Argument for Plaintiff in Error. or arsenic, called its mineralizer, by which its properties are disguised or lost." " It certainly cannot be claimed that water or moisture merely mechanically present, which would dry out if exposed to the sun, in any way mineralizes the metal or causes its properties to be disguised or lost. Worcester, in his dictionary, defines ore as "a mineral body which is reduced to the metallic state by fire; a metal chemically combined with some mineralizing substance which completely disguises its usually recognized and useful properties." This definition by its express terms excludes water unless chemically combined with the metal. The water is worthless, in fact is worse than worthless, and is an injury to the metallurgical value of the ore. It is an impurity which is mixed with, but is not a part of, the ore. Take away any of the chemical constituents of the ore and you are taking away part of the ore, and the residuum will not be ore. Take away this mechanically mixed water and you have left the true ore free from an impurity. The same act imposed a duty of 20 cents per bushel on linseed or flaxseed. An importation of that article contained clay, sand and gravel to an average of 4 per cent. It was held that the importer should be required to pay duty only after deducting, with proximate accuracy, the quantity of such impurities. Wright & Lawther Lead Co. v. Seeberger, 44 Fed. Rep. 258. This term iron ore received a legislative interpretation in the act of October 1, 1890, 26 Stat. 574, c. 1244, Schedule C, where, after imposing a duty upon "iron ore" it was “provided further, that in levying and collecting the duty on iron ore no deduction shall be made from the weight of the ore on account of moisture which may be chemically or physically combined therewith." "When one finds a proviso, the presumption is, that but for the proviso the enacting part of the section would have included the subject matter of the proviso." Mullins v. Treasurer of Surrey County, 5 Q. B. D. 170, 173. The proviso is generally intended to restrain the enacting ciause and to except something which would otherwise have been within it, Opinion of the Court. or in some measure to modify the enacting clause." Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 1, 30. "It takes out of the body of the enactment that which otherwise would be within it." Dollar Savings Bank v. United States, 19 Wall. 227, 236. By this proviso Congress recognizes that the term “iron ore," in the body of the enactment does not include water mechanically or physically present, and that an allowance in ascertaining the dutiable weight on the custom house scales should be made for it, and provides that this allowance shall not hereafter be made. Laws imposing duties are never to be construed beyond the natural import of the language. Such statutes are construed most strongly against the government. Adams v. Bancroft, 3 Sumner, 384, 387; United States v. Wigglesworth, 2 Story, 369, 374. "If the question were one of doubt, the doubt would be resolved in favor of the importer." Mr. Justice Blatchford in Hartranft v. Wiegmann, 121 U. S. 609, 616. Mr. Assistant Attorney General Parker for defendant in error. MR. JUSTICE BLATCHFORD, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court. The evidence on the part of the plaintiff tended to show that the quantity of water mechanically present, and not chemically combined, in iron ores like those in question, was variable and accidental, and varied in ores which came from the same mine, the chemical ingredients of which remained practically constant, accordingly as the ore had been subjected to rain or to exposure to the elements; that the amount of water thus mechanically present would vary from a few hundredths of 1 per cent up to 12, 16 and 25 per cent; that such variation was due to the mechanical absorption of water; that practically all the moisture mechanically present would dry out in the sun; and that the ore as it came from the mines in dry weather was as dry as dust. The question involved was, whether the duty of 75 cents Opinion of the Court. per ton should be imposed on the government weight of the article, according to the finding and record of the weighing officers, or whether such official weight should be reduced by an allowance sufficient to render the iron ore no greater in weight than its weight if raised, under conditions favorable to evaporation, to a heat of 212° Fahrenheit. The burden of making out a claim to the recovery of this difference rests upon the importer. The history of the question in the Treasury Department is as follows: On September 8, 1879, Assistant Secretary French, in a letter to the collector of customs at New York, refused to make an allowance for the increase of weight from moisture in certain imported iron ore, holding that the duty accrued on the total quantity landed, as shown by the weigher's return. In a letter of May 17, 1886, by Acting Secretary Fairchild to the collector of customs at Philadelphia, the same ruling was made, and it was held that under the regulations of the Department and its decisions, no allowance could be made for the absorption of moisture or sea water on the voyage of importation, unless upon an application filed with the collector of customs within ten days after the landing of the goods, and an ascertainment