The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-28
ARMOUR PRINTS REVENUE STAMPS
He Secures n Government Grant and
Competes with Other shops.

When the government ordered all good
citizens to affix a 2-cent revenue stamp
to every check in order to help pay for
the coal that Schley used up in licking
Cervera and the hard-tack which the
soldiers got thin on, the business man,
patriotic though he might be, soon
learned that the sticky little things
were a nuisance. 1t took some little
time for everyone to remember that a
check was not good unless II had one
of Fred Coyne's little official pastors on
IL, and when the lesson was learned
men who used lots of check, bankers,
railroad men and others in COM
mercial lines, were continually
letting their stock of stamps
run low and finding themselves
compelled to wait, while the boy went
over to the internal revenue office to
get more. All thist trouble was of course
temporary, for IL was well known that
In a short time the government ma
chinery would be put in order for
printing the stamps directly on the
blank checks from official dies made,
sold and carefully guarded by the gov
eminent. This was don months z
and from that depends a tale.
This move on the part OF the govern
ment had several results. While il did
away with considerable trouble for the
people who had been complaining about
the licking of a stamp every time they
uItN n 'lltNhs II hdb Nlt Bttulidi tllt1N
of putting Armour & Co, the beef
n pork packers. into the printing bus
mess under government supervision, in
competition with the big printing house
of p. f. Pettibone & Co. Printing is
not generally looked upon as one of the
branches of the great business of Il. ID.
Armour. The layman has come to
know that there are many ramifications
TO the enterprise conducted by this
firm; that he not only kills, cures and
packs hogs and cattle, but he makes
soup and soap, glue, cans, pork and
beans and handles grain. Now, 1t APP
pears. he is printing revenue stamps
on checks. not only for his own use.
but for various railroads and banks
n private firms at the printing es-
tablishment at the stock yards.
The Armour printing office is no now
city. The firm uses so many labels and
so much advertising matter that IL was
long ago decided a printing office oper-
ated by the firm could do the work
much more cheaply than ii could be
done in the open market. That was all
right, and although the commercial
printers sighed heavily when they saw
the Armour business being taken out of
their hands, they a no ecour in the
matter so long as Mr.. Armour deter
mined to 10 his own printing. But
along came the war with Spain, and
then came the revenue stamp law, and
hen came an advertisement from the
treasury department, which led to
several u~nlooked-for results. The gov
ernment, according to the advertise
ment inserted in the newspapers some
months ago, decided to license a print
ing firm in each of five cities to print
revenue stamps on checks for all
corners, the plan being for the printing
firm to pay over to the collector of in
ternal revenue at stated times a sum
cttA1afant 20 nav for all the ats INNS IN
be printed in a given length of time.
Then two government officials were to
be stationed in the printing Office to
check up the number of stamps print
ed from the government dies and see
that IL did not exceedw at any time the
number paid for. The salaries of these
two men were to be paid by the print
ing firm, and the dies We're. of course
20 be bought from the government. The
cities in which this concession was to
be given by the government under the
original plan were New York. Chicago.
st. Louis. San Francisco and Atlanta.
each one being considered readily ac-
cessible to the territory tributary to
the great cities.
Under this plan but one printing
house in each of the cities named would
have the license to print the stamps
and the s%inecure would be commercially
profitable to some extent. Therefore the
Pettibone firm went out after the prize
and got IL. after much ard labor at
Washington. The firm was required to
file a bond for the faithful performance
of the work prescribed. and at once set
about installing a plant for printing the
stamps. Thirteen presses were put into
place in a separate department OF the
Pettibone printing establishment. wall
ed of from the rest OF the shop, that
the precious stamps might be ever un-
der the personal supervision of the gov
eminent counter and checker. and the
dies, bought from the government. were
placed in a safe every night.
Then all ven well until the govern
ment changed its ideas about the print