CHAPTER  XXIII

CUSTOM-HOUSES  AND  TARIFFS
No  one  can  fully  appreciate  what  difficulties ­
  custom-houses  and  tariffs  can  cause  until
he  has  had  experience  with  those  in  Latin
America.  The  custom-house  officials  deem
it  their  duty  to  harass,  embarrass,  annoy  and
add  to  the  troubles,  worries  and  expenses
of  the  merchant  in  these  lands.  They  are
veritable  boulders  in  the  path  of  business
progress.  The  charges,  fees,  tariffs,  taxes,  and
the  hundred  and  one  incidental  and  unwarranted ­
  expenses  which  exist  in  no  other  custom-houses ­
  in  the  world  save  in  those  of  Latin
America,  change  from  day  to  day  and  are  susceptible ­
  to  as  many  interpretations  as  there  are
government  employees  having  any  work  to  do
with  the  goods  under  consideration.  It  would
be  the  height  of  folly  to  attempt  to  give  tariffs
and  other  custom-house  charges  in  any  Latin
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