People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1898-01-14
OFFICIAL ORGAN PEOPLES PARTY
STATE OF GEORGIA.
A Hard Nut to Crack,

Did you know that the government
has refused to redeem it's own postage
stamps in gold or any other kind of
money? Aye, worse than that; it
won't even exchange other postage
stamps for them. The facts are that it
looks as though the post-ofice depart
ment is getting most damnably stuck
up and independent. A few days ago
one of our many admiring friends sent
us dollars worth of nice, new, clean,
Observation-Disclosures post
age stamps in payment of his subscrip-
ton. Being in the postoffice shortly
afterward we called at the window and
asked the stamp clerk to give us the
cash on them. With look of disdain
and with an Importance that comes
only from long service in public ca
pacity he informed us that he was
selling postage stamps and not buying
them. We then requested him to ex-
change and give US one-centers for our
twos. He simply pointed to q printed
notice that Uncle Sam does not even
exchange stamps. We, expected that
as soon az the word got out, stamps
would depreciate and be worth posi-.
bly, less than the paper upon which
they are printed. So we hurried to q
drug store and found, to our surprise
and pleasure, that postage stamps
were still worth their face value. That
has been several days ago and we are
told this morning that they are still
selling all over the city at the same
old price. 1t seems kind o. strange
how this is. Why, they are not legal
tender for anything; they are not fit
for money even If they were, because
Of the nasty stickum-tight on their
backs; the government won't have
them after it sells them once; and still
they are worth two cents apiece, and
1t now looks just like the price is 60
ing to stay up right where it is There
is only one use that anybody can make
of the things, and that is to pay post
age; and still they don't depreciate.
There seems to be some sort of law
back of them which keeps up the price
Well, az you cannot pay postage with
anything else but stamps, we wonder
why somebody hasn't got a corner on
them? Why don't some of these smart
bankers get together and buy all the
postage stamps at two cents apiece
and then raise the priceP Possibly
they have not thought of it. But they
have thought of everything else; won
der why they have not thought of this?
They corner on the governments mon
ey and make Uncle Sam dance around
and beg like little puppy dog and
make him issue; bonds and do lots of
other humiliatlng things, but somehow
they have never thought to tackle the
postage stamps. After looking it up a
little 1t seems that Uncle Sam got it
into his old head that he could run the
post-ofice without the aid of the bank
ers. He seems to have forgotten to
make any provisions for his banker
boys in the matter, and so he keeps his
postage stamp mill going all the time,
and if they buy all the stamps he has
he simply prints some more and some
more, and some more, and keeps right
on smiling; and the more they buy,
the more he smiles. If they should
conclude to buy up a big lot of them
and ship them to "Yurrup" he would
keep right on smiling and smiling and
printing more stamps. The supply of
stamps seems almost inexhaustable. It
looks like Uncle Sam might get tired
of it after awhile and delegate the issu-
ing of his stamps over to the banks as
he has done in the matter of money.
Then he could take 3 much-needed rest
and his banker boys could have a real
picnic. They could have regular
high old time, and there would be
''hot time in the old town. you bet
your life. The boys would put the
price of stamps down till they got pos
session of what are on hand; then they
could bull" the market and make
nice pile. They could limit the supply;
they could slip them off to Europe, and
a great many other things they could
do. They could give Uncle Sam lots of
pointers in business, Stamps could be
used just like the money is if Uncle
Sam was not such blasted old moss
back as to stand right in the way of
progress. Funny, isn't it? Suppose
you put in about five minutes thinking
this over.-Warren Fosters Paper.