PASSPORT FEES

New American passport regulations became effective last July, when the fee for the issue of these documents was raised from two to ten dollars. Foreign nations, which need the money much more than we do, are naturally tempted to reciprocate. Italy, for example, charges Belgian subjects two dollars, British subjects two dollars and a half, but American citizens ten dollars,--the respective amounts imposed on each of these people by their own government. If an American goes to Italy through France and Belgium, he must now pay forty dollars in passport fees.

We cannot blame other countries for assessing us the same amount that we are taxed, yet it is an embarrassing detail in international intercourse, the growth of which we assume to promote. There seems no valid reason why this exorbitant toll should be maintained; a price more nearly equivalent to that demanded abroad would appear far more reasonable.