The Washington times., 1923-01-28
TOY BIRD WHICH
SINGS, CAUSES
TARIFF DISPUTE
Customs Officers Claim InStru-
ment Is Musical, Citing
Words of Poets in Proof
QUOTE FROM SHAKESPEARE
CoupIet From Whittier and
Discourse on Scales Lend
Sweet Zest to Argument
By THEODORE TILLER.

By THEODORE TILLER.
A mechanical singing bird
(which opens its beak, moves it:
head and tail in a lifelike manner
and emits sounds resembling the
trilling of a live canary, but
somewhat more musical
has caused the Treasury Depart.
ment to include in a formal and
official government publication q
penegyric on music.
QUOTES SHAKESPEARE.
Music AID poetry seldom Greer
into the publications Of the Gov
eminent but this pamphlet, passed
by the unmusical A. w. Mellon
Secretary of the Treasury, sets a
precedent. It quotes a bit from
Shakespeare Henry VIII, snatches
q couplet or so from Whittier and
other poets, discources a bit on
Chinese gongs, chromatic scales,
and brass cymbals, and then alb
ruptly overrules a protest filed by
New York merchants because of
the custom duty levied on the
aforesaid mechanical singing bird.
In q current issue of Treasury
Decisions, is found this remarkable
tribute to music. The decision will
probably become famous as ct. D.,
%, 1896" labeled ''in the matter of
protest 954,499 of J. C. Robold
& Co. against the amendment of
duty by the collector of customs of
the port of New York.
The case was heard before the
United States General Appraisers.
New York. Appraiser Sullivan
seems to have written the report.
APPRAISED AS MUSICAL.
"The instrument in question is a
musical one and the tuneful ear
Of the collector was correct in
thus classifying it. The protest
is overruled," winds up the report.
and now for the tribute to music:
The merchandise is invoiced as
small cages with singing birds.
1t was returned for duty as musi-
cal instruments at 35 per cent ad
valorem, under paragraph 373,
act of 1915. 1t is claimed in the
protest as undutiable at 20 per
cent under paragraph 1877 of the
same act, which is the provision
for manufactures OF metal.
The official sample of this mer-
chandise consists of a mechanical
singing bird in a brass cage. In
the cage is a species of music
box. When the music box is
wound the bird opens its beak,
moves its head and tail in a very
lifelike manner, and emits sounds
resembling the trilling of a live
canary.
At the trial the single witness
called by the protestants testi-
fled they are used in the home
Tor the purpose of decoration and
Tor the purposes of ornamental
ton: He further testified he had
never known it to be used in
an orchestra.
CITES MANY RULINGS.
The decision then cites rulings re-
garding triangles, jewsharps, drums,
brass cymbals, piccolos and music
boxes.
"And finally" continues the de-
ctsion, mechanical singing birds in
bird does not emit a continuous mel
ody and is not an Instrument upon
which a chromatic scale can be
played. This does not overcome the
TACT that its notes are musical.
Music Is the one harmonious
science that dispels discord, softens
the winds and makes all nature
akin. 1t has quickened the step
or the warrior on the field of bat
tie; has riVeted the attention of the
savage on the march of his enemy;
has stirred the ambitions of men
to higher ideals.
THE CHARMS OF MUSIC,
Music has caused the beauty of
the human heart to speak in friend
Illness and love.
"In stoeet music Is such art.
huItng care and grief of heart
Fail asleep. or hearing die.
Henry VII shakespeare
Music is melody or harmony.
a., the music of the winds, or of
the sea.
"For the drmony
And stceet accord ras so good
nUSiEe
ThGt the Uotce to angels most ,oas
like.
-FIos1er and Leaf.
Tho graces and the loUes which
make
The music Of the march Of life.
Whittier Last Walk IN Autunln.)
1.-THE bird doth not betray the secret
springs
whence note on note her music
SUeetly pours.
Jones Very Poems, p. 29l.
Indeed if it was not for sweet
music, human life would be SO
oreary to be unbearable. 1t mat
ters not whence it may arise, from
the throat of the opera singer or of
the bird, from the scintiIIatinR
thrills of the flute, or the low tones
OF the Chinese gong, music is vet
the purest and most harmonious
succession of sounds conceivable. II
Is the dnesthetic of life.
The instrument in question In
a musical one and the tunefuI oar
or the collector was correct in thus
classifying it. The protest is over.
ruled"
COLONEL JONES DEAD