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Show ,.. . ' is J3 i 'f . - ts3 . rx x , jf , 1 4 " V" m , x s i -r-fs EI?f 1935 (Clirifltmaa al By ELMO SCOTT WATSON tSMHaW' - . SSU 8 N w. S rr'JSiS NCE lipon a time a Danish nows" Sarnb iw iwaw" Kt'' v paper man wrote a magazine story , I li. 38 f 4 M'STQllVN about some queer little stamps 4,113,000 stamps had been sold and paid for 1"" J1' f J MvAwl that were Pasted on a letter which about two for every man,- woman and child In sj "JWi jQP?( he had received from his native the country. The children's hospital had to its f ' " X?Jk " ' pmrw country. That was more than a account in the savings bank GS.000 kroner through i'f ' OO quarter of a century ago but as a this penny subscription. ? J - ' ' f result of his story there was "That was the first year's showing, when the :s " ' , y " ' f j launched a nation-wide campaign matter had been talked of only a month or two. IS " s f , ' jf ' of mercy which is still being carried on and I saw in the Danish papers that last year's re- ' 5 which, during the years, has been increasingly ceipts the third season's were nearly four U . i'" " ' effective in combating one of the most dread times as big. The hospital is built, I suppose, by I i P'tjsf J ; diseases that ever afflicted mankind. this time, or under way, and out of a small be- 'I i ij t " ' The man was Jacob A. Riis whose work as a ginning has grown a great benefaction But that I ' " ? i 1 f -" v ''J;,'-'' ; reporter took him into one of the worst slum dis- 's not the greatest thing about it, to my mind. tMSl v '" ' tricts in New York City, the terrible Five I'oints, The thought itself, with its power of setting j k 5 , - who became famous as a social welfare worker everybody to thinking of a great wrong that can j fiSA 1 ' ' . and whose autobiography, "The Making of an only be righted through everybody's thinking of taiwfe American," is one of the classics of modern liter- it deserves that place. What else is the tubercu- tmar iiolhorl By ELMO SCOTT WATSON p-g-o, NCE upon a time a Danish news- 2jKS?S paper man wrote a magazine story OTj'SlQlA about some queer little stamps wAoifiy that were pasted on a letter which Jstyyu he had received from his native 'pjftf' country. That was more than a OO quarter of a century ago but as a result of his story there was launched a nation-wide campaign of mercy which is still being carried on and which, during the years, has been increasingly effective in combating one of the most dread diseases that ever afflicted mankind. The man was Jacob A. Riis whose work as a reporter' took him into one of the worst slum districts 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 literature. liter-ature. The story which he wrote was published in the Outlook magazine on July G, 1907, and appeared 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 Sara 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 Clans' 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 mail 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, 1904, 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. Hoiboell. 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 Hans 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. "This was the upshot of the committee's work : 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 6 the proceeds to be used in building a hospital for tuberculous children, something like our Sea Breeze in New York. The government stipulated 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, but It was refused. They 'all wanted to help. "The newspapers joined hands; that was another an-other part of the plan. Posterstelling of it were put up 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 The two million became four, then six. Business houses asked the privilege of retailing the stamps; but that was refused. They were told to buy them at the post offices, and they did. Many business houses lot 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 giving out stamps. They were not allowed to give 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 4,113,000 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.000 kroner through this penny subscription. "That was the first year's showing, when the matter had been talked of only a month or two. I saw in the Danish papers that last year's receipts 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 beginning be-ginning has grown a great benefaction. But that is not the greatest thing about it, to my mind. The thought itself, with its power of setting everybody to thinking of a great wrong that can only be righted through everybody's thinking of it deserves that place. What else is the tuberculosis 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 half a million men and women are always 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 I want to know is why we cannot borrow bor-row a leaf from Santa Claus' Danish year-boic, and do as they have done. Why should we not have a Christmas stamp, printed by a tuberculosis tubercu-losis association, not for the purpose of building a hospital let each state or town build its own but for the purpose of rousing up and educating 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 right-hand corner I have placed one of the 1905 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 revenue reve-nue to finance the cause that creeps along where it ought to run? But, much more than that, what might It not be made to mean as an educating medium in fighting 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 amazingly amaz-ingly simple things that people die of tuberculosis. "Why should it not be done? Is the country too big? The bigger the mortality from this pestilence, the bigger the results to he 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 object 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 prevented pre-vented by giving notice at the outset that permission per-mission to use the mails for this purpose was only for the one cause because its appeal is incomparably 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 Prevention Preven-tion of Tuberculosis was formed in New York. Upon basis of careful and conservative computation, computa-tion, its president estimated that the mere loss of revenue to the country In nursing and burying bury-ing tuberculosis victims was three hundred and thirty millions of dollars. "The society often spoken of as 'the Tuberculosis Tubercu-losis Committee,' has today 1,400 members, doctors doc-tors and laymen. Education is its shibboleth. The three points it tries early and late to impress 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 now being planned for the South, where i is badly needed, but 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 diminished dimin-ished mortality from this cause. Last year the funds at the disposition of the association aggregated 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 namely, 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 campaigning, cam-paigning, and we ought to be on the homestretch. home-stretch. "I hold no brief for the 'Tuberculosis Committee,' 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 Riis's story was Miss Emily Blssell, secretary of the Delaware Red Cross, who was trying to raise money for a tuberculosis tu-berculosis pavilion for children in her state and who saw in the sale of Christmas seals a solution solu-tion to her problem. Through the aid of publicity pub-licity in the now-extinct Philadelphia North American the sale of seals at Christmas time that year was so successful that $3,000 was raised, enough to build the pavilion. As a result of this success, Miss Bissell was able to induce the authorities of the American lied Cross to undertake a nation-wide sale of tuberculosis Christmas stamps in 1908. Influenced 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 enthusiastic effort more than I $135,000 was raised in the first national sale. From 1007 to 1910, the National Tuberculosis association had been organizing a nationwide warfare against tuberculosis. These pioneers had the 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 together. to-gether. The partnership between the American Red j Cross and the National Tuberculosis association ' lasted 10 years. During that time the scarlet j emblem of the American Red Cross appeared on the annual Issues of Christmas seals. In 1919, j however, the double-barred cross, International embtem of the anti-tuberculosis campaign and i trade mark .of the National Tuberculosis asso- ! elation, was also embodied in the design of the seal. Since 1920, the seals have been "Tuberculosis "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 important im-portant is the fact that the proceeds 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 all began In this country when a Danish newspaper man wrote a magazine story! Western Newspaper Union. |