DECISIONS AND REGULATIONS.

1. IMPORTED foreign fabrics, bleached and printed in the United States, do not thereby become manufactures of the United States, so as to be legally exempt from duty on re-im. portation into the United States. (Tr. Reg., 1857, p. 571.)

2. a. Dutiable merchandise imported into the United States, and afterwards exported, although it may have paid duty on the first importation, is liable to duty on every subsequent importation into the United States. (R. R., pt. iv, art. 149; see also Regs. 1864, art. 467.)

b. Manufactures in this country from foreign material, if exported with drawback or return duty, are dutiable if re-imported. (S. S., 1037.)

c. Articles cannot be withdrawn from warehouse for repair, with privilege to export in bond, free of duty. (S. S., 1347.)

d. Domestic alcohol in bond cannot be transferred to manufacturing bonded warehouse, to use in manufacture of medicinal preparations for export, without prepayment of internal revenue tax. (S. S., 1839.)

3. Old sheathing metal taken from the bottom of a foreign vessel at Demerara, and imported on it to the United States, held to be dutiable, although of domestic manufacture and placed on the bottom of the vessel here. (S. S., 1783.)

4. Indians. Under the provisions of the one hundred and fifth section of the general collection act of March 2, 1799 (Sec. 2515, Rev. St., 1815, pt. I), peltries may be brought into the United States by Indians from the adjacent foreign possessions; and also the goods and effects bona fide their property; provided the said goods and effects are moderate in quantity and value, and usual among Indians. The officers of the customs are enjoined to exercise vigilance in preventing or detecting the illegal introduction of foreign dutiable merchandise into the United States by means of the agency of the Indians; and it has been decided by the Department that such articles as shingles and stave-bolts, and other dutiable articles, when brought into the United States by Indians from the neighboring foreign possessions, in quantities, for sale, or on contract as merchandise, are not entitled to entry free of duty under any law or treaty. (Ibid., art. 153; also Regs., 1874, art. 471.)

5. Samples of Goods. The class of articles under this title, considered by the Department as admissible free of duty, must be only such as small strips or pieces of silk, cotton, or other fabric; small quantities of raw material, and, generally, articles of any description having little or no intrinsic value as merchandise; in regard to which the proper officers of the customs, in their examinations, are to exercise a reasonable discretion; it being understood that articles of a certain value, although imported under the designation of samples, such as pieces of carpeting, which from their size and form are suitable for and sold as rugs, or bedsides, &c., cannot be exempted from the payment of duty. On their arrival, they must be sent to the appraiser's office for examination. (Tr. Reg., p. 582.)

Certain so-called samples, consisting of pieces of worsted reps, suitable for small shawls, cravats, and other purposes, and having, therefore, an actual commercial value, were held to be subject to duty. (S. S., 1385.)

6. Horse stolen in Canada and brought to the United States, and sold to a party, who, not knowing the horse was stolen, paid duty thereon; reclaimed by owner and taken back to Canada. Held not to be an "importation" within the meaning of the law, and duty refunded. (S. S., 515.)

7. Sea stores. a. "An excess of sea stores in vessels arriving from foreign ports, and all articles purchased abroad for sale on board a vessel as saloon stores or supplies, are dutiable and must be duly entered on arrival." (Regs., 1874, art. 481.)

Sea stores saved from wreck are exempt from duty. (S. S, 566.)

b. Sea stores, foreign. Collectors are the judges of proper complement, estimated according to length of voyage and number of crew. Excess dutiable. (S. S., 1120.)

c. If transferred from one vessel to another, are dutiable. (S. S., 1156.) For rules as to

sea stores, fuel, &c., bought in Canada by American coasting vessel, see S. S., 1193.

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8. Ballast, when dutiable. (See S. S., 1424 and 1542.) Iron kentledge, used for ballast, landed from wreck, dutiable. (S. S, 1440.)

9. a. Damage to goods in bond by freezing not a "casualty" under paragraph 1946, pt. I. (S. S., 1089.)

b. Excessive damage or rust to iron, &c., by wreck or other extraordinary cause, may be allowed for under the general law. (S. S., 1138.)

c. Fruit so damaged on voyage as to be worthless, to be treated as if not imported. (S. S., 1167.)

