Evening star., 1941-04-06
AMONG THE STAMP COLLECTORS
News of the Phatelc World Its Interests and PeopeReve of
the Stamp Press-List of Local Meetings
By James Waldo Fawcetf.

i Ilc OIllUtu oIdUSo SOUll may duOpG
a new policy with regard to the
designs of postage stamps. 1t is
reported that officers of the Gov
ernment now are considering the
use of postal adhesives for pur-
poses of propaganda for democracy.
A so-called home defense series is
said to be awaiting approval by
President Roosevelt. Formal an
nouncement of the projected novel;
ties may be released at any mo-
ment.
Explanation of the motives of
the forthcoming change perhaps
Is available in book entitled AL
About Stamps" by Mauritz Hall
gren, recently published by Alfred
A. Knopf, New York. The author
of that volume says: Nations have
always been eager to acclaim their
own achievements and their great
citizens as best they can. OF late
many of them have found in the
postage stamp an effective and con-
venient way of doing this.
Austria has paid homage
W CllC ulClIlOIy VI 1Lo al tloIo, ilIu-
sicians, poets and soldiers. Ice
land has glorified the virtues of
the ancient Vikings. Poland has
done honor TO its medieval castles
and cloth-halls and it's modern Ii
braries =. Much of the his
tory of the world has been
pictorially presented on postage
stamps in recent years. So have
most of its agricultural, CONNER
cial, industrial, social and cul-
tural activities and accomplish
ments =.
while most of the democracies
have adhered to the rule of picturing
only dead heroes on their stamps
for instance, Col. Lindbergh is the
only living person ever to have had
a United States stamp issued in his
honor-several in Latin America
and Europe have broken with this
precedent to present their current
Presidents or national heroes on
their postal paper. Every President
of Honduras since 1873 has been thus
pictured, while in Europe those who
have been honored in this way in
clude the chiefs of state of Austria,
Czecho-Slovakia and Finland.
1t is evident that postal portraits and
pictorial stamps such as these have
had, to put it delicately, an educa-
tive effect"
But Mr.. Hallgren does not be-
lieve that any one thought of poll
tics "and certainly not of propa-
ganda, when the first United States
stamps were designed. 1t was both
logical and fitting that the first two
stamps should honor the two first
citizens of the United States, Frank
lin and Washington. To have used
the portrait of any one else would
have been wholly out of place.
Numerous other stamps have not
been quite so innocent, but have
been deliberately brought out to
serve political or propagandistic
ends Today almost every state
has come to appreciate the pub
licity value of the postage stamp
and to utilize it in greater or lesser
degree - = An outstanding example
of a propaganda label used in a
democratic country was the N. R. A.
stamp issued by the United States
in 1888 (of which 1,978,707, 300 copies
were sold as part of a titanic
effort to ballyhoo the National Re
covery Administration into success
by means of huge parades and re-
sounding publicity"
The National Parks series of 1884
was propaganda set. 1t was in
tended to advertise conservation and
the recreational areas controlled by
the Department of the interior.
Railroads, bus lines, hotels, tourist
camps, souvenir dealers and others
profited from it, both directly and
indirectly.
Meanwhile, the Scent Boulder
Dam stamp was brought out to pub
iicize a correction" of the name of
Hoover Dam; the Scent Susan B.
Anthony stamp was released in
successful endeavor TO win feminist
support for the New Deal in the
campaign of 1886, and the Scent
Emancipation Proclamation stamp
was issued to influence Negro voters
in the campaign Of 1910.
But the record of the United
States in such matters is remark
ably goodx as compared with that
of Communist Russia, Fascist Italy
and Nazi Germany. The Bolshe-
viks have produced literally scores
of hideous stickers in behalf of the
Red revolution for which the work.
ers of the world are invited to
unite. Since these ugly labels COM
monty are not sold in the Marxist
paradise, it cannot be denied that
they are intended especially for
foreign markets. The philatelic
public of the hated democratic coun-
tries is expected to buy the prod
ucts of the Moscow printing presses
and distribute them to Stains ad-
vantage.
Mr.. Hallgren explains in his book
that Since 1888 not a single Ger
man stamp has appeared without
the approval of the Ministry of
Propaganda and Enlightenment.
Germany's postal paper has been
completely co-ordinated and is to-
day as much an integral part of
Goebbel's propaganda machine as
the radio or the controlled press.
Virtually every stamp that has
lately appeared has been purposely
designed to publicize and promote
the various international and do
mestic projects upon which Hitler
has been engaged"
The italian partner of Der
Fuehrer has been up to mischief
Of TIE same sort ever since 1882.
Postmaster General Frank C.
Walker has announced that ar