Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-06-08
LEVINE HEADS
into new ROW
WITH P.O.DEPT

WASHINGTON, June - f3-
Charles A. Levine, who, had trouble
with the air mail service before he
embarked on his Atlantic flight
with Clarence Chamberlin, apparently
has headed; into new row with
postal officials incidental to this
flight and involving among others
Postmaster Sealy, at Hampstead, Long
Island. =,
B AS a result of advices reaching
washington Sealy has been asked
for a report on his action in cancelling
air mail. stamps on $50 letters which
Levine. took across the Atlantic with
him in the monoplane Columbia
Information received by the post
office department is that Sealy) can
celled the stamps away from his post
office and delivered the letters to
persons not authorized to receive
United States mail
Postal officers estimated, upon in
curry Of them today, that the present
value of the cancelled stamps TO
dealers and collectors would be $1,000
each, since they are the first stamps
on mail to cross the Atlantic by
airplane.
AS the story was related today to
high government officials, some one
approached Postmaster Sealy before
any of the trans Atlantic planes took
off and inquired as to the feasibility
of air mail being sent to Europe
on them. Sealy spoke to Postottlce
Inspector owen Keene, who expressed
the general view that such thing
would be feasible.
Captain, now Colonel, Charles A,
Lindbergh hoped off without carry
inc such mail. Later the subject
again was taken up with Sealy, who
reported trat Sergeant OConnor,
of the army air force at Mitchell
Field, Long Island, discussed the
matter with him.
O'Connor, so the official story goes,
stated in turn that he acted upon
the suggestion of State Senator
Charles G. Lockwood, of New York,
counselor of Levine, who, by direction
of President Coolidge was today made
member of the semi -official COM
rnittee here which is arranging for
the reception here Saturday Of Col
onel Lindbergh.
At the request of O'Connor, Post
master Sealy took his cancellation
stamp to Mitchell Field. From there
he was conducted to the Garden City
hotel, whede Senator Lockwood
awaited him. He proceeded to cancel
1875 letters bearing air mail stamps.
The postmaster then went to
Roosevelt Field, nearby, where he met
Levine, who had 125 more letters,
some addressed to himself and others
to various persons in this country.
These also were cancelled and handed
back to Levine sn
Tne story goes on that the whole
batch of letters were placed in a
package addressed to Levine at any
American Express office in Berlin,
Paris or Rome, any one of which
cities the Columbia might have head
ed for after getting well across the
Atlantic. -~aa
This action by Levine constitutes
another phase of the feud between
him and Postmaster General New,
which began last March, with the
refusal of the Postmaster to award
an air mail contract to the North
American Always, Inc, of Cleveland,
because Levine held one-half of the
stock
This companys bid was slightly be-
low that of the National Air Trans
port, Inc, of Chicago, headed by
Paul Henderson, former second as
sistant postmaster general under New,
who was instrumental in the inaug-'
uration of the air mail service.
After an investigation c Levine's