Show POSTAL PROBLEMS Babson Park Mass This week as the Post Office Dc marks the anni of airmail it is pur with vigor a program to move first class mail via air By sometime next year there could be a of first class mail and air mail into a single class of priority mail dis by the fastest means of transport available Inefficiency Still Persists these evidences of the PO is in deep truble increased post al rates Into some months ago are failing to give it the shot in the arm predict d partly because of wages and other costs and andes es amI other costs and Partly becausE the vast sprawl ing of more than continues to be beloc loc ed tightly in the grip of a Congress Last months month's resignation of General Lawren I Ice ce F OBrien O'Brien after a short term in office has focused at anew on the fact that General often have not lon to come cometo to fuI rips with the problems involved much less long enough to bring to a fruition ran long e plans and of rejuvenation and reo form Postmasters General And Politics Actually we have had 59 Postmasters General since President Geore Washington first appointed Samuel od odin in 1789 ThEo ore Roosevelt bad 5 his two terms a similar span Grant had 4 Yet Calvin e held on onto to a Harding appointee through all his own five years in of fice Postmasters Gen eral may seem too many but it Is about par for the course as far as some of our major government departments are Beginning with Washington's time and carrying down to the present have been 55 Secretaries of State 58 Secretaries of the Treas my and 66 Attorneys Gener al The Head Of Patronage Unquestionably It would be bea a step forward if Postmasters General were responsible only for their departments department's and operation The time custom of assigning political and other to an incumbent cabinet has its critics from the berin ning rightly so Even though dictated by expediency it never was a good idea Now that the POs work load has Increased so many fold it Is to permit its hief to be borrowed more or less continually for political and other tasks Equally detrimental to the postal service is the practice of presidential app of city town and area at the special pleading of of Congress Much too often this spoils system has led to the appointment of postmasters who just haven't been equal to the challenges confronting them in office The Kappel Report A Presidential commission headed by Frederick R Kappel chairman of American I Telephone Telegraph Com pany has completed an in depth study of toe PO and its operations Members believe that within 5 to 10 years as much as 15 billion could be saved if the depart ment were to be converted from its present Cabinet status to a non profit corporation sim ilar to the Tennessee Valley Authority The commission con con- contends tends that perhaps as much as 20 per cent of the POs an nual budget is wasted because of old methods and antiquated buildings and it cites especially the failure to tomake make use of more laborsaving devices The goal is to put the PO on a more businesslike and hopefully self sustaining basis by untying the patronage that hold back progress and by setting up a more 1 le and equitable postage rate structure When can we expect such reforms ly not soon for too many congressional toes would be bruised in the process Never That depends on how much we care and how forcefully and persistently we make our will for reform and economy known In Washington and felt at the ballot box |