New High

Last week was paid the record high fine for smuggling. The Customs' Collector at New York received a check for $213,286, signed by Mrs. Robert L. Dodge, president of Harriet Hubbard Ayer Inc. (cosmetics). Mrs. Dodge was in bed with nervous breakdown. Inspectors who pawed the trunkfuls, cratefuls of lavish riches brought in by Mr. & Mrs. Dodge last month on the S. S. Ile de France are still marveling. A panorama of silks, satins, furs was there, and a rajah-worthy collection of diamond jewelry. Scant room remained that day on the pier for the effects of any other traveler whose last initial was D. Yet Mrs. Dodge had declared only $17,000 worth of imports. "Did she think we were that dumb?" asked inspectors who had pounced on her ostentatious quantities of luggage, appraised its contents of contraband at about $100,000. If some European tipster, scenting the obvious, warned U. S. authorities of Mrs. Dodge's approach, he was entitled to the usual 25% reward -- an easy $50,000.

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