incredible. i mean these things are -- you could spend those of you who worked here like you could spend days here going through those exhibits. and i'm going to put in a little push for a little bigger page presence soon. but that's another story. matt, thank you. the presentation of the history of the first african-american page, you're going to see a lot of panelists both these three and the earlier panel you're going to see in this documentary we're going to show to you in just a few minutes some of the same stories, some brought in. il say a little bit of credit. the reason julie price called you, she interviewed for the documentary and kept saying what they have is wrong. i said call them. she did. there again, a round of applause for these three here. we do have -- >> interested in "american

history tv"? visit our website, c-span.org/history. see our schedule or watch a recent program. american artifacts, lectures in history and more at c-span.org/history. >> each week, american artifacts takes viewers into archives, makeups and history sites around the country. next we tour some of the oldest rooms in the u.s. capitol with senator mitch mcconnell. we hear about the historic events that occurred in what is now the republican leaders suite. the very rooms that early in the 19th century hosted the u.s. house of representatives, the u.s. senate and library of congress. senator mcconnell takes us into the republican leader's conference room and his private office. and he rawles his own political career and the historic moments in which he participated. >> we are in the united states capital in the senate wing and about to be given a tour of the

senate majority leader's office. thank you, senator mcconnell for opening up to us. where are we in the capitol right now? >> we are actually not in the senate wing which is just further down. we're in the main capitol. the government came down from philadelphia in the summer of 1800. and the capitol looked quite different at that point. the two wings were added right before the civil war during the 150s. but this particular space like every space in the capitol has its own history. and we do know that during that general period, they began to develop what subsequently became known as the library of congress in this particular space. it's been the office of the republican leader of the senate whoever that is whether we were in the majority or the minority since probably the 1950s. but before that, there were a variety of different functions in this space.

but the initial development of the library of congress has a story of its own which i think your viewers would be interested in. >> before we go there, just from a proximity standpoint, the senate wing is very close to us and the capitol rotunda. give us a sense of space where we are. >> well, the capitol was like this until the 1850s and then they added a house wing and a senate wing. and the reason they did that was because we had won the mexican war. we had vast new territory all the way to the pacific. they anticipated new states, new senators, new congress men. and like all government projects, there was a big debate about how much to spend and whether to go big or to be modest. in one of the great ironies of american history, the wheel horse behind this first in the senate and subsequently as secretary of war in the buchanan administration was of all people, jefferson davis. >> interesting. >> who argued for going big. that we were going to have a big

building because we wanted to have a big important country. and i think that's one of the great ironies of american history that later jefferson davis of course, left and became president of the confederacy. >> before we go into the suite, it's actually been named after howard baker. when did that happen? >> before i got here when howard baker left in 1984, he was very popular with both sides of the aisle, both the republicans and the democrats. that was sort of a parting gesture to an outstanding republican leader. >> let's walk in. as we're walking in, i've been doing this for a long time. and it seems as though you're one of fair to say a declining number of senator who's really care about the history of the senate? i'm thinking about senator byrd before you who spent so much time. do you find that your interest in history is not as shared among newer members as it was in the old days? >> i don't really know. i know there are a few who read

a lot of american history. i've always been interested in it. in fact, i did my senior thesis in college on henry clay and the compromise of 1850. i have a depiction that you have which i'll show you subsequently. and so i've always had an interest in it. once i moved into this office and became the republican leader, we got interested in the history of this space and produced a pamphlet that sort of outlines the various things that occurred here over the years. >> so what did it look like in 1800? >> well, you know, everything was smaller then and there's a plaque out in the hall that says, points out that in 1800 this would have been shortly after they got here. the house of representatives actually met in this space and conducted the 36th ballot election that determined that thomas jefferson would be president instead of aaron about your. that occurred in in space. >> right in this space.

of course, that was historically of enormous significance because burr was a scoundrel. jefferson's old adversary did a lot to influence jefferson's selection. he knew he was a scoundrel and the country needed to be saved from him. then they began to develop the library of congress in here, too. >> it would have been much different that be this. >> i think the walls must have been configured differently. the house subsequently for many years up till the expansion in 1850 operated in statutory hall but the acoustics in there were terrible. they couldn't hear each other. they literally could not hear each other. so the deebs were quite stressful because people -- the acoustics were just awful. that was one of the factors to bid aid house wing and senate

winging into this room has got a number of paintings. i want to stay with the history of it because 1800 was important but 1814 was also very important. >> they had begun to develop the library of congress here. when the british invaded washington, they burned both the capitol and the white house. of course, it didn't burn it to the ground because it's made out of marble but it gutted the building. and it took them four or five years to get back into the capitol. they used the initial library of congress which the books to start the fire. and that was supposedly happened in this area. that destroyed the initial library, of course. and gutted the capitol. and when people asked about jefferson's books being a start of the library of congress, that's true. but that happened after the initial library was destroyed in the fire.