10. Vessels and materials for. a. The materials of a condemned foreign vessel, broken up and dismantled in the United States, whether used in the United States or exported, are not an importation within the meaning of the law, and therefore not dutiable. (S. S, 563.) b. Certain machinery of a vessel, winter-bound in the United States, exported for repairs, held to be dutiable on its return. (S. S., 567.)

c. Foreign vessels losing rudder or stern-post, or breaking shaft, and arriving at a United States port in distress, cannot import others to replace these articles here free of duty. (Sept. 26, 1867, and May 7, 1870, N. Y.)

d. For regulations as to withdrawal of shipbuilding materials under paragraphs 1813-14, see Treas. Regs., 1874, arts. 747 to 755.

e. The words "iron and steel" in 1813 qualify or limit all the articles enumerated in the provision, to wit, "rods, bars, spikes, nails, and bolts." Yellow metal bolts are therefore not included. (S. S., 1532.) But yellow sheathing metal is. (S. S., 1238.)

f. Yellow sheathing metal used under 1813, worn out, and removed from vessel in the United States, is not dutiable. (S. S, 1533.)

g. The term "ship timber" in 1659 includes only such timber as is evidently used for the frame or keel of a vessel, or its masts or spars, and not boards and planks used in finishing it. (S. S., 1343.) Oak timber, commercially known as ship timber, is included, although it was intended in part for other uses. (S. S., 1707.) Not so as to oak plank, which can be put to other uses. (S. S., 1719.)

h. Repairs (including the materials for) made in a foreign port to a United States registered vessel engaged in the foreign and coasting trade by sea, not dutiable. (S. S., 1753 ) 11. Importations for foreign embassies. The exemption from duty accorded by comity to all articles intended for the personal or family use of foreign ambassadors, ministers, or charges d'affaires to the United States, is not extended to the importations of secretaries of legation, attachés, or consuls. (July 11, 1866, H. F. S.)

12. Definition. Per centum additions to or reductions of rates of duty are estimated upon the amount of duty; per centum additions to duties upon imports “ad valorem" are estimated upon the appraised value of the goods. (Oct. 18, 1861, Norfolk.)

13. Force of Departmental decisions. When the Secretary of the Treasury has deliber. ately adopted a certain construction of any particular act of Congress, which construction must necessarily govern the entire administration of his Department so far as it relates to the subject-matter of such act, such construction ought, until set aside by superior power, to have the same binding force as the original act. The Department is in duty bound to adhere to it until thus set aside, and the only authority which it is incumbent upon the Secretary of the Treasury to recognize as such superior power is a decision of the court of last resort, or the repeal, amendment, or legislative construction of the act itself. (S. S., 653 )

Where a decision of the Department is made, either lowering the rate of duty previously exacted, or advancing the same, such decision will be held applicable to all subsequent withdrawals from warehouse, for consumption, of the same kind of goods, notwithstanding that protests and appeals may not have been made against the original liquidations of the entries of the goods. (S. S., 1524 )

14. Articles in bulk.-Questions having arisen relative to the meaning of the term "articles in bulk," as used in the 29th section of the Act of July 14, 1870, and in section 2930 of the Revised Statutes (see ante, Part I, 666 and 1952), relating to the entry of dutiable merchandise for immediate transportation to an interior port without appraisement, the following general rules were prescribed September 25, 1876, for the information and guidance of officers of the customs:

I. The commercial signification of the term "in bulk," viz., that it has reference to such articles as are usually packed or stowed in the importing vessel in a loose state as contradistinguished from "package-goods," or those inclosed in boxes, barrels, bundles, and the like, is, in view of the intent of the act referred to, deemed by the Department as necessarily qualified by the condition annexed to the privilege by the terms of the Act itself, viz., that such an examination of the merchandise may be made as will satisfy the customs officers that the same corresponds with the manifest and invoice.

II. While, therefore, the Department holds generally that only such merchandise as is either inclosed in boxes, barrels, or other outside coverings or wrappers, duly marked and numbered, or put up in separate and distinct bundles or packages, also duly marked and numbered in such manner as to admit of satisfactory identification, is entitled to the privileges of the Act, it nevertheless reserves the right to designate, from time to time, such particular articles commonly shipped in bulk as may, under suitable conditions, be deemed fairly within the scope and intent of the Act.

