Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-05-24
POSTAGE STAMPS.
INTERESTING FACTS CONCERN
ING THEIR MANUFACTURE,
tt Is Astonishing to Contemplate the
Proportions to Which This De-
partment of Uncle Sam's
Business Has Grown.

otherwise known as the tariff; the
coinage and issue of money, and the
ISSUE and sale of postage stamps.
In ench of these three great lines of
business he is absolutely without com
petition. But it is in his little stamp
business that our thrifty relative has
his greatest monopoly. Postage
stamps cost him only n few cents per
thousand to print, and he sells hun
dreds and hundreds of millions OF
them every year at prices ranging
from SO up to $1,000 or more per
thousand.
That, however, is only one way of
looking ut it. The printing and snlo
of the stamps is only one.half of the
transaction, and by the time Uncle
Sam redeems them by performing the
service which they call for, he seldom
has any profit left, and it frequently
happens that he must draw upon his
bank account to make up deficit.
There is considerable profit in trans
porting letters by the ton and the car
load between large cities Mt two cents
apiece, nut It is the carrying of the
light mails over the thousands of "star
routes" al over tho country that alb
serbs the profits,
1t costs more to carry a handful of
letters by mhle back to Bitter Root,
or Dog Tooth, or Goose Creek, than
it does to, carry q whole bag full from
New York to Chicago
1t is seldom that Uncle Sam in
dulges in anything like sentiment, but
the old gentleman did so in the recent
matter Of tho Columbian stamps, and
now ho finds it didn't pay. He con
tractcd to have 5000 millions of these
made at n cost Of seventeen cents per
thousand, or little over II half million
Of cool cash dollars for the mere item
of printing alone.
There wns quite rush for the new
series when they were first Pit on
sale about IL ysar ago, hut the novelty
soon wore of, and it became only too
apparent thst the public preferred the
old styles
Here was quandary. Seventy. four
dollars and thirty cents per million
for printing the old style which the
public wanted, as against $l7O per
million for printing the new, which
they evidently did not want. How.
ever, the contractors generously re-
leased the Government from one third
of the contract, and he now addressed
himself TO the task of working of the
remainder Of tho 1000 millions that
were printed and delivered.
And just here shows up one Of the
hnnntInG of 1ntn,. II,
an absolute monopoly.
When, at the closing up of the year
Just ended, Uncle Sam found himself
with S1G5, 900, 600 of the undesirable
and unstable "Columbias" still on
hand, he simply prorated the entire
stock among the three thousand and
odd Presidential postoifices in the
country, and sent them ont with in
structions to the postmnsters to give
the public nothing else until this stock
shall be worked of.
Uncle Sam lis thinking of printing
his stamps himself instead of letting
out the job by contract, and there
would seem to bo no good reason why
he should not do SO. He cnn probn-
bly, have it done MS cheaplv and rs we'll
In his own bureau of engraving and
printing rs it is now done by contract
md there are many reasons why il
would he beneficial to the public SER
vice.
Under the contract system the
stamps are made by one firm in New
York, the envelopes are furnished by
another firm i'll Connecticut, while
still IL third firm supplies the postal
cards
The Government IS under the ncces-
sity OF maintaining mn agent with as
sistants ut each of these places, and
these agents must exercise the strict
est oversight of the whole business
from the taking i'll of the blank paper
to the sending out of the finished sup
plies upon the acquisitions of the
postmasters.
All these acquisitions must reach the
agencies from the postmasters through
the department at Washington, and NIL
complaints from the postmasters on
account of shortage or Iniscount must
travel through the same channel, thu (;
involving much delay and red taoe.
Then again, all stamps damaged in
the making must be transmitted by
the agent to tho department for de
struction. If but single stamp is
imperfect on sheet the whole sheet
is sent to Washington and destroyed.
Four or five millions of stamps are
thus RENTED to the department every
week, where they are carefully counted
and ia. surned. This would seem
to ii.v~-ve Guch trouble and expense,
to =: nothing OF the dangers of loss
by accident or otherwise.
1t is simply astonishing to contem-
plate the immense proportions to
which this stamp business of Uncle
Sans has grown. During the past
year he sent out to his 10000 post.
masters nearly four billions OF stamped
pieces of paper. This number is too
large for comprehension. If they had
oil been stamps of the Columbian
lyle they would have been sufficient
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