jefferson then either gave or i suspect sold because he was always in debt his books, which are still on display at the library of congress building as the beginning of the library of congress. >> what are the most architecturally significant aspects of the room today? >> well, it has fireplaces. some of which still actually work. but we don't use them anymore because of portraits like henry clay here on the wall. that was a contemporary portrait of clay, and smoke is not good for old portraits. clay would have been thrilled. you know he and jackson were i would argue basically their rivalry began the modern two-party system. they disagreed on absolutely everything. clay took jackson on directly one time in 1832. jackson won overwhelmingly.

they argued and debated and that was the beginning of the whig party under clay which became the republican party. and, of course, jackson was a prominent democrat. and i think clay would have enjoyed the fact that since my predecessor bill frist was from tennessee when i moved into this office and replaced him, i took jackson down, sent him back to the museum and put henry clay up so clay finally bested jackson in at least something. >> now, the other portraits have you in here. >> they were republican presidents. >> yes. and you've selected which ones are in here? >> i did. have i bush 41, teddy roosevelt, bush 43 and, of course, ronald reagan who is for my party and for us the modern hero. >> why did you choose tedry roosevelt. >> he was the most interesting person who ever held the president. the only president who wrote

books and made money off of writing books. and who was a big game hunter and fearless. i mean, he threatened -- he took enormous chances throughout his life as a young man going out west after losing his wife and mother on the same day and hunting. you know, battling the terrain and the weather and all the rest. down to after his final run for the presidency in 1912, which he lost in a three-way race that he precipitated by taking on his former friend and colleague william howard taft, he literally took off and went to the south america and went down the amazon in an extremely dangerous trek down the amazon and picked up a lot of exotic diseases which probably led to

his not living past age 60. he had all kinds of health problems after he got back from the trip down the amazon. so clearly our most interesting president ever and happened to be a republican so i think -- i thought that was appropriate to be in the republican leader's office. >> how do you use this room today? >> well, this is where guests come in. they start here and frequently i come out and have pictures taken with them. then we go into the conference room. we have meetings. those are not only usually people from home but also you know, senators are in here all the time in and out because my job as the majority leader is to set the schedule to decide what we're going to debate. doesn't always guarantee the outcome because the senate's a really unusual body. it requires 60 votes to do most things and only rarely does one party have 60. so you have to talk to each other. you can't do much in the senate

on a strictly partisan basis. so this is a beehive of activity during the week not only of constituents, people who have particular interests but colleagues in the senate. >> i just want to before we leave this space, grand as it is, i want to understand its progression and usage. it was house of representatives and library of congress. what happened after that? >> lots of different things. the space was used i think for periods of time by vice presidents. by others. i have a pamphlet here that i think outlines the various uses. but for our purposes, i think for since the 1950s, it's been the office of the republican leader of the senate whether we're in the majority or the minority. we don't all switch offices like they do in the house. you know, former speakers in the house don't have nearly the office that the speaker does. but here, it's been continuously

since the time of robert taft in the 1950s, the office of the republican leader. >> how far away is the democratic leader. >> not very far about the same distance. he may be slightly a few feet closer than i. and, of course, we deal with each other every day in opening the senate and in discussing the business of the senate and how to go forward. >> we're going to keep moving through your suite. and i'm going to let you lead the way here. >> okay. well, when i was a young man and began to have hopes that maybe i could have a political career, my rowe model was a man named john sherman cooper who was the a republican senator from kentucky and kentucky was pretty democratic so it was a little bit unusual to have a successful republican. so i identified with him. i was an intern in his office in the summer of 1964.

