The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-20
HALF The JEWELS
ARE STRUGGLED

Rh[ 0MUUULCU
Half the jewels that come TO Ameri.
ca are struggled, nine-tenths of the
smuggling in done by American tour
lists and nine times out of ten they
lose money by it," said Ludwig Mis-
sen, president of the Precious Stone
Importers Association. THE tourists
are many and very long pursed, and
they have the idea, especially bust.
ness men who have never had time
to pay attention to jewelry, that prices
are much lower in Europe than here.
when a rich man and his wife ar.
rive in Paris, with nothing to do but
visit the shops and become enamoured
of the beautiful gems displayed the
shopkeepers take very good care
strongly to confirm this opinion. They
have a clever near truth which they
use with the greatest effect, that the
United States imposes a 60 per cent.
duty on jewelTy They are careful to
leave unsaid that this charge applies
only to msdeup iewelry, such as rings,
brooches, &c. which are almost never
imported, while unset cut stones are
taxed 10 per GEN., and gems in the
rough go duty free. Since the cost of
a piece of jewelry depends almost
wholly on the stones in it the price of
jewelry made in America is raised
only some 10 per cent, by the tariff,
not 60 per cent.
and dearly the smuggler pays for
his 10 per cent. Those traders know
an American as soon as he enters
their shops and raise their prices as
a welcome to him, for rarely are the
articles tagged. If the tourist is will
ing to haggle he can often buy for
one-half what was asked of him first.
"And even the lowest price is apt
to be higher than it would be in Amer
lea, for the enormous wealth OF our
country provides a better market for
such luxury as jewelry. We do bust
ness on larger scale, with leI's per
centage of profit. And by the same
token the American quality is better,
for our workshops, paying the largest
salaries attract the best craftsmen
of Europe.
"The choicest stones are brought
here too. On cabling an order to Eu-
rope / have often been answered. We
have no American goods meaning
none of first quality.
The bad bargaining of the amateur
smuggler may not end when he leaves
the store with his purchase. Sailing
shortly to another continent, he can
hardly return or exchange the goods
if for any reason he comes to regret
having bought them. And when he
attempts to smuggle them through Col
lector's Loeb's Custom House he runs
a long risk of losing his jewels and
his money and his good name to
boot.
For the Government has agents in
those same stores that kindly instruct
ed him in how to avoid paying duty,
and his purchase may have been re-
ported to those agents. The Govern
ment has in this surveillance an auxili-
airy in our Importers Protective AS
ISOLATION, which is shortly to be ex-
panded into the National Jewellers
Protective Association, so that the
forces of all the wholesale and retail
jewellers in the country may be united
against smuggling and other forms Of
lawbreaking.
There exists a few professional
smugglers like those who the other
day in Minneapolis let a part of their
Illicit jewels be discovered in a safe
deposit vault Some of them have
the connivance of the houses in Ant.
werp and Amsterdam which cut gems.
They all cover their tracks so well
that convictions are rare, perhaps one
in a year Often a professional is ar
rested as he lands from his ship, only
to have it found that he has declared
his jewels, and search through his
baggage discloses only a marconigram,
received at sea, reading Danger-de-
clare everything.
ut is these men that our association
especially combats by agents in Eu-
rope and in Canada and Mexico These
agents go about in hotels and clubs.
listening to the quiet boast made in
confidence. For there is no smuggler
who can hold his tongue always.
mot SO much does our association