III. In accordance with the views above expressed, the Department hereby designates railroad and bar-iron, when the number of rails or bars is duly specified in the consular invoice, and found on examination to be correct, as entitled to the privilege of immediate transportation as aforesaid: Provided, however, That there shall not be any noticeable dis parity in the size and weight of the respective rails or bars. (S. S, 2980)

15. Dutiable Charges A charge of interest specified in an invoice, is not a dutiable chargo under paragraph 1869. (S. S, 1830.) Nor is one for insurance on the voyage. (S. S., 1854.) Nor charges for dunnage, storage, and ventilation of fruit on board a vessel. (S. S., 1601) But a royalty paid on patented articles is a dutiable charge (S. S., 1913), and so is export duty added as a charge to the cost or entered value. (S. S., 2730, 2820) And see post, 54. 16. Countable Goods. The provisions of law imposing duty on certain descriptions of goods, according to the count of threads, apply to all cases where such count can be ascertained with sufficient accuracy for the purpose of classification by means of the magnifying glass commonly used for such purpose.

The fact that goods are not termed in trade "countable goods," will not exclude them from classification for duty according to the count of the threads, provided they come within the rule above stated. (S. S., 1478.)

17. Cotton Linings with Flax Selvage, how classified. Cotton linings, manufactured with a few threads of flax in the selvage, which, however, did not change the commercial character of the goods, were held to be dutiable as countable cottons. (S. S, 1787.)

18. Steam Dredge dutiable on importation. A floating steam dredge, self-propelling, to be used in various harbors, would be required upon importation to pay duty, after which it could be transported from one harbor to another for the purpose mentioned. (S. S., 1380.) 19. ADDITIONAL AND DISCRIMINATING DUTIES. a. As to goods from "beyond the Cape." Under the act of 1865, products of places cast of the Cape of Good Hope, are, when im ported from places west thereof, liable to duty of ten per cent., though like articles are free from duty when imported from other places. (Sturgess v. The Collector, 12 Wallace, 19; see also, Brightly's Fed. Dig., vol. 2, p. 312.)

Jute butts, originally shipped from Calcutta for the United States, but landed and sold at Bermuda and thence imported to the United States, held to be subject to discriminating duty. (S. S., 1226.)

Also, a cargo of tea, originally shipped at China for Montreal, but which on arrival there had its destination changed to New York, and was shipped thence without breaking bulk. (S. S., 1862.)

Also, crude camphor, imported from east of the Cape, refined here, exported to Canada, and then re-imported. (S. S., 1599.)

Also, opium, the product of Persia, imported to the United States from London, although taken to London via the Suez Canal, Persia coming within the meaning of the statutory words "east of the Cape," &c., according to prior decisions holding those words to mean such countries as are ordinarily reached in commercial intercourse by sailing round the Cape. (S. S., 1820.)

But otherwise as to sugar imported from Liverpool but being the product of Egypt, lying east of the meridian of the Cape, but not ordinarily reached by sailing round the Cape. (S. S., 1793.)

b. As to other cases. Goods remaining in warehouse over a year without payment of duty, are subject to the additional duty of ten per cent., although the withdrawal entry was initiated within the year. (S. S., 1534.)

20. Carrying trade on Northern Frontiers. Although the Regulations of 1874 (Art. 247) provide for the shipment of merchandise in cars, to be transported across Canadian territory, they do not authorize the reimportation, free of duty, of domestic merchandise, carried from an American port in Canadian steamers to be transshipped by steamers or cars through Canada to another American port. (S. S., 1858.)

21. Internal Transportation. Free goods, part of an importation intended for an interior port, may be forwarded to destination under the internal transportation laws, paragraphs 1952 to 1955. (S. S., 1831.)

22. Immigrants' Effects. The Attorney-General of the United States having given an opinion that the limitation of $500 as to household effects, specified in section 22 of the act of July 14th, 1870, ceased to be of any force at the period when the provision in the 5th section of the act of June 6th, 1872, for household effects, took effect, the Department concurred therein, and thereupon decided that household effects of persons arriving in the United States from foreign countries, which were in use abroad for not less than one year, and which are not intended for any other person or persons, nor for sale, were exempt from duty, without limitation as to value. (S. S., 1814.)

Personal effects of immigrants must be imported within six months before or after the owner's arrival. (S. S., 1296. See also "Carriages," &c., post No. 117.)

23. a. Special Importations By the words in 1512, two copies in any one invoice," is meant, two copies of each publication so invoiced. (S. S., 1206.) ́

b. An altar lamp inported for a church is not "regalia" under 1726. (S. S., 1710) Nor is a brass lecturn. (S. S., 1826.)