and he was actively involved in breaking the filibuster on the civil rights bill of 1964. happily enough, 20 years after that, i won the seat that he had held. and he was still alive. and this is a picture of when i came up to be sworn in to orientation. he asked me to stay at his house which was a great honor. so i had gone from intern to senator. i didn't obviously defeat him. he retired in the meantime. i defeated the guy who replaced him after he retired. but it was a thrill to you know, literally with senator cooper kind of go from intern to his replacement. >> and this is another influence on your life? >> yeah, this is my great uncle with whom i share a name who interestingly enough was a local politician in alabama. of course, there were in republicans at all. and he was the like the county

executive. they caused him probate judges and still do in alabama. and this is a piece of his stationa stationary. that's where i was born in north alabama. we came to kentucky when kiss of 13 and this is one of his old cards which shows you how politics has changed. looks like he's running in 1934 and on his card it says to serve you well to, make each transaction a stepping stone toward your perfect confidence is my desire and constant endeavor. that probably wouldn't work today. >> also was a paid political announcement, wasn't it. >> it was. it was his campaign card. and obviously, it was not a cut and slash kind of campaign. >> we're moving into the next suite. what is this? >> this is the -- this conference room that as i indicated, this space has been

occupied by the republican leader roughly since the time of robert taft who was only majority leader briefly. he was a real powerhouse in the senate. ran for rez a couple times. competed against eisenhower. but when eisenhower won, he wanted and i thinktis colleagues wanted him to become actually the majority leader which he did. regretfully he died about eight months later. so he was only in here briefly. one of our best known and most popular leaders is howard baker of tennessee who retired the year that i got here. who is in fact just passed away the last couple of years. >> everest dirksen when i was an intern was the leader of the are minority and a major player with lbj in making the rivcivil righ bill and voting rights bill

bipartisan. >> he also used television quite effectively during his time. >> he was not particularly photogenic but he had a natural witt. could have made his living being an actor in plays on broadway "so he was entertaining and he sort of kept the republicans alive and after the kennedy assassination and the goldwater debacle in 1964, we were down to a small number again which has happened a couple of times in the last 100 years. and, of course, everyone remembers bob dole who became the leader when i got here. and was our candidate for president. and when bob step down to run full-time for president in 1996, you was succeeded by trent lott of mississippi. >> do you still stay in touch with your bred ses ares? do you talk to them?

>> sure, i was talking to dole just risley. bill frist is back on this wall. and he was the one who put andrew jackson up outside. and that's leading to my story about clay and jackson. >> how do you use this room? >> well, we're having meetings in here all the time. the republican leadership meetings are in here. if we have a particular issue we're trying to advance, i bring the leaders of both sides typically in to discuss ways to go forward. it's a beehive of activity. there are also constituent meetings in here too but mostly members. >> are you willing to share a story? doesn't have to be contemporary and giveaway anything. but a memory in this room? >> my goodness. i'll have to think about that. there have been so many. one moment you would be interested in and i think when

president bush wanted to ordered the surge in iraq toward the end of his tenure, the democrats had just come to the majority and they believed that the unpopularity of the iraq war was the principal reason they had come to the majority. so there was a lot of resistance to providing the funds for the surge to see if we could finally get the iraq war right. i was just elected leader but i was the leader of the minority. so i had to try to sell to a new majority who thought they had just come to power because of the unpopularity of the war a strategy that seemed to be doubling down on failure. and so the best sales man i could find was general david petraeus. we had petraeus in here, we brought in members after members after members after members and let him make the argument about why he thought it would work.

he was a good salesman. we got the funding. the surge did work. and believe it or not, the iraq war was won by the time president bush left office. so the sales job in effect was done largely in this room by general petraeus who is going to be the person to execute the strategy if he could get the funds for the troops. >> this is one of those if the walls could talk sort of rooms, isn't it? >> yeah. >> next is your own personal office, correct? >> yes. >> so how long are your days? >> i usually have something to do in the evening. we're either in session or i have some event i need to attend for my colleagues. so i usually get home around 8:30 or 9. >> when did you start? >> sort of normal time like most people. 8:30 or 9:00.

>> so you're regularly 12-hour days. >> yeah. >> how much time is spent here? >> i spend most of my time here. like all senators i have another office in the russell building. we have three senate offices. but i have as a result of being leader, i have sort of two offices and two sets of staff. staff here deals with all of the senators. my staff in russell is mainly oriented toward kentucky. and my responsibilities there. but just to keep myself from running back and forth all the time, i generally operate out of here if the people from the russell office have constituents or concerns, they usually come over here. you'd be interested in what i have on the wall. this is lincoln and his son tad. >> this is an original? >> i think so. what you know, in the 19th

