Evening star., 1939-04-02
AMONG THE STAMP COLLECTORS
News the Phaec World Its Interests and of the
Stamp Press-List of Local Meetings.
By James Waldo Fawceff

~ Ou"cS " "UU ODCcSts
In recognition of a lifetime O
service to stamp collectors, H. M
Southgate has been awarded tn
second Michael L. Eidsness, jr., sill
yer plate.
The designation was announced
at meeting of the Washington
Philatelic Society, Hotel Carlton
preceding an address by Col. C.
Hamilton on the early stamps o
Mexico, Wednesday evening.
Mr.. Southgate was one of tht
judges of the national stamp com
petition in 1887. He is president O
the Bureau Issues Association, :
former vice president of the Ameri
can Philatelic Society, one of tn
editors of the Specialized United
States Postage Stamp Catalogue ane
a regular contributor to the phila-
telic press. Interested in stamp COL
lecting since 1879, he is an acknoWl-
edged authority on the postal issues
of his own country, particularly with
regard to the productions of the Bu-
reau of Engraving and Printing
He took an active part in the cam
paign to abolish the illustrations law
and is entitled to much of the credl.
for the victory finally won in Con-
gress and in the courts.
The Eidsness plate is given an
nually by an anonymous friend of
the late founder of the Philate!ic
Agency of the Post Office Depart
ment Mrs. Catherine l.. Manning
philatelic curator of the Smith
sonian institution; David D. Cald-
well, chairman of the National
Stamp Conference. and Capt. Will
bur r. Van Auken, U. S. N, were
members of the jury charged with
responsibility for the award.
Presentation of the trophy will be
included in the program for the
third-of f-a-century banquet of the
Washington Philatelic Society,
April II.
Plans for the Fifth American Phil
atelic Congress, to be held at the
Hotel Traymore, Atlantic City, Fri
day to Sunday. November "a to 26
are being perfected by Eugene Klein,
chairman. in cooperation with a
local committee. Features of the
program will include two or pos
sibly three sessions for the reading
and discussion of papers; d phila-
telic writer's breakfast and a ban
quet; bourse and exhibition.
Constituent members of the Ma
tional Federation of Stamp Clubs
have voted more than 10 to l
against a boycott of the postal
issues of the totalitarian govern
ments. They also have gone on
record as favoring the concentration
of the American phase of the cele-
bration of the centenary of the
postage stamp in Washington.
The airmail stamps to be issued by
the Canal Zone on July Is may set
a new standard for beauty of de-
sign. Virgil D. Westbrook, architect,
is responsible for at least one sketch
of the series. The Bureau of En-
craving and Printing is preparing
the models.
Stephen G. Rich, Verona, N. j., re-
ports that new edition of the
Postal Meter handbook is on the
press.
It is reliably reported that the
Yankee Clipper carried no mail on
the survey flight to the Azores.
Canada has Surcharged a 20-cent
carmine special delivery stamp for
10-cent service under the new rate
specification.
Cuba, according to advices from
Havana, will not issue a commemo-
rative for the Sesquicentennial of
the Constitution of the United
States. But Turkey will bring out
half a dozen unnecessary postal
labels in tribute to the American
charter of freedom on May l.
The Saturday Evening Post for
March II contains a story on The
Stamp War" by Werner Kell.
Fred j. Melville, writing in the
Stamp Collectors Fortnightly, Lon
don, tells of the stamp manufacture
ing press of the Institut de Gravure,
Paris. THE paper is fed in from the
web," he explains. 1T is already
gummed; it passes under the impress
sion cylinder, and then through the
comb perforators, and is delivered
In numbered and counted sheets
ready for handing over to the is
suing authorities. At most three at
tendants look after the machine as
1t produces its steady output of 5000
sheets per hour" The paper is not
dampened in the process of printing.
One result is an improvement in
centering.
50 The dies prepared for the King
Edward VIII stamps of Canada were
destroyed under the supervision of
the postal authorities at Ottawa.
An article in the Stamp Review,
London, for March reports the
philatelic effects of imitation in Ger
many in 1923, when the mark fell
from 20 to no less than 25,O0O,O0O-
100000 to the pound" The story is
recommended to the apostles of
cheap money" in the United States.
DR.. Emil Ferdinand of the Library
of Congress writes: Events in Cen
trail Europe are not only of great
interest for collectors in respect to
vanishing stamp issuing states.
They also affect plans for the inter-
national philatelic exhibition in
Berlin, scheduled for this coming