24. Measurement of Lumber. “ ‘Board measure" being synonymous with "inch measure,” all sawed lumber subject to duty by the 1030 feet "board measure," whether over or under one inch thick, should be reduced to inch measure for the assessment of duty thereon. (S. S., 1770.)

25. Invoices of Earthenware which merely give the aggregate value of the several crates without specifying the items contained therein, not being such as are required by law, will, when presentel, be treated as null and void, and entry of the earthenware refused until proper invoices are obtained and produced by the importers (the merchandise in the meantime being treated as unclaimed), or it may be admitted upon giving bonds to produce proper invoices. (S. S., 1292.)

26. Salt for Curing Fish. Seal skins being held to be the product of fisheries, salt may be withdrawn for curing the same, under the limitations prescribed in 1980. (S. S., 1276.)

But not so as to salt to be used in curing or preserving "pogie chum " or other fish for the manufacture of manures or fertilizers therefrom, the Departinent holding the provision to be limited to salt used in the curing of fish for consumption as food (S. S, 1815 )

27. Paintings imported for Churches or religious institutions after June 22d, 1874, are not exempt from duty. (S. S., 1886.)

28. A Silver Statue, on marble block, and not the work of a sculptor or artist, dutiable as a manufacture of silver under 1065. (S. S., 1876.)

29. Haircloth Seating. Held that the selvage is part of the fabric, and to be included in the measurement of width. (S. S., 1877)

30. Damage reported on goods in store, which have once been examined without observation or report of such damage, will not be allowed except in extreme cases. (S. S., 1890.) 31. Certified invoices, used to make entry at ports of first arrival, cannot again be used, except for reference, at interior ports of destination, to make entry for consumption. Such invoice is part of the record, and cannot be withdrawn or separated therefrom (S. S, 1892.) 32. Machinery chiefly of iron and wood, though having small portions of steel, does not necessarily take the classification of a manufacture of steel; but retains that of a manufacture of iron or wood according to the leading material. Separable values or parts of steel, should however pay duty as manufactures of steel. (S. S., 1893.)

33. Entry by Appraisement is forbidden under 871, 872, except as to personal effects accompanying the passenger, and as to importations of merchandise valued at $100, or less. (S. S., 1904.)

84. Colcothar and Venetian Red are separate and distinct articles of commerce; colcothar being a dry oxide of iron produced by chemical action (but not chemically pure), containing small quantities of lime, sulphuric acid, and sulphate of lime as impurities, while Venetian red is a native or prepared oxide of iron, ground with twenty-five to forty per centum of whiting to make it fit for use as a paint. Colcothar is much heavier and darker in color than Venetian red, and of nearly triple its value in England. (S. S, 1912.)

35. Cotton goods, (woven fabrics,) must, in all cases, be classified under some one of the provisions in paragraphs 921 to 926, unless they have no reasonably close assimilation to the description of goods therein specified: in which case, as, if they are nettings, open linings, &c., they will be classified under 932, as manufactures of cotton not otherwise provided for. (S. S., 1919.)

36. Japanese Silks, "and all associated goods," are dutiable under 1113, at fifty per cent. ad valorem, the Department holding that unenumerated importations are subject to duty according to their leading characteristics in each case, that is to say, that mixed goods which are mainly identified with cotton fabrics, although containing threads of silk, should be classified as cottons; and goods of which silk is the leading or characteristic feature should be classed either directly, or by assimilation, with goods of which silk is the component material of chief value. The Department declines to undertake absolute determination as to the component materials of chief value in each case. (S. S., 1923.)

37. Mixed Woven Fabrics. Letter to the Collector of the Port of New York:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 7, 1874.

