The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-24
INSPECTORS EXPOSE
ILLEGAL STAMP SALE
BY STAMP BROKERS
Stamps Stolen From Large
Firms Are ResOld at
Prices Far Below
Value

Washington, January 23.-Illegal traf-
Ticking the country over in stolen postage
stamps, aggregating several millions OF
dollars annually has just been disclosed
by postoffice inspectors whose investiga-
tions were reported today to Postmaster
General Hitchcock. They involved So
called stamp brokers and confidential
employees of large business concerns
throughout the United States.
Through confessions obtained by the
inspectors from some of the brokers
whose operations were investigated. 1t
was learned that stamps of all classes
and denominations stolen by burglars
from postoffices and embezzled by en-
ployes from great business houses and
manufacturing establishments were pur-
chased and resold by the brokers at
prices far below their face value.
The postal laws make it a crime pun
ishable by Imprisonment to sell any
stamps issued by the government for less
than its face value Investigations dis
closed that, in addition to selling the
stamps for less than price they could
have been purchased for from the gov
ernment the brokers knew that the
stamps were stolen when they purchased
them. Inquiries showed that brokers.
in some instances, entered into a con-
spiracy with employees of business houses
to buy at prices agreed upon all the
stamps the clerks could steal from their
employers.
Indict tments Made
ofy nd tnf ,a,1tu ro-
sulting from the Investigations was
handed down sealed in New York city
Yesterday. The men indicted were Rich
ard F'redericks, Irving c1zzy') Sevel.
and John Frank District Attorney Whit
man has informed the postoffice depart
ment that there will be other indict-
ments.
Frauds against the government and va
rious business concerns aggregating hum
dreds of thousands of dollars annually
have been unearthed in New York city
alone. while illegal trafficking in stamps
In Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pitts
burg, Chicago, Indianapolis, St Louis,
Minneapolis and Cincinnati, New Orleans.
Kansas City. Denver, San Francisco,
Seattle, Portland oregon and many other
cities has reached large proportions.
In New York approximately 20 So
called brokers make a business of pur-
chasing postage stamps at price rang
ing from so cents to 80 cents on a dol
lar and selling them to merchants at
prices varying from 95 cents to 80 cents
on a dollar.
Stamps From Government
one stamp brok ker in New York city
who sells from 1900 to $1,000 worth
of stamps a day to merchants it is
alleged, has been purchasing some OF
his supply from an employe of the
New York state government at Albany.
The employ confessed to postoffice in
spectors that he remitted to the stamp
broker from $25 to $50 week in
stamps stolen from the state. An Of
fetal of a foreign organization with
headauarters at Chicago confessed that
for a long time he had been stealing
stamps from the association and hy-
pothecating them.
One broker advertised by means of
a sign carried through the New York
financial district during the noon hour
that he purchased printed uncancelled
postcards This resulted, 1t is said, in
many office boys stealing cards from
their employers and selling them to
him for 35 cents hundred. The print
ed portions of the cards were skillfully
covered with a piece of thin paper and
the cards resold The culpable broker.
according to his admission to the in
spectors, sold during the last two years
more than 100000 postal cards.
The department rcdeems postal cards
from original purchasers at rs per cent
of their face value. A few weeks ago
a member of Congress and former
deputy commissioner of police of New
York city requested the Third Assistant
Postmaster General TO redeem over a
million cards for a constituent OF the
congressman. Inquiry by inspectors
developed the fact that the cards We're
the property of a stamp broker, whose
business is declared by the department
officials to be clearly illegitimate.