Do we learn from experience? I believe so. The recent Washington International SIPEX Exhibition certainly learned from FIPEX, for it was conducted on a high cultural level in contrast to the 1957 New York show. The mobs of racing kids and the bourse tables that by their merchandising methods lowered the dignity of stamp collecting were fortunately missing at SIPEX. I am in favor of stamp collecting for all ages, but cannot understand how children in the beginning stage of the hobby can be expected to respect, understand and take part in advanced philately. Do we expect kindergarteners to understand the difference between the collecting of the exhibitors at SIPEX and the album of a ten-year old as there is between first grade arithmetic and quantum theory.

International Exhibitions are for adults, learned in detail with a depth knowledge of stamps that the great mass of collectors neither imagine nor care about. Why try to popularize them to those whose sole interest in attending is to acquire a current issue or a First Day Cover?