Arizona republican., 1919-06-30
By Frederic ]. Haskin

While most of the war prices show a | tendency to remain with us indefinite ly. postage is about to return to the rates of the days before the war. Letter postage was one of the last commodities to go up and it is one of the first to be reduced to a pre-war basis.
 After July first the purple physiog- nomy of George Washington will give place on the bulk of our letters to the cheaper pink engraving of the first president. Purple stamps have become familiar to the country in the past year and half. Billions of them have been printed and used in that time, and we have left over in the bureau of engraving and printing S00,000,0o0, which is quite enough to last us two years when the two-cent stamp is the standard of letter postage.
 When it comes to one and two-cent stamps, however we are not so well supplied. The 100000 two-cent stamps ready for sale now will keep letter writers supplied only for the next four months according to post office estimates. In the meantime the bureau of engraving will be working ahead on more twos, and it may have to work at night to meet the expected demand for ones.
 The reign of the purple stamp was terminated by the appearance of a Victory stamp commemorating the successful outcome of the war. The Victory stamp is also a purple three- cent stamp, but instead of the profile of Washington, it shows a standing figure of Liberty victorious bearing the scale of justice and a sword. Back of Liberty are the flags of Great Britain, Belgium, the United States, Italy and France.
 The Victory stamps were sent out to the postmasters three months ago. Only 100,000,000 were printed, that is, not quite enough to allow one apiece for every person in the United States.
 The purple stamp, which eighteen months ago aroused so much protes, and apprehension, has accomplished it's
 purpose, in that it put into the treas-
 ury approximately s110.000, 900 to be turned into uniforms and munitions of war. Of the three cents paid for every purple stamp, one cent went towards war bills.
 If you consider that a modern dread
 naught costs about eight million dol
 lars, you can get some idea of what
 the postage tax did toward advancing the war. As it was pointed out at the
 beginning of the three-cent postage
 era, five three-cent stamps bought
 represent five cents tax, and five cents will buy bullet"
 When the postage tax loomed on the , horizon. it was predicted widely tha
 the amount of mail carried would faI
 off, because people would refuse to, ol could not, pay the tax on letters. I ,, anybody stopped writing letters be-
 cause of the extra cent, the post office department never noticed it. Nor, mail was handled by the postal servic, i than ever before, for over three mil lion men were away from home il , army service, and thousands of other.
 were away on civilian war work. . Besides contributing towards tn, s war bills, the stamp tax helped t, s make the post office department self 3 supporting, through the sale of extr; one-cent stamps. MT. Alexander M s Dockery, who is the third assistan \ postmaster general, and in charge O 2 post office finances, says that "dur = ing the present administration, excep for the year 1915, the postoffice de = partment has been self sustaining. Flo l over thirty years before that there ha n been an annual deficit of from s2,900 d 900 to s17,000,000, which had to be mad
 up by congressional appropriation" s The change from a deficit to a sur a plus MT. Cookery ascribes to econom t and revenues. The post office stoppe J being self sustaining thirty-five year n ago when the change was made fror n a three e-cent to a two-cent rate on frs U class domestic postage. Whether tn u postal service will lose it's preser U status as one of the few self support T ing government departments when tn V two-cent letter rate is again in fore
 Mir Dockery refused to predict
 Postmaster General Burleson state
 not long ago that he does not want
 surplus in the postal establishment. . q want intelligent economy praeticed
 said MT. BurIeson T want the higt
 est standard of efficiency maintaine
 and, of course. if we can make it sell
 supporting then I want to do that, bl
 I do not desire a surplus-because
 know large surplus would afford a attractive field for exploitation of a Il those selfish interests that would in
 mediately reach out for that surplus u The postal surpluses of the pa
 few years have been largely due to u
 economy mentioned by Mr. Decker
 Stamp -canceling machines long az j. pronounced too anticipated for u le have been brought out of storage al l. made serviceable by overhauling aI l. the addition of the newer attachment
 Paper is another line along which u o- administration has attacked waste l. paper saving campaign is continual II.