Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-12-30
STAMPS IN BOOKS,
Revival Of An Gid Idea for Public
Convenience.
No More Sticking Togethcr-plan That Will
Interest Business Men.

| and VINO, whenever they have Occa
sion to use one, finds it stuck fast tc
their little notebook or find two Sc
curely fastened together. will doubtless
rejoice in the prospects of a plan now
being perfected by Third Assistant
Postmaster General Madden, who pro
poses to have the stamps made into
| sheets and bound into little books with
! paSteboard covers. and sold for a mere
| nominal advance upon the price of thu
stamps themselves.
| A letter from the department at
Washington explains his plans in full
which will doubtless be of interest to
the readers of the Journal.
The letter says in part:
Nothing but a mechanical hitch in
| the preliminaries stands now in the
way OF the governments carrying out
design which has been under advise
ment. i'm one form or another, for q
years, for issuing postage stamps in
books as We'll as sheets 1t has been
special hobby Of Third Assistant
Postmaster General Madden. especially
since he has noted the popularity of
the little Waistcoat-pocket folios of
paIaiiine paper used as stamp cases by
persons who have to carry a good
many stamps about with them, and
who have had the Eittnr experience of
finding them stuck together and use
less at the Very moment when most
needed. At the bureau of engraving
and printing, where the only difficulty
now seems to exist, complaint is made
that Mr.. Madden proposes plans which.
Il in, dot a -, Il,
making Of entirely new plates To-
printing the stamps. 1t is more than
likely, however, that 50 strong an i'm
pulse having now been given to ii. the
scheme will be carried out by the
necessary concessions on the ore side
or the other 1t is Mr.. Maddcn's idea
to have the stamps III sheets of siN
each, two or more sheets being bound
into a little book with pasteboarl
covers and sold for mere nominal
advance upon the price of the stamps
themselVes-a book of IL two-cent
stamps selling for - cents. ana ~ on
If this plan is adopted with regard to
letter stamps. we snail probably see it
soon followed by the internal revenue
bureau with the war-tax stamps
"As has been said, the idea has been
under consideration for at least a
quarter-century: and the fact that only
at this late day is the government ar
parently approaching definite action
on it shows how Slow are all such
movements for Increased convenience
t. the public"
Many readers IF the above will re-
member 4 tim" when. if one wanted to
prepay postage op a letter. IL hld TX
curry il 70 the postufice. pay HIS
three. tive or ton cents. ana see the
word paid" printed across its face in
llrg" letters hy the use II type stamp
ANA an inkpad. just AS postmarks are
now put on in country offices. Some
body hit upon the idea of selling. for
the prir" Of the postage. or a very
small advance upon it. an adhesiv"
stamp which could he stuck upon the
letter by tn" sender ut his own home
Not only did this involve saving of
hand labor for the postmaster and his
clerks but it spared them the nuisance
# handling money and making change
for each letter or group of letters sep
arately mailed; it acted as a check
upon the postmaster's accounts: ana it
reduced to a minimum the trouble 70
which the sender Of a letter was neces-
sarily put.
The natural Inference says one thor
oughly versed in postal matters, IL that
the adhesive stamp would have come
universally into use as soon as devised.
The fact is just the reverse. The
United States were six or seven wears
behind England in the adoption Of a
III 4
me Of our more enterprising post
masters had gone individually into the
business Of issuing local adhesive
stamps in order to save themselves
needless labor. Nobody could offer
any valid reason why the federal gov
eminent should not have its own
stamps; but. with its usual inertia the
government took its time about doing
what had already been proved a wise
thing. In France they We're even slow
er than we in adopting a government
stamp system. stamps OF the Paris
postotfice having been used as far back
as the reign Of Louis XIV. The adop-
ton Of 4 government stamp series in
France was at least ten years behind
that in England
We are apt thoughtlcssly to assume,
toe. that the perforated stamp-sheet,
rs we know it now. is as old as the
postage stamp system. This is I'm
error. Pcrforation as a means Of sepa-
rating the stamps on a sheet came into
play in this country as lately as 1851
55-after government stamps had been
in use about eight years. Up to that
time tn" sheets We're printed solid. and
it was necessary to employ shears or
a papcr-cutter to get the single stamps
apart.
1t is worthy of note. incidentally to
this retrospect. that a private business
man put the value Of the idea Of bind
ing stamps into books to a pretty fair
test while ago, when he went into
the trade Of selling books Of stamps at
a triflc less than the actual cost of the
stamps. making his profit on the adj
vcrtising which he put upon the covers
Of the books. n great many persons
who would have welcomed the con-
veniencc if they could have bought
such books from the government We're
suspicious Of an undertaking in private
London crowd. in the familiar story
refused TO buy British SoVereigns at a
hlIf-croWn each when they were 50
offered in order to settle bet as to the
average If human credulity, The adj
vcrtisinc stamp-book. with the stamps