The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-11
The NetD Postage Stamps.
By Frederic !. Haskin.

To a firm which sends out a million circulars. the work of stamping them all Is very tedious and the actual cost of the stamps to the government is not small. So it is provided that where business house sends out 2,000 or more identical pieces of mall, it may be granted the privilege of printing on the wrappers or envelopes a legend showing the amount of postage paid. the office at which it was paid. and the number of the permit under which this form of postage-paying was sub stituted for stamps. The order has been found to be a great saving of labor and expense to large houses.
 A crusade Is being made by the postoffice department for the purpose of wide dissemination of postal in- formation. During the past two or three years 1t has enforced literally the provisions of the postal laws and regulations, and has taken no plea of ignorance orslack of malicious intent In extenuation. The result has been piling up of fines aggregating nearly a hundred thousand dollars. nine- tenths of which was collected from those who had no intention of violating the law, but did 1t entirely through ignorance. To iilustrate: A whole newspaper is entitled to be sent through the mall at what>is known the transient second class-rate--a c.v,f Ior Tour ounces. But if a man were .fo iiaH iess than a whole paper at that ,,sH', or parts Of several papers, he ". oe Ltaole to fine of ten dollars Asr a,,. Ao" tew people know that!
 thousands of dollars were colia..as under the old order on this oan es esu count and other thousands on en,,a I1,, niInsy accounts. Many a const,tio,,a, .amyer tnlnks that this order would ,- nos nave stood the. test of the courts uus those whom it hit were usualIv too poor to test 1t or else nrafs-,.ss 70 put up the ten dollars than I'd sst lne notortety such test would tiatssI At any rate. the postoffice department nas seen the injustice of 1t, and hera- atter only the willful violator will feel lne penalty of the law.
 But In order that ignorance of postal Iesuletions may be banfshed. the de. partment has issued a booklet giving Tn nutshell all the information fhe average user of the mali requires. If IS Of pocket size, and contains forty pages, with as copious index. This booklet Is for gratuitous distribution, and so long as the appropriation there TOT holds out 1t may be had from the local postmaster or from the depart- ment direct An interesting feature of this booklet is the bid it makes for the deposit Of savings. It .calIs at- tention to the fact that one can get money-orders for one hundred dollars for'the small sum of thirty cents, pay. able to himself alone, or upon his order These orders are good for one year. and if the holder wants to keep them longer, his money 10 deposited in the United States Treasury. and can be gotten upon a warrant at any time within seven years.
 With true advertising instinct the department states that the govern ment this isures one hundred dollars fo erm of seven years for the small sum of thirty cents. An investor in postoffice money orders can put as many hundreds of dollars into this improvised government savings bank as he sees it. Since the recent panic many a poor man is taking advantage of the provision. He can put his money away, i've dollars at a time or as much more as he desires. As the department takes upon itself the re- sponsibiIity of fnsuring payment to the rightful owner. so long as he has not been responsible for the payment to the wrong party by carelessness, the money order system is made doubiy attractive to the small depositor.
 Every day in the year the postofncs officials receive letters inquiring about the value of certain stamps from the collectors standpoint. So numerous are these inquiries that the depart ment has a circular letter which serves to answer all. It states that the department takes no interest in stamp collecting, and that 1t has no means of knowing the stamp collectors value of any stamp issued. This fact is also set forth in the booklet mem toned above, and also in other circu- lars of <information issued from time to time. Yet the volume of inquiries shows no diminution.
 Prior to 1S47 the collection of post age vas a sort of happy go-lucky affair. Few people prepaid their post age in those days and it~was not for number of years that the government risked flying into the face of custom to such a degree as to make the pre- payment of postage compulsory. In the early days of the Republic the postage rate was determined on the mileage basis, and upon the number of sheets a letter contained. If it con- sisted of a single sheet 1t was carried at half the rate of two sheets, and os on. There were no envelopes in those days, and if there had been the writers would have been compelled to pay one rate for 1t and another for the letter (Copyright, 1908. by Frederic J. Has
 kin.)
 .TOmorrow--Next Years Panama Pro-