National Affairs: Booty Duty

With a quick squiggle of his pen, President Truman last week signed a law calculated to please both U.S. tourists and the foreign merchants who load them down with perfumes, silks, tweeds, genuine shrunken heads, and other souvenirs. From now on, Americans who go abroad on trips of twelve days or longer can bring in $500 in goods duty free (the old limit was $400). The exemption on shorter trips goes up from $100 to $200.