GE Of Topical Interest Airposts By Kent B. Stiles ERMANY'S air program is outlined in a recent statement issued by the Department of Commerce in Washington, the statement being based on a report submitted by a Department representative returned from western Europe. The statement is reprinted here because of the philatelic possibilities it suggests. It reads: "In 1922 Germany's commercial aviation service comprised eight organizations. These eight have now been grouped into two large combinations. In practically every direction regular German air lines are either in operation or are being planned. "At present Germany is making her greatest efforts on air line communications with Russia, Scandinavia and the Balkans. During 1922 irregular flights were being made between Berlin, Moscow and Petrograd; this Summer the line will be perfected with regular connection with the Baltic States. The flight will be operated jointly by the two associations-AeroLloyd, operating to Danzig, and Junkers, continuing to Moscow. The flight from Berlin requires twenty hours and will be made three times weekly. to "During the 1923 season, services Budapest, via Munich and Vienna, will be undertaken; it is planned to extend this line to Belgrade. The trip will include Geneva and Zurich in its course and will require six hours. "The London-Amsterdam-Berlin line is being operated through an agreement between the English Daimler Air Service, Ltd., and the German companies. Four flights weekly from London to Amsterdam and return are provided for by the English company, while the German firms will provide service from Berlin to Amsterdam and return, connecting with the English line at Amsterdam. This flight also takes six hours." The Mexican Government is considering the establishment of an airpost service connecting the Republic's principal cities— especially those on the central plateau and Pacific Coast towns which are at present unconnected directly by railroad. A department of postal savings is also under consideration. Danzig's Currency F significance to philatelists is a despatch cabled from Danzig by The Associated Press to the effect that "preparations are being made for the establishment as soon as possible of the Danzig Free City's new independent currency system, to replace the present one of which the German mark is the unit." Under the new system, the gulden will be the unit. A gulden will equal 100 heller, equivalent to approximately $4.76 in Uncle Sam's currency. The new coinage system will of course result in the elimination of the German mark from Danzig's postage stamps, the heller and the gulden being substituted. Surcharges first? Why not? Philatelic maws must be filled. WHI Hinojosa's Ambition WHILE not necessarily foreshadowing the immediate issuing of new stamps, the Mexican postal situation is of interest to philately. Cosme Hinojosa, the Postmaster General, is sponsoring a bill which he has announced will be introduced in the Federal Legislature in September, creating a new department, "Correos y Telegrafos," or Mails and Telegraphs. Perhaps few collectors know that at present the posts are under the administration of the Minister of Communications and Public Works. But since 1919 Mexico's postal business had more than doubled, some 150,000,000 pieces of domestic and 65 000,000 pieces of international mail matter having been handled in 1922, as compared with the respective 1919 figures of approximately 75,000,000 and 27,000,000. The Postmaster General believes the volume of business has become so great that a special Federal department should be created to take care of it. In 1922 the sale of stamps was nearly 8,500,000 pesos, as compared with slightly more than 5,000,000 in 1919. If the change comes, as seems probable, Mexican psychology can be depended on for a new series of adhesives. For what's the use of having stamp-issuing privileges unless one exercises them? "Under Soviet Rule" INFORMATION indicating that perhaps the philatelic restrictions in Russia are not so rigid as has been set down previously on these pages comes from a Journal reader in Hackensack, N. J., Mr. W. C. Steiger, who writes: "With regard to your article 'Under Soviet Rule' in the July Journal, permit me to call your attention to the fact that last month I received from Moscow a letter dated May 13, 1923, containing a lot of stamps I had ordered to the catalogue value of about $150, the registered envelope of which does not show any evidence of having gone through the Central Office. (The Soviet official philatelic bureau.) "May I say for your further information that these stamps came in lots of from six to eighteen each and were purchased outright-not acquired in exchange for others sent. "Furthermore the firm sending them requested that I insert their advertisement in one of our leading philatelic publications. However, in this advertisement the firm offers exchange with collectors only. -not the sale of stamps." Philately and Philosophy SOME time ago the Journal received some philatelic "true talk" from Edgar S. Brightman, of Newton Centre, Mass., a professor at Boston University. It has been intended to quote from Prof. Brightman's letter before, but the communication was mislaid and has only now come to light. He writes: "It happened in the classroom of a well known university. The professor of philosophy was discussing ethical principles, with practical applications. He was showing that, among the values essential to the moral life, recreation had its