Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-12-28
SHOPPERS PAID
GREAT TAXATION BILL
CONTINUED from page y

A tariff tax of 10 per cent was
4sssPesed on Christmas trees, and of
10 per cent on the tinsel decora-
tiens.
On articles bought for presents,
} the tariff was collected principally
by the manufacturers and certain
middlemen. Retailers, 1t is reported,
got little benefit from them.
Articles of wool and silk were
dearer this year than ever before.
Particularly were those higher prices
noticed in hosiery, underwear, hand
kerehiefs and novelties, where wom-
en- were the chief purchasers. Gloves.
handbags and crystals were other
merchandise upon which the tariff
& operated to increase prices beyond
the level recorded any previous year.
just how the Fordney-MeCumber
law operated on the nocketbooks of
Christmas shoppers is seen In a few
specific examples,
Kid gloves We're taxed at an aver
age of 81 a pair, while cotton gloves
paid duties Of from 20 cents to 90
Z cents a pair. On wooden hose the
tax was 86 cents a pound, and thus
40 cents on each dollar of value. The
4 tax on silk hose was so cents on each
dollar of value. Beaded bags were
dear because the tariff makes beads
pay 90 per cent of the value, which
Is also the rate for silk.
Wooden underwear is now taxed at
from 36 cents to 45 cents a pound,
plus an ad valarem tax on the value
that ranges from 40 to SO per cent
which means hat a garment weigh
ing a pound and valued at 81 would
have to pay a tax of about 90 cents.
Those who bought silk handker-
chiefs had to pay about 81 for the
materials and Go cents for tariff.
Linen handkerehiefs carried a duty
of S5 per cent on each dollar of
value represented.
Combs were taxed at so per cent
of the value; crystal beads at so per
cent ad valorem, which was also the
rate for imitation pearls and Jewels.
Linen centerpieces and scarfs paid
35 per cent of value. Perfumes 40
cents a pound plus rs per cent of
the value, atomizers 40 per cent,
silver salad forks so per cent.
If you bought presents for musical
friends, you paid a az of 40 per
cent on the value of all instruments,
including ukeleles. A violin or saxa-
phone valued at $40, for instance,
paid 81 in tariff. Sewing cabinets,
81 WHICH iltNQ u lAAu9lO VI NtAANiA wv III
paid taxes of 60 per CEN of value,
and picture frames, which might set
the whole tariff schedule off at a
proper advantage, We're taxed SS Ia
per cent.
Everybody was taxed. Mothers
and wives and sweethearts found
most every article of feminine TASTE
pretty well taxed, and the men were
not spared either. The good briar
pipe valued at SIS paid a tax of about
50 and cigarette holders paid 60 per
cent. Imported fountain pens paid
an extra ~ cents for being brought
in and 40 per cent additional on
their value. Even the children didn't
get by. The story of Simple Simon
and Mother Goose told in a book
paid a tariff tax ranging from Is to
rs per cent of the value. And on
all the candy that the Riddles got
and are still eating, a tax of 40 cents
on every dollar of value was paid.
About the only hopeful sign in
the whole business, as some people
see 1t, was the tax of so per cent i'm
! posed on the game of Nah Jong, but
other games suffered along with it.