Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-13

1t is not easy to understand What an
immense amount of work is necessitated by
the advent of new styles in this postal cur
rency. What with the men who manu-
facture the paper, the two or three thou
sand men and women who assist in printing
and cumming the stamps, the toilers who
help in transporting the new products OF
the printing presses and the $4,000 post
masters and clerks who sell the stamps to
the public, It is estimated that fully 100000
persons have a hand in preparing for a
postage stamp Opening"
For upward of a decade the national
government has been printing Its own
postage stamps-that is, the work has been
done at the big institution at Washington
known as the Bureau OF Printing and En-
craving. which is a branch Of the Treasury
department and designed primarily for the
printing of national currency-but the
gigantic task may at any time revert to
private individuals or a corporation II a
disposition is shown to do the work cheaper
than the government can do it.
Every year the Postofice department ad-
v~ertises for bids for furnishing the postage
stamps and the Treasury department sub
mits a proposition in exactly the same
manner as the other bidders, but the plant
of the big money factory at the national
capital Is so perfectly equipped that the
manufacture of stamps can be carried on
at a cost OF less than 5 cents a thousand
and apparently the bank note companies
which formerly supplied stamps have con-
cluded that there would be no profit in the
transaction at such a price.
Preparing for n "stamp OPENING"
1t is in the Postofice department that
the first step is taken looking to the in
auguration of a new series Of stamps. This
is the important work Of passing, in a
general way, upon the designs Of the new
stamps, and more particularly the selection
of the portraits which are to adorn them.
1t was decided in the present instance that
the first postage stamp series Of the new
century should possess a distinctive ele-
ment OF novelty and so the postal officials
asked the designers at the Bureau of Print
ing and Engraving not only to prepare new
designs for borders and employ new shades
Of color, but to make the new stamps of
different size and shape from the old, and
procure, II possible. new portraits for their
adornment. The proposal to indicate the
date Of issue by imprinting the words
Series 1902" marked another innovation
oAN ~ SAo NOSo ~ pau VI plaNihB OC-
meath the portrait on each denomination
the name OF the subject with the date Of
birth and death.
The new series Of stamps, like each Of
its predecessors, makes some changes in
the circle Of historical personages whose
memory is perpetuated in this popular pic
ture gallery and in the denomination Of the
stamps.
There is a newcomer in the form OF a
13-cent stamp which will not often be
employed for domestic use. It is designed
particularly fol the convenience of persons
who wish to send registered letters abroad
and this frank Of the supposedly unlucky
denomination bears the portrait Of the late
Benjamin Harrison, who had not previ-
ously had a place in the postal depart
ments useful collection Of miniatures.
Commodore Perry, whose face has adorned