and report by the appraiser of the percentage of damage or increased weight. In September, 1886, an importer of iron ore contended that the duty of 75 cents per ton imposed by the act of March 3, 1883, upon iron ore, meant ore dry at the temperature of 212° Fahrenheit. The Treasury Department submitted the question to the Attorney General; and Acting Attorney General Jenks, in a letter to the Secretary, dated September 17, 1886, (18 Opinions, 466,) held that the duty was to be levied on whatever was the known commercial signification of "iron ore;" and that if iron ore dried at a temperature of 212° Fahrenheit was the standard adopted in commercial transactions of iron ore, and was what was known in commerce as iron ore, it was the ore contemplated by the statute, and the duty should be levied on that basis, citing Two Hundred Chests of Tea, Opinion of the Court. 9 Wheat. 430; Barlow v. United States, 7 Pet. 404; and Drew v. Grinnell, 115 U. S. 477. Assistant Secretary Fairchild, on October 29, 1886, transmitted to the collector of customs at New York a copy of the ruling of Acting Attorney General Jenks, of September 17, 1886, and stated that the Department had made careful inquiry as to the custom of trade in buying and selling imported iron ore; that the great weight of evidence was to the effect that the iron ore of commerce was iron ore free from water not chemically combined; that it was the custom to expel water which was only mechanically present, before proceeding to ascertain the amount of ore which was bought and sold; that, to do this, the ore was heated to 212° Fahrenheit; that the rule "is hereby established" that, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of duty to be paid upon importations of iron ore, the weight of the ore when heated to a temperature of 212° Fahrenheit should be first found, and upon that weight duty should be collected; and that entries of prior importations might be reliquidated and duties refunded in accordance with that rule, in cases where the importers had fully complied with the provisions of § 2931 of the Revised Statutes as to protest, appeal, and suit. On the 5th of November, 1886, Assistant Secretary Fairchild telegraphed to the collector of customs at Baltimore to suspend until further orders all reliquidations of entries on account of allowance for moisture on importations of iron ore, under the Department's decision of October 29, 1886. On the 12th of January, 1887, the Treasury Department submitted to the Attorney General substantially the whole question whether. the term "iron ore," as used in the tariff act of March 3, 1883, meant iron ore dried at a temperature of 212° Fahrenheit, or iron ore as it was delivered at the port of entry for weighing. In reply, Attorney General Garland, in a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated January 19, 1887, (18 Opinions, 530,) referred to the letter of Acting Attor ney General Jenks, of September 17, 1886, and, in speaking of the rule that the iron ore of the statute was to be interpreted as the iron ore of commerce, cited the cases of Two VOL. CXLV-17 Opinion of the Court. Hundred Chests of Tea, 9 Wheat. 430; Barlow v. United States, 7 Pet. 410; and Elliott v. Swartwout, 10 Pet. 137, 151; and said that "commerce," as used in that connection, was to be understood in its comprehensive sense of buying and selling and exchange in the general sales or traffic of our own markets; that special contracts in which the term iron ore was defined by special description or qualifying words would be no evidence of the general commercial signification of the term; that, if the departmental practice and interpretation as to the collection of customs on iron ore had been of long standing and uniform prior to 1883, it was to be presumed that, if such interpretation had been false and vicious, Congress would have guarded against a like interpretation of the act of 1883; that, as that act had not repudiated any prior interpretation, the presumption was very strong that Congress in enacting the act of March 3, 1883, had understood the iron ore of commerce to be what the practice of the Department had established; and that, if the decision before referred to, of September 8, 1879, that the total quantity landed, as shown by the weigher's return, without allowance for increase of weight, from moisture, of the iron ore imported, was subject to duty, was in accordance with the practice of the Department prior to September 8, 1879, and was adhered to afterwards as the rule, it would be a pregnant fact to guide to the same conclusion. On February 3, 1887, Secretary Manning, in a letter to the collector of customs at New York, stated that, since the letter of Assistant Secretary Fairchild of October 29, 1886, and the suspension announced by Assistant Secretary Fairchild to the collector of customs at Baltimore by the telegram of November 5, 1886, the Secretary had duly considered a large amount of new testimony, both for and against the proposition laid down in such letter of October 29, 1886, that the term "iron ore,” as used in the tariff act of March 3, 1883, meant iron ore when dried at a temperature of 212° Fahrenheit, and had received the opinion of Attorney General Garland, of January 19, 1887; that, in the light of such new testimony and of the opinion of the Attorney General, the Secretary decided that |