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THE CHICKEN STAMP CENTENNIALSadlak, Thomas Leavitt, President of the Boston Poultry Exhibition%u2014and of course Paul Ives.MORE CONTROVERSYBesides the dubious way in which the poultry stamp was authorized, the fight over its design, and the publication of an incorrect release date, philatelists began complaining about it for yet another reason. Their biggest concern was that the chicken stamp would set a precedent, resulting in postage stamps being released for every industry in the country. To this, Ives, the poultry promoter, merely shrugged, %u201cI can%u2019t see anything wrong with recognizing a three-anda-half-billion-dollar industry.%u201dA 1997 column in Stamp Collector summed up the chicken stamp this way, %u201cIt lives in stampcollecting history as an object of scorn and derision. It was a sop to a special interest group, and its lack of importance was evident.%u201d A 2001 issue of Collector%u2019s Workshop said, %u201cTo this day, the U.S. stamp that is most often mentioned as the least necessary is the 1948 issue depicting a rooster and commemorating the 100th anniversary of the American poultry industry.%u201dA total of six commemorative stamps were released by the Post Office in 1946, and eleven in 1947. Then in 1948, there were a whopping 28%u2014plus two air mail stamps. Some philatelists referred to the sudden glut of stamps as %u201cwallpaper.%u201d LIFE magazine said, %u201cMany of them were ordered by members of the 80th Congress who felt the need to butter up their constituents in an election year and were eager to pay their respects to suffragettes, Turners [physical fitness advocates], volunteer firemen, and chaplains%u2014not to mention Californians, Swedes, and Indians.%u201d After the glut of 1948, one philatelist asked, %u201cCan%u2019t we get back to sanity on what we issue stamps for?%u201d While grumbling about several recent stamp designs, one article asked, %u201cWhat can you expect when they issued a stamp for chickens?%u201d %u201cThey,%u201d off course, meant the Post Office, which actually had no choice in the matter when it came to stamps authorized by acts of Congress as a result of lobbying. THE AFTERMATHWith the release of the chicken stamp, many congressmen were approached by constituents and special-interest groups with requests for stamps to benefit their pet projects. Most never made it, but stamps did get issued for cities, colleges, and trade associations%u2014even the B&O Railroad, a private company.Eventually, not just collectors but the general public also began to demand a change in the way subjects were chosen for new postage stamps. Most wanted an unbiased way to evaluate the thousands of requests for new stamps received by the Post Office annually. There simply had to be a better way%u2014as well as an agreed-upon formal set of rules for decision making.Thus, in 1957, after years of governmental footdragging, a Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee Public Law 621, authorizing Postmaster General Donaldson to issue %u201ca special series of 3-cent postage stamps...in commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the poultry industry.%u201d