Report of the President 



383 



THE PLUMAGE SITUATION 



In the report of your President one year ago, reference was made to a 

 provision that had been inserted in the Tariff Bill which would, it was thought, 

 stop the open sale of smuggled Paradise feathers in this country. It is a 

 pleasure to here record that when the Tariff Act became a law on September 

 21, 1922, it carried this feather proviso into the Federal statutes. 



When, a year or more ago, announcement was made in the public press 

 that the new tariff bill presented to the House of Representatives by the 

 committee having the matter in charge, contained a paragraph that would 



DR. E. W. NELSON, CHIEF U. S. BIOLOGICAL SURVEY, AND TALBOT DENMEAD, 

 DEPUTY CHIEF U. S. GAME WARDEN, EXAMINING CONFISCATED PLUMAGE 



render it illegal to sell the imported feathers of wild birds unless proof could 

 be given that such goods had been acquired legally, there was much excite- 

 ment in the millinery feather-houses. Advertisements promptly appeared 

 in the papers offering to sell Paradise plumes at a greatly reduced rate. Hats 

 decorated with this plumage that a week before were selling for $160 were 

 now advertised for $65. As time progressed, and it became increasingly 

 certain that the feather proviso would become a law, the price of Paradise 

 plumes steadily declined as the houses handling them made more frantic 

 efforts to dispose of their stock before the bill should pass. By the middle 

 of September the price shrank to $29.50, and the day before the bill became a 

 law, many of these exquisite plumes were disposed of at a figure as low as $15. 