necessary place. Recreation is a duty, he was saying. We need relaxation, fun, change, and the different circles of interests and friends that come to us in this way. And, since, in addition to being a professor of philosophy he was also a stamp collector, he mentioned philately as combining every advantage that a non-athletic recreation could afford. "At this point a student piped up, 'Your recreations ought to have some value besides being mere recreations. And stamp collecting? . . . what is there to that?' "The professor was now launched on a theme that consumed the rest of the hour, What to the great delight of the students. is there to stamp collecting, indeed! "Do you realize that all modern history, geography, coinage, races, the beauties of nature and the achievements of art and invention are all illustrated on stamps? Do you know that it is a form of big business? Catalogues, albums, periodicals, dealers, capital stocks of $500,000 and over, clerks in a large establishment, more than the eye can. see and the mind can count? "And it is not only a business but a science. Distinctions as minute as atoms, ions and electrons are the daily food of the philatelist. Watermarks, shades, reengravings, plate numbers, cancellations, varieties of paper and of everything that goes to make a stamp are studied by experts whose investigations are a serious contribution to the history of civilization. "The professor broke all precedents by pausing for lack of words and wind. “Given an opportunity, the student came back with a very neat reply: 'Well, then, if it is such a business and a science, I don't see where the recreation comes in. It's work.' "Of course there is a retort to be made and the professor made it. "But let us leave that particular class room, to think for a while about the problem that the student raised. It is a real one. For the average collector, philately is and of right ought to be a free and independent recreation. But the dealers who make a business of it, and the specialists who make a science of it, together tend to create an atmosphere that make the aforementioned average collector afraid to say that his soul, his pocketbook or his stamps are his own. "Here, then, is my attempt to carry the war into the enemy's country-to use the columns of the trade journal of the most scientific dealer in America for pleading the cause of stamps as a recreation against those who would make philately a wholly commercialized science. tions with two or three reliable dealers, and, if he has time, to join some philatelic society. "But 1 contend that a collector ought to have gumption enough to collect what he wants to collect, what he enjoys collecting, and nothing else, all ads and fads to the contrary notwithstanding. "For instance, in these days it seems to me that for anyone but a millionaire the idea of a general collection is an utter piece of folly. The attempt to cut down by specializing in one country or another does not appeal to me in the least, but strikes me as destroying half the historical interest of the collector. The only solution so far as I can see is to specialize in certain countries, and simply let the rest go. "For example: no power on earth can make me collect Seebecks, or French or Portuguese colonies, or Spain, or Cilicia. If I took an aversion to the stamps of a certain country, the fun of collecting would be gone. I choose the countries I am going to collect on the same principle. Some dealers tell me that Guatemala is as bad as any Seebeck country, and a poor investment; I reply that I have friends in Guatemala and propose to stick to her. As a youngster, I had a vision of a preexistence in Egypt; therefore I shall collect Egypt. The stamps of Hayti fascinate me, and I shall collect them even if (as the May, 1920, number of Scott's Monthly Journal warned me) I am therefore in danger of arrest and I must give up dreams of stamp-hunting in fair Hayti. "From such a choice of countries, it follows that one who adopts my radical policy will either use a blank album, or will tear a good many pages ruthlessly out of his printed album. "I should carry the same general attitude into the matter of minor varieties-and even of varieties that are not regarded as so very minor. Personally, I admit that I find a study of watermarks very interesting, but at the same time I cannot overcome an aversion to spending money on varieties of them. Likewise, varieties of perforation. If such things come my way, well and good; but I do not find it recreational to go out of my way to find them. No collector should deprive himself of the fun of going over his duplicates for all such varieties, but why should he break his heart if he does not own two complete sets of some issue of stamps, one with and one without watermark? "What I am arguing for is the cheerful abandonment of the idea of scientific completeness of the ordinary collector who is collecting for recreation. The use of blank albums, the arrangement of stamps according to one's interests and tastes, and the collecting of just such countries and varieties as appeal to one will never make one a highly scientific philatelist. Such a collection will probably rarely win a prize at any exhibit. But it will be a constant source of pleasure to the busy man who needs a restful and delightful hobby, especially if (as I should strongly advise him to do) he holds himself free to break any and every rule laid down in this letter." MUST UST we offer apology to the 15,788,347 readers of