Category: Postal Theories

• The Postage Stamp Tax Plot

  This theory held that the government had adulterated the gum on newer stamps in the 1930s in order to identify political dissidents, habitual complainers, or other suspect populations through licking behavior. In some versions, the glue contained poison; in others, it carried tracers, irritants, or compounds intended to sort “excessive lickers” from normal users. The theory played on the intimacy of stamp use, the growth of federal surveillance fears, and real sanitary discussion around stamp and envelope gum.

• The Airmail as Drug Smuggling

  This theory held that the U.S. mail—especially the airmail system at the height of the 1934 crisis—had become the largest narcotics cartel in the world. In some versions, the charge was literal: federal mail routes and contracts were said to protect drug distribution. In others, it was broader and more political: the postal system, airlines, and federal regulators were accused of creating a protected transport network that criminal organizations and corrupt officials could exploit. The theory drew plausibility from two real backgrounds: the long history of narcotics moving through mail-order channels and the intensely public 1934 airmail scandal.