SIR: It being reported that a duty at the rate of sixty per cent. has been charged at your port on goods containing less than the chief value of silks, and under supposed authority of section 2499 of title 33, act of June 22, 1874, you are hereby instructed that this Department does not hold that section to be operative against other and positive provisions of the law, but that it is to be construed liberally and chiefly in its application to manufactures of mixed materials, as to which its effect is only to classify these fabrics with one or another defined class, to which class the article in question is most nearly assimilated. Thus silk-mixed goods, of which silk is the component material of chief value, and dutiable at fifty per cent

ad valorem, may receive accessions from goods substantially the same in character and uses, but in which silk may be in some degree less than chief value. On the other hand, slight silk mixtures in cottons or linens, which are not essentially different in texture, mode of manufacture, and uses from cottons and linens containing no silk, will be classified for duty as cottons and as linens respectively. The law in regard to silk goods proper is not subject to new construction, nor that as to woollen or worsted goods, or goods containing any portion of wool or worsted. A further application of the section above cited relates to certain cottons heretofore considered as not being embraced in the act of March 3d, 1865, being under one hundred threads to the square inch, and not "finer or lighter" than the goods described in the first clause of that act These have, in some cases, been admitted to the square-yard duty imposed in the acts of 1861 and 1862, or to thirty-five per cent. ad valorem, as not provided for by the present act, the force of the acts of 1861 and 1862 entirely fail and cotton goods essentially identical in character and uses with those described in the firs two clauses of the act of March 3d, 1865 (new schedule A, act of June 22d, 1874), will pay the same duty, although under one hundred threads to the square inch. But thin tissues, netting, lining, and open woven goods, intended for enveloping and inferior uses, will pay duty at thirty-five per cent., less ten per cent., as cotton manufactures not otherwise provided for.

B. H. BRISTOW, Secretary of the Treasury.

38. Italian Cloths must be rigidly identified. "Striped and fancy Italians," so called, should be classified under 1163 as manufactures of worsted not otherwise provided for. (S. S., 19-2. Reversed, S. S., 3020.)

39. Lithographic stones engraved, old and engraving worthless, are not exempt from duty under 1656. (S. S., 1925.)

40. Printed Matter and Manufactures of Paper.—Under date of September 17th, 1874, the Department ruled that printed matter, engravings, prints, printed figures, and illustrations, printed not from type, but from designs or plates, colored or uncolored, were not entitled to the reduction of 10 per cent provided for in Section 2503 of the Revised Statutes, and that "embossed paper, stamped, and in various ways manufactured, also heavy cards of various forms, and, for further ornamentation in a variety of ways, have been declared to be properly classified as manufactures of paper." (S. S., 1954.)

Under the head of "Classification of Engravings and Printed Matter," the Department, August 29th, 1876, ruled as follows:

"It appearing that discrepancies exist at various ports in the classification of articles under the provision in the tariff for printed matter' and 'engravings,' it is deemed advisable to establish definite rules for such classification.

"The provision referred to is contained in Schedule M of the Consolidated Tariff, as follows, viz.: Books, periodicals, pamphlets, blank books, bound or unbound, and all printed matter, engravings, bound or unbound, illustrated books and papers, and maps and charts, twenty-five per centum ad valorem '

"First. The term 'printed matter,' as employed in the tariff, shall be understood to signify reading matter in printed form, and subserving the uses for which reading matter is ordinarily designed. Blanks or blank forms, of any description, requiring the addition of writing or figures to make them complete for the uses for which they are intended, cannot therefore legitimately be considered printed matter. Hence blank forms for deeds, bonds, mortgages, and other legal instruments, including blank checks, drafts, and promissory notes; also letter-beadings, bill-heads, wash-lists, and all labels, tags, and other marks or tickets for merchandise, whether ornamented or plain, which, although having letters, words, or sentences printed thereon, have also blank spaces for the insertion of additional words or figures, will be excluded from classification as printed matter.

"The same rule will also exclude letter paper bearing a water-mark, or having the name of the manufacturer or of the particular kind of paper impressed or printed thereon, either in large or small type; also, all labels, tags, or other appendages to merchandise, designed merely for commercial purposes, whether ornamented or plain, to which no addition, by marks, numbers, or otherwise, is requisite.

"Second. In determining what application shall be given to the provision for 'engrav ings,' the Department is of opinion that the same general principle should apply as in the case of printed matter, viz., that only such articles should be deemed engravings' as are both ordinarily and commercially recognized as such; that is to say, they shall have such value as works of art as would ordinarily cause them to be preserved in the form of pictures, and not be designed to enter into the manufacture of any other articles, except books, or to have any adjuncts or accessories other than those which are usual for engravings as such. Where pictures are embosssed or cut out so that the contour of the picture corresponds with the shape of the figures engraved thereon, they will be excluded from such classification, and assessed for duty as manufactures of paper.

"There are certain classes of engraved pictures, which, although in a general sense considered engravings, cannot be so classified for duty under the rule stated. Of this descrip