PRESS

A BICENTENNIAL STAMP

We understand that Rutgers, the state university, is running into some obstacles in its effort to have a special United States postage stamp issued in commemoration of its Bicentennial celebration in 1966.

No such obstacles should exist. The Post Office Department is arguing that issuing such a stamp for Rutgers would set an embarrassing precedent which would cause difficulty in the future when other institutions of higher learning came to Washington wishing to commemorate the reaching of chronological milestones.

The argument seems specious in the extreme.

As a matter of fact, the precedent has already been set. Most postage stamp collectors and a large segment of the general public are aware that special stamps have already been issued for Columbia and Princeton and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Michigan State and Penn State.

There need be no embarrassment in the future, either. The Post Office can if it likes establish a cut-off date, and issue stamps only for anniversaries looking back as far as, say 1776. Or it can issue stamps only for bicentennials or tricentennials. It will have few occasions to worry if it establishes this base.

Issuing a Rutgers Bicentennial stamp would leave the Post Office only two other colonial institutions on its current list, Brown this year and Dartmouth in 1969. We'd favor both issues.

As a matter of fact, Rutgers is unique and the federal government has a particular interest in Rutgers. It is the only colonial college which serves its state as both the Land Grant college and the state university.

Friends of Rutgers can perform a real service for the state university by communicating with their legislators at Washington in support of a Rutgers Bicentennial commemorative postage stamp.

— The Daily Home News Brunswick, N. J.