superintendent, so many children died of diseases. lincoln's son willie died while he was president. ted made it to age 19. and died of some disease. only lincoln's son robert had a full life. and since lincoln is such a distinct figure for republicans and actually in many ways for democrats, as well, i thought it appropriate to have him up there. >> people forget he has kentucky roots because illinois has laid claim to him. >> we call claim him. he was born in indiana. he was born in kentucky. lived briefly in indiana and ended up in illinois. so at home we have lincoln's birthplace and we make everybody wants to claim lincoln. >> i've also been to mary lincoln's house in lexington. she has kentucky roots, too. >> she was from lexington. the lincoln roots in kentucky were real. and you probably remember his

famous quote that he wanted to have god on his side but he had to have kentucky. what that mint was he spent an enormous amount of time trying to prevent kentucky from seceding from the union because he thought it was extremely important in terms of the war strategy to avoid kentucky's cessation. thus the saying i have to have god -- i want to have god on my side but i have to have kentucky. speaking of kentucky, this is john marshall harlan. every first year law student can tell you who he was. he was from kentucky. he fought for the union. and after the war, had some political aspirations but kentucky curiously enough, seemed to sort of go over to the southern side after the war. and became a totally democratic state. so harlan didn't get very far with his political aspirations. he had a partner, a law partner named benjamin bris toe who is a

very well-known and the two of them were known as sort of solid citizens who were incorruptible. his partner benjamin bris toe became secretary of the treasury in the grant administration. and the reason for that was he was sort of mr. clean and grant had all kinds of corruption problems. and he brought in bris toe to try to clean the place up. now, bris toe also interestingly enough was the nation's first solicitor general. and so bris toe after about a year took a look at the situation decided he need today get out. he was afraid his reputation would get smeared. why am i telling you about harlan's partner? there's a point. in 1876, rafter eight years of grant, the republicans harlan thought, needed to do something different. and so mr. clean, thought, would

be the perfect nominee for president. so the republican convention was in cincinnati. in those days, you weren't supposed to act like you wanted it. so bris toe didn't go to cincinnati. harlan did to try to get bris toe the presidential nomination. when it didn't happen, harlan switched the bris toe delegates to rutherford b. hayes which is how he got on the supreme court. and served for 30 years and the reason i have john marshall harlan up here, he was the sole dissenter in the case of plesscy versus ferguson in 1896 which upheld segregation in public accommodations. it was railcars. ing that dissent in 1896 became the unanimous decision in brown versus board of education in 1954. so every freshman law sund can tell you who john marshall harlan is. i probably told you more than you wanted to know how he ended

up on the supreme court. it was a reward for helping hayes get the nomination. this is a depiction of the debate surrounding the compromise of 1850. the reason have i it up not only henry clay, daniel webster, john c. calhoun, i have it up not only because i'm an admire ever clay but i did my senior thesis on henry clay and the compromise. >> is it because he was a kentuckian that you did that. >> i recently reread it. it wasn't very good. frankly, they should have made me rewrite it. i'm not exactly sending it around for publication. but it was one of the three sort of major compromises that clay was involved in. widely attributed to holding the union together as long as it held together before the inevitable conflict that blew

things up. >> and gave him the nickname the great compromiser, correct. >> that's what he was known as. >> what does that message mean for the senate today? >> because you have to compromise. we do a lot of that. unfortunately in today's world, the things we agree on never make any news. it's only when we have differences or something goes over the track or something's controversial that it seems to be important enough to be noticed which is a great frustration to people like me because we've had during this current congress under the new majority an extremely productive period with all kinds of things that are important like trade promotion authority, cybersecurity, multitude year highway bills a complete rewrite of elementary and secondary education legislation, major energy bills. in other words, on and on and on, almost none of which make any news because people are not interested in times when we get

along and accomplish things. they tend to only be interested in our differences. >> do you find yourself muttering to that portrait from time to time? >> occasionally. yeah. i have a democrat in here. that's alvin barkley on the left, the only other kentuckian who has been leader of the senate. there were so many democrats in the senate when he was elected, that the vote was i think 37-36. that shows you how many democrats there were in a senate ha only had 6 members because hawaii and alaska were not yet states. he won by one vote. but he was a roosevelt guy, a very interesting man. he finally became vice president under truman. and went into private life for the first time in a very long time. >> after that was over? >> yeah, he hated it. didn't like being in private life. so he decided to run against my role model, senator coopner 1954. and defeats cooper.

