A ?>tnrg j
3J|at IGaund}??* j
a (Campaign
of iilmg
i m w m m m m
tifir 1935 ffhrtatmas &ral
utisfl fcmilg SiBsrll
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
? NCE upon a time a Danish news
paper uian wrote a magazine story
about some queer little stamps
that were pasted on a letter which
he had received from his native
country. That was more than a
quarter of a century ago but as a
result of his story there was
launched a nation wide campaign
mercy which is still being carried on and
hich, during the years, lias been increasingly
effective in combating one of the most dread
diseases that ever afflicted mankind.
The man was Jacob A. RHs whose work as a
reporter took him into one of the worst slum dis
tricts in New York City, the terrible Five i'oints,
who became famous as a social welfare worker
and whose autobiography, "The Making of an
American," is one of the classics of modern liter
ature. The story which he wrote was published in
the Outlook magazine on July 6, 1007, and ap
peared under the title of "The Christmas Stamp."
It read as follows:
"In my Christmas mail, three years ago, there
came a letter with a story to tell that was queer
in this, that it was all on the outside of it, where
no postmaster, not even Uncle Sam himself, could
prevent everybody from reading and telling of
it And I guess everybody who saw it did just
that and was heartily welcome. For, in truth,
that was the intention, or part of it And yet
there was but a single word to read, the word
Christmas?Jul, as they still call it where they
speak Santa Claus' own tongue. At least that
is the way It sounds to me when I think of my
chilhood under those northern skies. Ever since,
the holiday mall from Denmark has rehearsed to
me that story with the clear intent that I should
pass it on. And here it is now, at last. I did not
mean to wait so long.
"It was in October, 11)04, that a Committee of
Fifteen met In Copenhagen to devise ways of
putting in practice the idea of a Christmas stamp,
advanced by a postal official, Mr. Holboell. I do
not know how much of it was original with him.
There had been charity stamps before. They
are used in Australia, and in Holland whence
there came recently a wail begging people to
buy them for stamp collections. And I know that
they were considered in Germany, but for some
reason, I believe, did not find favor. I think I
can guess the" reason. They didn't have the right
spokesman. It remained for Ilans Christian
Andersen's countryman to enlist Santa Claus.
With him as their companion they don't have to
ask anybody to buy the stamps in Denmark.
Their only trouble is how to print enough. The
people, the king, and the post office?think of
nothing else than how they can best help along
the cause.
?"rKt? ?-~ i?.? a# tho rnmmitfPOS work !
A1"o was ine upauvi vi mv v?~ -
that two million stamps were to be printed, and
sold through the post offices at two oere each
(about half a cent) during the Christmas season
?to be exact, from December 9 to January G?
the proceeds to be used in building a hospital for
tuberculous children, something like our Sea
Breeze In ?ew York. The government stipu
lated only that the stamps should be different in
size and shape from the ordinary postage stamps,
so as to be easily distinguished from them. The
Christmas stamp is not good for postage; every
other way It is good, for the man who buys It and
puts It on his letter; for the clerk who cancels it
with a glad thought for the little waifs with
every whack; for the postman who delivers the
letter with a smile as broad and as good as
Christmas itself. The proof that they like it is this:
That they refused to a man to take anything for
their work. In the plan of the committee there
was provided a small profit of ten oere on each
sheet of fifty stamps, for the local post offices,
hut It was refused. They all wanted to help.
"The newspapers Joined hands; that was an
other part of the plan. Posters telling of It were
Put np everywhere. Denmark is a small country,
and a thing gets quickly to be talked of from one
end of It to the other. There was a run on the
post office as soon as the stamps were out. Ine
two million became four, then six. Business
houses asked the privilege of retailing the
stamps; but that was refused. They were told to
huy them at the post offices, and they did. .Many
business honses let no letter or package pass out
In the holiday season without the Christmas
stamp. The executive committee of four that was
appointed to manage things had their hands full
Kiving ont stamps. They were not allowed to
Sive out much else. Labor, office rent, furniture
everything outside of the actual printing of the
stamps?was given to them.
"When it was all over, It was shown that
Karflb fiita ??
stamps had been sold and paid for?
about two for every man, woman and child in
the country. The children's hospital had to its
account in the savings bank GS.UOU kroner through
this penny subscription.
'That was the first year's showing, when the
matter had been talked of only a mouth or two.
1 saw in the Danish pai>ers that last year's re
ceipts?the third season's?were nearly four
times as big. The hospital is built, I suppose, by
this time, or under way, and out of a small be
ginning has grown a great benefaction. But that
is not the greatest tiling ahout it, to my mind.*
The thought itself, with its power of setting
everybody to thinking of a great wrong that cati
only be righted through everybody's thinking of
it deserves that place. What else is the tubercu
losis scourge than such a wrong?
"Nothing in all the world is better proven
today than that it is a preventable disease, and
therefore needless. And yet in our own country,
to bring the matter home, it goes on year after
year killing an army of one hundred and fifty
thousand persons, and desolating countless homes
in which h;*Jf a million men and women are al
ways wearily dragging themselves to graves dug
by this single enemy. Perhaps I feel strongly
about it, and no wonder. It killed six of my
brothers, and I guess I know. That was in the
days when there was no help for it. There Is now.
"What 1 want to know is why we cannot bor
row a leaf from Santa Claus" Danish year-book,
and do as they have done. Why should we not
have a Christmas stamp, printed by a tubercu
losis association, not for the purpose of building
a hospital?let each state or town build Its own
?but for the |iurpose of rousing up and educat
ing the people on this most important matter?
"Look at the photograph of the three-year-old
letter here. It is just as it came to me. except
that In tne upper row, whence collectors had
pirated three stamps, three of last year's have
been pasted in instead, while in the lower right
hand corner I have placed one of the UK>r? kind,
so that all the three years are there represented.
