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Show Postmaster General Day Praises KennedyLeadershipand Energy "We, who admire his energy and agree with his views should stand up and be counted. We saw , from the House vote on the bill of minimum wages that just one vote can be decisive. He is getting get-ting incredibly good ratings in the polls and is frustrating even his most determined critics, but general approval is not enough. It is essential that there should be strong expressions of support from rank and file members of the public for the specific items in his legislative program particularly par-ticularly for those items which tread on the toes of special interest in-terest groups and therefore have powerful forces opposing them on a full time basis in Washington. Washing-ton. "I suppose that I should follow the current trend and devote a good part of my remarks tonight to the John Birch Society, however how-ever I don't intend to spend much time discussing this group. We have had extremist organizations of both the right and the left for over a hundred years. Some are more weird than others. I don't regard the John Birch Society as deserving of much time or attention." Postmaster General J. Edward Day, speaking at a recent Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Maryland, Mary-land, told Democrats that "we who agree with President Kennedy's Ken-nedy's views should stand up and be counted. Following is a portion of Mr. Day's address to the Maryland Democrats: "Not long ago I went to Denver. Den-ver. Colorado, to make a Jefferson-Jackson Day soeech. To my surprise I found when I arrived that the hotel banquet hall where the meeting was being held was called th "Lincoln Room." However, How-ever, this seeming confusion of political party patron saints had caused no problem. I pointed out that Abraham Lincoln was appointed ap-pointed a postmaster of a little town in Illinois by none other than Andrew Jackson. It was the first public office held in Mr. Lincoln. It's remarkable how many great men have started in their public careers under the Democratic Party auspices. And Lincoln didn't have to take a civil service examination to qualify for the job, even though it was a real plum. The salary was $55 a year! But even in those days federal employees had their fringe benefits. Lincoln's fringe benefit was that he got to read the newspapers free of charge. , That was before the days of post cards. "I found immediately after taking office that it was difficult for people to comprehend the volume handled by the United States Post Office: two thirds of all the mail handled in the world 65 billion pieces a year which is about the same 1 number of seconds as have ticked by since the days of Julius Caesar! In 1890 the Post Office Department had 61 per cent of total federal . civilian employees. The figure is now 25 per cent. With six times as many employees we are now handling 14 times as much mail as in 1890. The New York Post Office alone handles more mail than the entire British Postal System. ' "I find that a large part of this huge volume of mail consists of letters directed to the White House: 30,000 letters a week. This is twice as much as the White House received before President Kennedy took office. Many of these, of course, are suggestions and requests but a great many of them express support sup-port of the President's supporters support-ers could do a more effective job of helping him get his programs through if they would communicate communi-cate with their Congressmen. The President cannot be expected expect-ed to do the whole job of providing pro-viding the steam for his extensive exten-sive and vital program of legislation. |