American  country  to-day,  for  by  to-morrow
fully  half  of  them  would  be  changed,  and  let
me  add  that  the  alteration  is  always  in  the
form  of  an  additional  charge  and  never  a  reduction. ­
  Tariffs  are  extreme  and  exorbitant,
subject  to  the  whims  and  financial  needs  of
those  in  power  and  liable  to  complete  variation ­
  without  warning.  Customs  officials  are
recruited  always  from  the  class  of  “politicos”
hereinbefore  discussed.  The  positions  which
they  fill  are  the  political  plums  of  the  land.
These  men  have  not  the  interest  of  their  country, ­
  their  countrymen  or  the  merchants  within
their  borders  at  heart.  Their  desire  is  to  acquire ­
  wealth  by  exploiting  those  with  whom
their  official  duties  bring  them  in  contact,  and
they  have  reduced  this  to  a  perfect  science.
The  doings  of  Tammany  are  in  the  kindergarten ­
  class  as  compared  with  these  exponents
of  the  theory  that  to  the  victor  belongs  the
spoils.  The  schemes  designed  and  resorted  to
by  these  modern  inquisitors  are  almost  beyond
belief,  and  could  only  emanate  from  the  brains
of  those  whose  ancestors  received  their  school-