The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-01-10
CHEAP POSTAGE

This is the seventy-seventh ami
versary Of the first trial of cheap pos
tage, the system of penny postage
having been inaugurated In England
on Jan. 10, 1910. The idea that let
ters could be forwarded to any part
Of the island and delivered for only
penny-tWo cents-seemed absurd
to a majority of Englishmen, and they
predicted speedy failure for the pro-
ject They proved to be poor pro-
phets, for the postal business, under
the impetus Of cheap prices, increased
so tremendously, and the facilities for
handling mail were so improved, that
the scheme was a success from the
start.
On this side Of the Atlantic the
much greater distances seemed to pre-
clude the adoption of any such meas
ures as low, flat rate. for letters.
At the time Great Britain adopted
penny postage, the rates in the Uni
ted States were: For thirty miles and
under, six cents; thirty to sixty miles
eight cents; sixty to 100 miles ten
cents, and over 100 miles a proper
tionate increase, SO that a letter dis
patched a distance of $50 miles cost
twenty-five cents.
With the adoption of Rowland
Hills penny postage system; England
also adopted his suggestion that the
difficulties attending prepayment OF
postage might be OversOme by US
ing a bit of paper large enough to
bear the stamp, and covering the back
with a glutinous wash, which, by ap-
plying little moisture, might be at
tached to the back of the letter.
Thus the postage stamp was born
and there came into existence those
little scraps Of paper which are now
collected by millions Of men and boys
the world over, and some Of which,
because Of their rarity, are worth
thousands of dollars in the philatelic
market. Few people realize the
great extent of the stamp collecting
fad, which has been. dignified as
science with the name of philately. In
both America and Europe there are
scores of large concerns engaged In
dealing exclusively in postage stamps,
and there are a number of weekly
and monthly periodicals for philate-
lists. There was even at one time
daily paper, published in st. Louis,
devoted exclusively to philatelic news!
Every community has it's ardent col
lectors of these "bits of paper" and
many men of wealth and standing are
among the number, Perhaps the most
distinguished Of present day philate-
lists is King George v. King Victor
Emmanuel Of Italy also collects
stamps, although nuismatics, or coin
collecting, is his favorite hobby.
An approach to the penny postage
of Great Britain was made in 1851,
when three-cent postage was adopted
in the United States for distances Of
less than 5000 miles Adhesive post
age stamps had previously been intro
duced on this side of the Atlantic in
1887. Letter postage was reduced to
two cents in the United States in 1888,
but it was not until some years later
that Canada followed the example Of
her mother country by instituting two
cent or penny postage. The war tax
of one cent on letters has again ad-
vanced the cost of transporting letters
to three cents in Canada.
Among the most beautiful and Ella
borate postage stamp issues are those
of the Central American republics.
For time some of these countries
their stamps every few
in order that they might sell
the uncancelled stamps at big prof
it to stamp collectors, but after time
the philate1ists refused to bite at such
bait, and the banana republics were
deprived Of this source of revenue.