Special Service stamps tell you a lot about a country. How does a country view charity? If the feeling is that the government should encourage charitable contributions to specific causes then that country will issue a lot of Semipostal stamps. Larger countries with lots of distance between cities issued a lot of airmails and special deliveries. And the United States issued over 120 Newspaper Stamps, winning the race in this category by a factor of ten over runner up Austria. Most countries never issued Newspaper stamps. None of the British Commonwealth nations did, nor did the German or French Area. The reason for the vast number of US Newspaper stamps is due to both the geographical distances between areas in the United States and a commitment since Revolution days to political discourse. Freedom of the Press is the first of the freedoms in the Bill of Rights and throughout the nineteenth century congress felt that this meant not only freedom to publish but also ease of dissemination. Second class postal rates-which meant newspapers and periodicals- were always kept low and the post office was required to carry them at first class mail speed. When we look at the constant controversy over our news today, we should realize that political discussion in America was never soft and polite, nor was it meant to be. And by being the largest issuer and user of Newspaper stamps the Post Office has encouraged this tradition that is still with us today.
