A Disgraced Immigration Inspector Says He Was Framed

The arrest at Port Townsend last Tuesday night of ex-United States Immigration Inspector Thomas M. Fisher, on the charge of forging the endorsement of a Canadian customs officer to a check and collecting thereon $50, has brought forth some very pointed remarks from F. A. McKenzie, who used to be deputy collector of customs at this port. He said to a Post-Intelligencer reporter concerning the charge:

“There is nothing in this charge. I am satisfied that it has no foundation and when brought before a court will be thrown out. I cannot figure out anything in the matter only spite work on the part of some of Fisher’s enemies. Mr. Fisher was a conscientious, conservative officer, whose fidelity was never questioned. Fisher worked up the case in connection with which forgery is claimed and, if he had not been thrown out of office by a change in the administration, would have brought the matter to a final issue.”

Fisher will be remembered in this city as the person who conducted the examination of seventeen Japanese girls who were believed to have been brought into this country for the purpose of prostitution. The investigation was carried on in the Occidental hotel and was attended by several ministers. Rev. Jonathan Gobel, an old missionary, was the interpreter. When the accused slave-dealers were given a hearing before Commissioner Kiefer, the women told an entirely different story, exonerating them.

Fisher was taken to Tacoma yesterday and a new warrant will be sworn out on which to take him to Oregon.

Mr. McKenzie’s opinion that Mr. Fisher is innocent and that he is being made the victim of a conspiracy is sustained by the facts contained in the following dispatch:

“Portland, Jan. 23.—Special.—The latest explanation of the charges against ex-Immigration Inspector Fisher is that Collector Taylor, of Astoria, sent the check to Fisher when he was on duty at Point Roberts and that it was returned to Lockwood, the Portland lawyer, who cashed it and received $50. Under that theory the forgery lies between Fisher and Lockwood. The latter, however, appeared before the grand jury and testified in behalf of the government, and so did Fisher, for that matter, and the indictment was returned in Portland on December 23. Officers and those who were in the service at the time the transaction was alleged to have occurred, in 1888 and 1893, say that Fisher was never under suspicion for an instant and that the impression prevailed that a Portland lawyer committed the forgery. There is considerable mystery about the whole transaction. The utmost efforts have been made to conceal the real name of the informer, who is a Canadian customs officer stationed at Vancouver.

“Mr. Fisher’s extensive acquaintance throughout the Northwest, his prominence in G. A. R. circles and lower Sound politics has attracted much attention. The general opinion prevails that he is innocent and is the victim of a conspiracy looking toward his conviction for the purpose of shielding the guilty persons.”