Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-12-21 | Page 30 | Do Not Open 'Til Christmas Doesn't Deter Customs Men

It's Their Annual Yule Duty m .. 3" Xk - -i, L-asas JLaA-x.1 - tt.a ... . :lki UaaJ THEY TAKE MANY A PEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS George Cammack, left; D. Hunt Jr., right, inspect toy Do Not 0penTil Christmas Doesn't Deter Customs Men Finding out what other people are going to get for Christmas was keeping George Cammack and D. Hunt Jr. busy Tuesday. Mr. Cammack is appraiser for the U. S. customs service, and Mr. iunt, opener, verifier and packer at the customs office. Every Christmas package ad-Iressed ad-Iressed from foreign countries to Is resident of Utah or Nevada passes through their hands and must be opened and the content checked to aee if any duty is owed. 1500 Packages Handled Last week they bandied' 1300 such packages. Another 1000 is expected ex-pected to arrive before Christmas day. "About one In four packages contain con-tain dutiable merchandise," Mr. Cammack aaid. He estimated receipts re-ceipts to the government from Christmas merchandise will range between 81600 and 83000 her this month. If a Christmas gift package contains con-tains anything valued at more than II, a duty la assessed and the postman post-man must collect the duty before allowing the package to leave hla custody. Bom Idea of what It cost to receive re-ceive a Christmas "gift" from a foraign land can be obtained from the table of duties quoted by Mr. Cammack. Duties Are High The duty on jewelry is 110 per rent of the article's value; on toys. 70 per cent; embroidered wearing apparel 75 per cent; candy, 40 per cent; cak, SO per cent; woolens, including in-cluding knit articles, 50 per cent; books, 15 per cent, and other goods, 35 per cent. "About the only type of Christmas Christ-mas gift which w would confiscate is liquor, which cannot be sent through the malls," Mr. Cammack aid. "So far thi year, though, we haven't found a single bottle." On of Mr. Hunt' principal task is to repack and tie each package just as it was when received, so that person receiving gift on which no duty la owed, perhaps seldom sel-dom suspect the contents have been thoroughly examined.