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 re 
duction. Tariffs are extreme and exorbitant, 
subject to the whims and financial needs of 
those in power and liable to complete varia 
tion 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 coun 
try, their countrymen or the merchants within 
their borders at heart. Their desire is to ac 
quire 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 kinder 
garten 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-