this philatelic monthly? We had supposed that unbiased historians were in agreement that it was the former Emperor of Germany who lighted the match which set the war conflagration of 19141918. But regardless of what historians may believe, it is a safe wager that that opinion is held by every straight-from-theshoulder, dyed-in-the-wool, non-hyphenated, red-blooded, Stars-and-Stripes-worshipping native Yankee. We who think American, talk American, and love our America are at least suspicious that Herr Hohenzollern started the World War, even though he never remained in power to finish it. The occasion for the foregoing is the coming of a letter from a San Francisco reader whose name does not sound at all Teutonic. He takes exception to the “Made in Germany" article which headed the June "Of Topical Interest" text. He writes in part: "I sometimes am wondering whether your Journal is really a philatelic paper or whether you feel it your duty to teach your readers politics. It was unknown to me that philatelic papers had any concern with political questions, and that it was up to them to decide upon whether or not 'William Hohenzollern plunged the world into the great war.' The article 'Made in Germany' is not the first one that must be ob jectionable to everybody who happens not to be in accord with the political views of your philatelic paper. I wish to point out that I rather would discontinue my subscription than to read your prima-vista judgments about world-history." We are not endeavoring to teach our readers politics. But philatelic papers do have "concern with political questions." World politics invariably leads to new stamp issues. The downfall of the German Empire and the setting up of a Republic in its place were responsible for new adhesives. Of both stamps and politics one may learn the more by combining the study of the two-and get more enjoyment out of both. It is true that it is not up to the Journal to fix responsibility for the World War. That has already been done by public opinion. Anti-American opinion, anti-Entente opinion, pro-Central-Powers opinion, may assert that William Hohenzollern was not responsible. The people of the United States have their own opinion; by "people of the United States" we mean the proAmericans representative of the Federal Government which ordered our flag to France, and representative of the proAmericans who followed that flag to France. The Journal strings along with those pro-Americans. It has always been pro-American and always will be. Our critic in San Francisco has not caught the spirit which is America. "As to the article itself and its most odious contents," to quote further from the letter, “I only regret that besides forcing upon your readers conclusions which they did not ask for, you furnish them with absolutely wrong ones. You will be quite aware of the fact that it is not possible to raise the postage of a letter from M. 0.80 to M. 300 within one year's limit without issuing new sets of stamps. You will know, too, that no responsible manager of any post office department can continue issuing relatively expensive types of stamps (two-colored, large size, watermark lozenges) if the value of 1,000 M. is dropping from $3 to 1/10th of a cent within one year's limit." Our correspondent sets down some points which are well taken. But the June Journal did not say that all the new German stamps were unnecessary; for it conceded, regarding raised postal rates, that "probably there was an actual need for some of the increases." What the Journal tried to point out was that 66 -new varieties are being imposed Again it narrows down to a matter of opinion. Probably our San Francisco critic does not believe that that is true. May we suggest that he turn to page 230 of the 1923 edition of Scott's standard catalogue. He will there find chronicled a 3pf brown and a 5m slate and carmine issued in 1915 for the Caroline Islands. A footnote says that these two stamps "were never placed in use." The Carolines were captured by Entente occupation forces prior to 1915. In other words, plates for those two stamps were made in Berlin at a time when the Carolines were not in Germany's possession! Why? For postal use? They were never used postally. But copies of them were permitted to leave Berlin and get into the possession of philatelists. Why? Because-again this is a matter of opinion --sale of them to collectors meant money for the afore-mentioned official coffers of Germany. The writer of "Of Topical Interest" is willing to concede that the repeated postal increases in Germany have made necessary many new values, including high denominations, but he does not believe that all the color changes which have been put into effect were necessary to meet actual postal needs. He believes that the situation smacks of speculation at the expense of world philately. But-again-that can be only a matter of opinion. We were expressing our opinion only, and all admirers of William Hohenzollern have the right to think to the contrary. The concluding paragraph of our San Francisco critic's letter also is interesting: "You may not be astonished if, in a short time from now, some more stamps will be issued in Germany. They have played another dirty trick over there, letting the rate of exchange go down from M. 20,000 to M. 120,000 for one dollar, just for the purpose of being entitled to issuing a new set of stamps, such collecting money enough from foreign stamp collectors to pay their reparations and a little more." |