but cooper has a pretty fast comeback after being sent to india as ambassador to india by president eisenhower, cooper. barkley accepts an invitation to the washington and lee mock convention. you'll enjoy this. he's down there on april 30th, 1956 speaking to the students who are having a mock convention. barclay spoke of his willingness to sit with other freshmen senators in congress. he ended with an allusioning to sawm 84: 10 saying i'm glad to sit on back row for i would rather be a servant in the house of the lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty. he then collapsed and died i've heart attack. president truman put out a statement saying, boy, i'd like to go that way. a politician in front of a big audience with a clearing crowd, bam. >> and a memorable line into it was a great exit. a great exit some so that's what

i have barkley up. >> you have one d and one r peering over your shoulders. >> it's a good lesson every day. >> you have another bust of clay over here. >> you can never have too much henry clay over here if you're me. i also have a bust of clay in here. >> you have documents and books. what have you closen to display of those sorts of artifacts. >> these are very old books. i confess i have not read them. very reold books. and these two cases, you know, simply are the right kind of vision i think for an office that's steeped in history. >> and the james madison framed document behind you? >> just somebody gave me that. i'm a big james madison fan. i just finished reading lynne cheney's terrific biography of madison.

i've been very active in first anticipate type issues since madison was the author of the constitution and a supporter of the bill of rights. i just found james madison. >> i want to walk back towards this way. this office has a spectacular view of the mall. >> two things abouting this window. bob dole whether he i was in this office used to call this second best view in washington. he wanted the first best view, which he said was down at the white house. didn't quite work pout. outside you this window, there are the steps of the capitol. and my first internship in washington in 1963 was in a congressman's office. i had the good fortune twaebl here on august 28th, 163 when martin luther king made the "i have a dream" speech. i confess i couldn't hear a word because i was down at this end of the mall. he was on the lincoln memorial

looking out at throngs literally thousands and thousands of people. but you knew you were in the presence of something really significant and i went home that night and turned on tv and if i had any doubts, they were dispelled about the signatures of that day. and it was a thrill to think back upon that all these years later and see the progress that we've made in race relations in this country. king i think would never have imagined that we would have an african-american president, for example. great progress. >> and then you went on to be an intern for senator cooper. >> the next summer i came back on the senate side with. >> cooper who was actively involved in breaking a filibuster against the civil rights bill of 1964. i was in the mail room, not exactly making policy in those days. then had i another story the next year you would be interested in. i came back to visit the friends thatd had made the previous two somers. the next summer, the summer of

1965. and once again, i happened to hit it on right day. i was sitting in the outer office and senator cooper's you know, the reception area in senator cooper's office hoping to get a chance to see him. he walks out, grabs me by the arm, says i'm going to take you to something really important. we come over to the rotunda. and there i am in the back of the room watching lyndon baines johnson sign the voting rights act of 1965. i had a better seat than i did for the martin luther king speech. and one more anecdote you might be interested in. in 2008, i was in the rotunda. we were celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the birth of lbj. and i met lucy johnson who i had

never met before. and i said, lucy, i was here on the day your dad signed the voting rights act. she said, i was, too. i said, really? i said i'm sure nobody knew i was here but i'm positive of knew you were here. and here's what she told me. she said that her dad aid come on, get in the car. i'm going to take you to the capitol. this is something important. and on the way down, he explained to her that everest dirksen was going to be right beside him while he signed the bill. and she said daddy, why would you want to have a republican there for this? he said it's important that the american people understand that this is done on a bipartisan basis. and the american people will be much more likely to accept what we're doing if they think both sides are involved in it. that was the story lucy told me on lbj's 100th birthday down at statutory hall. >> you've talked about your

internships in the house and senate side. whether he did the interest in politics get started for you? >> probably in high school school. i ran for president of the student body. if i had lost, maybe i would have done something else. >> was there a mentor or were you following politics? >> i just got interested. my fifth grade picture, you have little mug shots every year. i had and i like ike button on. >> there weren't too many republicans. you were in kentucky at that point? >> i was in georgia at that point. you were right. there weren't many republicans. my dad had bed in world war ii way down as a foot soldier level under eisenhower. he decided to vote for eisenhower. eisenhower didn't carry any southern states but my dad was a great admirer of the commander. sewed i sort of began to identify with republicans a little bit and four years later we were in kentucky and you know, even though it was a

democratic state, republicans occasionally won. my dad was a republican. so i had begun to identify with republicans and decided to take a shot at it. i ran for president of the student body in college and law school too clean sweep. >> once you got here, was the leadership position something you always aspired to? is this your dream job? >> unlike a lot of people, i didn't think i was going to be president of the united states. i think there are plenty of senator who's do think that. i was not one of them. had i hope that maybe one day i could be leader of my party in the senate and it really was a dream come true. >> what does this office allow you to do? what's its real power? >> i think to pull people together, to set the schedule, to try to push the country in the direction you think it ought to go is a great joy. it's an interesting leadership challenge as you can imagine a club like the senate, a lot of intelligent people with sharp elbows and big egos who their

