U.S. #2144
1985 22¢ Rural Electrification Administration
Government Agencies

• Issued for the 50th anniversary of the Rural Electrification Administration
• Ninth Government Agencies anniversary stamp

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Series:  Government Agency Anniversaries
Value:  22¢; first-class rate
First Day of Issue:...  more

U.S. #2144
1985 22¢ Rural Electrification Administration
Government Agencies

• Issued for the 50th anniversary of the Rural Electrification Administration
• Ninth Government Agencies anniversary stamp

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Series:  Government Agency Anniversaries
Value:  22¢; first-class rate
First Day of Issue:  May 11, 1985
First Day City:  Madison, South Dakota
Quantity Issued:  124,750,000
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Photogravure and Engraved
Format:  Panes of 50 in sheets of 230
Perforations:  11

Why the stamp was issued:  This stamp was issued on the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).   

About the stamp design:  Howard Koslow sketched a variety of scenes for this stamp depicting a farm, rolling hills, and power wires.  The final design pictures a farm with lights on connected to a power pole in the foreground.

Special design details:  A former REA employee and stamp collector pointed out several issues in the design.  He said there should be four wires instead of three, that the crossarms don’t properly support the three crossarm pins, that the lack of leads to the lines would not deliver power, and that the vertical position in which the wires connected to the farmhouse was incorrect. 

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony for this stamp was held in Madison, South Dakota, a community that had received power as a result of the REA.

Unusual fact about this stamp:  The brown power wires on this stamp were created by blending the four gravure inks – yellow, magenta, cyan, and black.  If the stamp is well registered, the power lines appear brown.  However, stamps with inconsistent registration have power lines that appear in a variety of hues. 

About the Government Agencies Series:  Beginning in 1983, the USPS began issuing a series of stamps marking notable anniversaries of several government agencies.  These included the Civilian Conservation Corps, Tennessee Valley Authority, Civil Service Act, FDIC, Soil and Water Conservation Act, Credit Union Act, National Archives and St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. This REA stamp was the ninth stamp in the series.

History the stamp represents:  On May 11, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation establishing the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).

After America’s electric industry took off in the 1880s, electricity began to become widespread in cities. Around 1910, city homes and businesses were getting electricity in large numbers. Meanwhile, only one farm in ten had electricity.

At the time, electrical service providers didn’t want to bother connecting rural areas because the construction costs were higher and profits would be lower with fewer customers spread across larger areas. As the suppliers saw it, these homes were too far apart and didn’t create enough demand to warrant their investment. Plus, by the 1920s, the few rural areas that did receive service paid electrical rates that were twice as much as those paid in urban areas.

In the 1920s and 30s, more than 30 state rural power programs were started, especially after president Herbert Hoover claimed that rural electrification was the responsibility of state governments. As governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt pushed for rural electrification and created the New York Power Authority in 1931, which sought to provide inexpensive hydroelectric power from the St. Lawrence River. However, the Great Depression shut down many state power companies and further discouraged investors from rural electrification.

After he became president in 1933, Roosevelt tasked Morris L. Cooke with finding a solution to the rural electrification issue on a national level. Cooke had led a power company in Pennsylvania with great success. By 1934, Cooke produced an 11-page report outlining the needs of a federal rural electrification program. By Cooke’s estimate, it would take $200 million to bring electrical service to the 500,000 rural farms, a cost of $400 per farm.

Cooke concluded that a rural electrification agency should be created. Roosevelt agreed and on May 11, 1935, signed Executive Order 7037, creating the Rural Electrification Administration. The following year, Congress authorized $410 million for the REA for a 10-year program to provide electricity to America’s farms. The REA was a government-financing agency that provided loans to private companies with good interest rates.

The REA was a major success – after just two years, it had created 350 projects in 45 states delivering power to 1.5 million people. By the mid-1950s, nearly all American farms had electricity. Additionally, as these farms now had electricity, their demands for household electrical appliances helped create major growth in the home appliance market. It also introduced electrical and plumbing trades to rural communities. Soon radios and eventually televisions were introduced to farms, narrowing the divide between rural and urban communities.

In 1949, the REA extended its programs to include telephone service. And in 1994, the REA was absorbed into the new Rural Utilities Service, an agency within the USDA.