The examiner disagreed with the importer. He ruled that the little singing bird with the music box in the bottom of the cage was in fact a musical instrument. This opinion was sustained by the appraiser. The appraiser’s decision was supported by the Collector of Customs.
The importer took the case to court. His attorney called one company witness who testified the imports were designed as ornaments for home decoration. He said they could be used as a nice toy—but they weren’t toys. And he had “never known it to be used in an orchestra.” Therefore it could not be held to be a musical instrument.
After the court heard the testimony and listened to the trilling of the tiny bird in its small brass cage, the court was moved to lyrical language in its decision, saying:
It may be contended that this bird does not emit a continuous melody, and that it is not an instrument upon which a chromatic scale can be played.... Music is the one harmonious science that dispells discord, softens the winds, and makes all nature kin. It has quickened the step for the warrior in the field of battle; has riveted the attention of the savage on the march of his enemy; has stirred the ambitions of men to higher ideals; and caused the beauty of the human heart to speak in friendliness and love....
Indeed, if it was not for sweet music, human life would be so dreary as to be unbearable. It matters not whence it may arise, from the throat of the opera singer or of the bird. From the scintillating trills of the flute or the low notes of the Chinese gong, music is yet the curious and most harmonious succession of sounds conceivable. It is the anesthetic of life.
The instrument in question is a musical one, and the tuneful ear of the Collector was correct in thus classifying it.
The protest is overruled.
The case of the Singing Canary underscores one of the most important functions of the U.S. Customs Bureau—the classifying of millions of imports which arrive in the United States and the determination of their dutiable value. The Customs Appraiser’s Stores—the port depots where the imports are examined—are sometimes a weird world in which things are not what they seem.
Every schoolboy is taught that a whale is a mammal. But when whale steaks reach the Customs examiners, they are classified as “fish cut to portions.” A tomato is a fruit to a botanist. But to every housewife and the Customs examiner it is a vegetable. Botanists classify rhubarb as a vegetable—but in Customs’ language it is a fruit.
Customs examiners are not just being arbitrary and ornery when they make these classifications in defiance of the botanist and the dictionary. The contradictions came about because the U.S. Court of Customs and the U.S. Court of Customs Appeals have made these rulings for the purpose of identifying imports so that a proper rate of duty may be paid upon them.