own hopes and aspirations not only for themselves but for the country trying to synthesize all that and make some semblance of music is like conducting the orchestra you know and somebody's always a little bit off key. >> well, maybe tying history into this conversation as we close here, when you look at the kind of politics that happened in this chamber during 1850 leading up to the civil war, tough times with important stakes. when people say this is the most partisan environment we've experienced, what does history tell you about that. >> history tells you that is not anywhere near true. it's a shame that american people think that thing are more contentious now than they used to be. we haven't had a single incident where a congressman came over and tried to beat to death a senator on the floor of the senate which happened in the 1850s. what's different today is that

more americans are exposed to the arguments through the internet, through cable television. but the debates we have today are nothing compared to the, for example, what adams and jefferson called each other. in those days, they were fighting duals. i mean, we had big vigorous robust debate throughout the history of the country. that's different today is that more people are exposed to it. and i think the coverage of what we do is entirely tilted toward the things we disagree on and the contentiousness of some of our debates. not the outcomes that we got. which is disappointing. >> leader mccome, thank you so much for the tour of your office and for the history lessons you've given us. >> thank you. >> you can watch this or any other american artifacts programs at any time by visiting our website c-span.org/history.

c-span's "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. and coming up for you on tuesday morning, a kong greggsal discussion with sung mung kim and lar rare lopez will talk about what's left on the legislative agenda before the house and senate recess in august. former middle east advisor dennis ross will examine u.s. efforts in the fight against isis. be sure to watch "washington journal" tuesday morning. join the discussion. >> each week, "american history tv"'s real america brings you archival films that help provide context to today's public affairs issues. ♪

>> the united states custom service guards all ports of entry so that no goods can be brought into our country illegally. one of our busiest ports after entry is at san ysidro near san diego, california. as many as 30,000 cars may enter here in a 24-hour period. all 17 lanes of traffic may be full. in order to handle this large number of people, officials from all four u.s. government departments help with the initial inspection. every car is not searched. however, they are trained to judge people. and while they're polite, they can be very severe when people break the law. the inspectors are from the u.s. department of customs, immigration, public health, and agriculture.

the inspector questions this man. and asks to see the trunk of his car. he finds nothing wrong here. many people cross the border for only a day. these children will visit their grandmother in san diego. some men come to san diego often on business. the officer knows mr. odessa well. he's going to san diego to buy merchandise for his hardware store. suspicious cars are september to an inspection area for a more thorough investigation. this man looks questionable.

an officer from the u.s. department of agriculture checks his papers and questions him. the man hands over a bottle of liquor that was not declared. the law requires that the bottlen confiscated and he pay a fine. the mexican officials, too, check all people and freight entering their country. every country has different laws for collecting duty. the mexican officials work closely with the american officers in their effort to stop smuggling. they are especially anxious to stop the narcotics traffic and to least the dope smugglers.

tourists enjoy the picturesque life in mexico. the shops have articles not found in the united states. such as sombreros, leather goods, silver, curious hand crafts. whether they are going to mexico for pleasure or business, after they cross the line, they are foreigners. and all their actions are governed by a different set of laws. people who leave this country must be sure they can prove they're americans when they return across the line. these people have been checked by the u.s. public health service and the immigration authorities and are now ready to go through customs. since these americans have been in mexico only for the day, they have little baggage and the inspection is brief. the mexican people also like to spend a day in the united states to shop in our stores.

inspector emory asks mrs. damon 0 taupe her suitcase. mrs. dame on seems upset and the officer goes through her bag carefully. it might contain smuggled goods or illegal money. just as he expected. he finds valuable coral beads with earrings to match. amber from french indochina. and jade from india. tourists to mexico are permitted a liberal allowance. however, they must declare their valuables and if they exceed the limit, they are subject to a fine. mrs. damon will pay a fine because she did not declare her purchases.

a train is only passing through a corner of mexico. the officer will seal the cars so they cannot be opened while out of the country. when the train returns, inspection will not be necessary if the seals have not been broken. the united states is boarded by two friendly nations. there are no fortifications on your land borders as there are along most of the other borders of the countries of the world. and so the fine work of the u.s. customs service continues as it has for 175 years, playing on important role in the american economy, enforcing the laws of the land. our country's trade is safe as long as the customs inspectors stand guardht