IMPORTERS FIRST AID CHAPTER I LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY Constitutional Provision SEC. 1. The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section VIII, provides that: "The Congress shall have power to Lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, . . . . but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." This power to lay taxes being vested in Congress, cannot be delegated to other branches of the Government. It therefore becomes the duty of the Executive branch of the Government to administer the laws relating to the Customs as enacted by Congress. Administration of the Tariff SEC. 2. The administration of the tariff is vested in the Secretary of the Treasury as the head of the Treasury Department, which has been constituted one of the Executive Departments of the Government. Sections 233, 249, 251 and 2652 of the Revised Statutes of the United States provide that: R. S. 233. "There shall be at the seat of Government an Executive Department to be known as the Department of the Treasury, and a Secretary of the Treasury, who shall be the head thereof." R. S. 249. "The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the superintendence of the collection of the duties on imports. ..., as he shall judge best." R. S. 251. "That the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe forms of entries, oaths, bonds, and other papers, and rules and regulations, not inconsistent with the law, to be used ... . in.'carrying out the provisions of law relating to raising revenue from imports, or to warehousing; he shall give such directions to collectors and prescribe such rules and forms to be observed by them as may be necessary for the proper execution of the law." R. S. 2652. "It shall be the duty of all officers of the customs to execute and carry into effect all instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury relative to the execution of the revenue laws; and in case any difficulty shall arise as to the true construction or meaning of any part of the revenue laws, the decision of the Secretary of the Treasury shall be conclusive and binding upon all officers of the customs." Customs Districts SEC. 3. By the Act of August 24, 1912: The President is authorized from time to time, as the exigencies of the service require, to rearrange by consolidation or otherwise the several customs collection districts, and to discontinue ports of entry by abolishing the same or establishing others in their stead, provided that the whole number of customs collection districts or ports of entry, or either of them, shall at no time be made to exceed those then established and authorized, except as may thereafter be provided by law. (Treasury Decision 34753.) A Customs District is a compact geographical subdivision of United States territory containing one or more ports of entry, and is in charge of a chief officer of the Customs designated the Collector of Customs for the District. Collector of Customs SEC. 4. The Collector of Customs is charged by law with the collection of duties on imports and the |