmed that the fish thus frozen, whether naturally or arti- 

 ficially, was either " smoked, or dried, or salted, or pickled." If 

 freezing deprived the fish of freshness, it could not well be dutiable as 

 foreign-caught fish, fresh! What sort of fish was it? Was it old, 

 stale, and decayed fish that buyers and consumers sought, bought, 

 and would eat? The contention has gone on for well nigh a quarter 

 of a century, nor has Congress intervened to tax frozen fish by other 

 and explicit words ! 



In June last the interpretation of the law was referred to the solic- 

 itor of this department. His opinion, subjoined in Appendix A, 

 does not relieve the enactment from difficulties in uniform application 

 at each port such as the constitution commands. If a collector shall, 

 in order to secure such uniformity at every port, await the decision 

 of this department after an exhibition of the facts surrounding each 

 entry, the fish might become anything but " fresh." 



This fish clause of the tariff law affords a pertinent illustration of 

 the need there is of revising our taxing legislation. The draughtsman 

 of a great many of its sections, apparently unable to set down clearly 

 his purpose, and his own idea of the method of executing it, has 

 thrown upon appraising or collecting officers the work of ascer- 

 taining the intentions of importers, or the uses to which merchandise 

 can be, or may be, thereafter put, which those officers are unable to 

 perform in any reasonable time, or in any satisfactory way. To 

 appraising and collecting work in practical administration there is a 

 limit, which our present law too frequently ignores, and customs 



