Going postal, Part II

The nation’s deputy postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, came by the editorial board this week as part of a tour of local media. His job is to lay out the sorry budget dilemma faced by the Postal Service and to argue for ending Saturday delivery. (See this story..)

He also wanted to lay out the service’s goals for 2020, when it hopes to be a flexible and powerfully competitive delivery system that reacts to market needs while serving every American home and business.
But of all he told us, the thing I found most interesting was that President Eisenhower actually ended Saturday delivery back in 1957. That lasted exactly one week. People were so outraged that Congress quickly passed, and Eisenhower signed, an appropriation of $41 million to keep the Saturday mail going. (Here’s a blog that corroborates what he told us.)
He also said the Postal Service delivered seven days a week until 1912 (Click here and scroll down to the heading, “Delivery days”.) And a precious few of you may remember the twice-daily delivery that happened until 1950.
Things have changed since 1957. For one, the Postal Service is now quasi independent. For another, most people have a wide array of options for sending messages and parcels. Donahoe cited a Gallup Poll that found 66 percent of Americans support ending Saturday delivery – especially when they compare it to the options. (This report of the poll appears to show even greater support.)
One of those options is to seek a government bailout. “We don’t feel that would be responsible,” he said. Amen to that.