Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 148, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1910 — Mutilated' Stamps Not Redeemable. [ARTICLE]

Mutilated' Stamps Not Redeemable.

If a man had some mutilated postage stamps, some mutilated paper money and some mutilated coins and endeavored to save something out of the general wreckage, he would find that Uncle Sam is a little inconsistent. In the first place he would find that his mutilated stamps were not redeemable at the postoffices. If his coins were badly worn he would find also that they were not redeemable, though he might dispose of them as bullion. If the coins were only bent or twisted, however,^he-could have them redeemed and he could have them redeemed if they had become injured in a fire without having lost any of their weight. His paper money, he would find, could be redeemed even though it had reached a stage where the ordinary man could not well distinguish just what it was. There seems to be no explanation available, as to why Uncle Sam behaves in this manner. It is suggested that if he redeemed postage stamps it would be necessary to have a separate department in Washington devoted to this work. Of course, a large, warm moist man is apt to become a trifle incensed when he discovers that a quantity of his postage stamps have become gummed together in an affectionate conglomeration, that though he paid spot cash for those stamps he has no recourse. However, if he had invested his money in the regulation stamped envelopes, and these envelopes were mutilated by wrong addresses or in some such manner, he could have had the envelopes redeemed for a certain per cent but not for cash. The regulation in regard to not redeeming postage stamps is an old one, and bears with it the provision that no mutilated stamps may be used in transporting mail matter. The latter provision, however, was not very carefully enforced up to a short time ago, when orders were sent out by the postoffice department that it should be rigidly enforced, and that a stamp must not be used even though only a small portion of it was missing. So rigid was the order, in fact, that if there are several stamps on a letter and one stamp overlaps another it destroys the carrying power of the stamp thus partly covered. Of course, part of tlie stamp so covered might have a small portion of it missing. But just why all this is as it Is seems unexplained. The contract for the giant lock of the Panama canal was awarded Monday to the McClintock-Marshall company, of Pittsburg, at a price of This company was the lowest bidder, there being four competitors tor the contract.