CHAPTER XXIII 
CUSTOM-HOUSES AND TARIFFS 
No one can fully appreciate what difficul 
ties 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 unwar 
ranted expenses which exist in no other cus 
tom-houses in the world save in those of Latin 
America, change from day to day and are sus 
ceptible 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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