"Assume that the practice became general of
putting on letters even one or two Christmas
stamps and think of Uncle Sam's mail in the
same breath! What might it not mean in reve
nue to finance the cause that creeps along where
it ought to run? But, much more than that, what
might It not he made to mean as an educating
medium In fightfng the white plague?
"Practically every man who saw this stamp on
a letter, or on a postal card?it is pasted on both
In Denmark?would want to know what it meant
And when people want to know, half the fight is
won. It is because they do not know a few amaz
? 1? 1 ~ ?l.: ..o tKof n-v?nlo HIa t\f hilmrpulnclii
ingiy siui|/ie iiiiu^o mai v.?
"Why should It not be done? Is the country
too big? The bigger the mortality from this
pestilence, the bigger the results to be got from
that kind of education. Are the mails too heavy?
There would not be any more letters because of
It, and even if the number of stamps per letter
were limited to save labor In canceling, the ob
ject would be attained. Would there be a rush
on the government by all the charities In the
land for a like privilege? That could be pre
vented by giving notice at the outset that per
mission to use the mails for this purpose was
only for the one cause because Its appeal is In
comparably the greatest. The object attained.
It should be dropped. At any time It might be '
revived in the face of a national emergency, for
which alone it should be used.
"At the very time, three years ago. when the
Christmas stamp was invented in Denmark to
provide a hospital for tuberculous children, the
National Association for the Study and Preven
tion of Tuberculosis was formed in New York.
Upon basis of careful and conservative computa
tion, its president estimated that the mere loss
of revenue to the country In nursing and bury
ing tuberculosis victims was three hundred and
thirty mil.'ons of dollars.
"The society often spoken of as 'the Tubercu
losis Committee,' has today 1,400 members, doc
tors and laymen. Kducation is its shibboleth.
The three points It tries early and late to Im
press upon the consciousness of the people are:
(1) that tuberculosis Is Infectious; (2) that. If
infectious. It Is preventable; and (3) that, in
the early stages. It Is, as a rule, curable.
"It has organized associations In 15 states and
74 towns and maintains a tuberculosis exhibition
that travels about the country, from city to city,
leaving a wave of aroused. Intelligent interest
in its wake. A campaign is uetv be^ng planned
for the South, where p-^la badly nteded, but
\
Einar Holborl
money is lacking. The secretary tells me that
if instead of one there were a dozen, two dozen,
such exhibitions, the country might be aroused
from one end to the other to action that would
result in the passing of proper sanitary laws
and the building of sanatoria and dispensaries
for the sufferers, and so speed a greatly dimin
ished mortality from this cause. Last year the
funds at the disposition of the association aggre
gated $12,000, no more. It might have spent
$100,000 to advantage, but no millionaire came
.forth to endow it.
"No millionaire is wanted to do it It were
far better done by the people themselves, for
only in doing it will they learn that which is of
more value than preaching and doctoring?name
ly. how to help themselves. Why not try the
Danish plan next Christmas? Or at any other
season, if it were thought best, though I do not
think that would be best. The season of good
will opens hearts and minds and pocketbooks as
nothing else can, and takes the growl out of it,
if there is any. Five years of that sort of cam
paigning, and we ought to be on the home
stretch. ^
"I hold no brief for the 'Tuberculosis Commit
tee,' and I am not pleading for it. But I am
pleading for the half-million poor souls all over
the land whose faces are set today toward an
inevitable grave because of ignorance, heedless
ignorance, and for the friends who grieve with
them and for them."
Among those who read Itiis's story was Miss
Emily Bissell, secretary of the Delaware Ited
Cross, who was trying to raise money for a tu
berculosis pavilion for children in her state and
who saw In'the sale of Christmas seals a solu
tion to her pri^blem. Through the aid of pub
licity In the now-extinct Philadelphia North
that year was so successful that $3,000 wai
raised, enough to build the pavilion.
As a result of this success. Miss Bissell was
able to Induce the authorities of the American
Red Cross to undertake a nation-wide sal* of
tuberculosis Christmas stamps in 1008. Influ
enced by her leadership, women's clubs, religious
groups, various publications, as well as local Red
Cross chapters gave their support to the sale.
By such united and enthdslastic effort more than
$135,000 was raised in the first national sale.
From 1907 to 1910, the National Tuberculosis
association had been organizing a nationwide
warfare against tuberculosis. These pioneers
hacT th? support of the foremost scientists, but
very few funds for their work. To strengthen
the organization's effort, the American Red Cross
and the National Tuberculosis association Joined
forces to conduct the Christmas seal sale to
gether. ^
The partnership between the American Red
Cross and the National Tuberculosis association
lasted 10 years. During that time the scarlet
emblem of the American Red Cross appeared on
the annual issues of Christmas seals. In 1919,
however, the double-barred cross, international
emhleif) of the anti-tuberculosis campaign and
trade mark of the National Tuberculosis asso- j
ciation, was also embodied In the design of the
seal. Since 1920, the seals have been "Tuber
culosis Christmas seals."
The use of these seals has become an accepted
part of the holiday celebration in this country?
a veritable Christmas tradition. But more Im
portant is the fact that the prbcecds from the !
sale of these seals during the last 27 years have
mounted up into the millions and have become
a vital factor in checking the onslaughts of the
once-dreaded -white plague." And it ail began
In thia country when a Danish newspaper man
wrote a magazine story!
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3hild Will Read Story
That He Thinks Is Good
"Who shall define Interest for an
>ther person, compounded as it is of
he raw material of which personal
ty is made"'" queries a writer in
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here is apt to l?e one of two reasons
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