WOMEN SMUGGLERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20334, 16 February 1928, Page 10

WOMEN SMUGGLERS.

Every woman is a prospective smuggleiE?,r a war* asrs gysas s miivuTGrlsi* to-day is woman. Despite almost weekly exposure of women caught trying to get things pa.t the Customs inspection witnout paying lawful duty, the women keep at it rcsoriing to all sorts of tricks and stratagems. The fact that they rarely succeed does not have a restraining eftect. One judge, who had frequently to deal with the more flagrant cases, is alleged to have said that the reason he was always easy on woman smugglers was because his wife was one of tile worst in the land, and that no matter how he explained the law pleaded and threatened, she would not understand, would not desist. It is difficult to account for this seemingly strong propensity in the American woman. She knows there is such a thing as a Customs law and duties to be paid, just as men do. Yet, having hunted down a bargain in Paris, she seems to think it unfair that she should have to hand over to the Customs office all she has saved on the purchase. Professor P. D. Stout, of the Chair of Psychology, New York University, in discussing the question, says: “Psychologists have established that women are quite the same in their general reactions as men. For years woman bad no part in making laws. She never had to worry about the relation of public to private business, of Government to stores and kitchens. But suffrage and increased participation in business have necessarily given her a part in the nation’s law-making. Making, or helping to make the laws, she should naturally feel more like obeying them. Probably this, in time, will change her. Maybe it will! ”