Seattle Merchants Fight to Keep Their Own Revenue Service
The Chamber of Commerce rallies to block a congressional bill that would fold the independent Revenue Marine Service into the Navy.
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A special meeting of the Chamber of Commerce was held last evening to consider a communication from Captain J. M. Selden regarding a bill introduced in Congress to transfer the Revenue-Cutter Service to the Navy. Captain Selden argued that such a transfer would result in 'injury and degradation' to the service, noting that the Revenue Marine had existed as an independent organization for a hundred years, with an honorable history of protecting revenue and aiding distressed shipping. Judge Jacobs presented a resolution, unanimously adopted, declaring that the proposed transfer is 'unwise and impolitic' and unjust to the men who have spent their lives in the service. The Chamber telegraphed their protest to Delegate Thomas H. Brents, urging that the Revenue Marine remain under the Treasury Department.
“The Revenue Marine Service has a history which is coeval with the history of the country. For a hundred years it has been an independent organization, and its record is one of honor and duty.”
This civic struggle reflects the long-standing tension between independent agency control and military absorption, a theme that persists in modern debates about federal oversight and the militarization of civilian law enforcement functions.
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