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Show Got a metric conversion card from the Union Pacific the other day. We're not at all convinced that conversion to metric isn't a plot to give an economic advantage to the metric countries. And since the U.S. is the most industrialized country in the world, the change will be more difficult and confusing confus-ing here than in the less developed de-veloped countries. Still, with President Ford's signing of the Metric Conversion Act, it looks as if the U.S. Government is again going to force us to conform. It's the old story the more you lead a horse around, the easier he becomes be-comes to lead. Still, we're going to find it real difficult to get used to paying 13 cents for 28.349 grams at the post office. -0- Speaking of postage increases in-creases when will the U. Postal Service analyze the real problem . They're talking of closing a number of small Post Offices Of-fices in Utah and we suppose this is true all over the country. -0- Certainly, small Post Offices Of-fices are not what's wrong with the postal service. We probably get more return for dollar spent in rural Post Offices than anywhere else in the system and they could and would do a lot more and it wouldn't cost a penny. But in an effort to provide 2 4 -hour service between San Francisco and New York City (or any of about 10 other metropolitan cities), they have sacrificed nearly everything that was great about the U.S. Postal Service. First off who cares about 24-hour service between be-tween the metropolitan areas? Anyone who has an important transaction to conduct con-duct in 24 hours certainly doesn't depend on the mails. Businesses or individuals who really need 24 -hour service ser-vice use a telegram or the telephone. They not only car get their message througf in a few minutes, but receive re-ceive confirmation at thi same time. If written confirmation con-firmation is required, it doesn't matter if it takes three or four days to receive it. -0- While 24 -hour service is needed in less than one percent per-cent of all mail, it can be desirable within a metropolitan metro-politan area or between neighboring rural communities. communi-ties. And for many years, almost al-most from the time the railroads rail-roads started carrying mail, until the advent of the huge sectional centers, when local Post Offices no longer sort mail, we had such service. Local postal employees sorted mail and bagged it for neighboring communities and it required no more sorting sort-ing until put into the addres -see's box, often the same day. More distant mail was sorted aboard the train and so mall to cities a few hundred hun-dred miles away often was delivered the same day or within 24 hours. Airmail between be-tween metropolitan areas often received same day delivery de-livery and seldom took more than 48 hours. In an effort to provide airmail air-mail service to first class mail between metropolitan cities, the whole system was disrupted. Service is worse than in the '40's and '50's and the cost of postage is over 400 percent higher. It's time the U.S. Postal Service admitted its mistake. Instead of closing rural Post Offices, let's give them a bigger role and let them sort as much mail as time allows. It's ridiculous to send mail to Minersville, Beaver and Cedar City to Provo for sorting, sort-ing, and returned to those cities the next day. It would require almost no extra labor la-bor for mail to those surrounding sur-rounding communities to be sorted in the local office. This would relieve the sectional sec-tional centers of at least 50 of their work load and make more possible the 24-48 hour service they promise but can't now deliver. -0- There's no hope of return-, ing to mail trains since loss of mail contracts con- (Continued on Page 2) -0- Cheap postal service has been one of the main factors in the success of industral-ized industral-ized America. The franking privilege of our congressional congression-al representatives and the second class rates provided to publications has contributed contrib-uted to a free exchange of ideas and made contact with our elected representatives feasible. We would not like to see either of these mailingpriv-ileges mailingpriv-ileges jeopardized by imposing impos-ing of postal rates on congressmen, con-gressmen, or raising of second sec-ond class rates until they become prohibitive. -0- Newspapers and magazines maga-zines generally have been reluctant re-luctant to take their case to the people, because they're afraid that they would not receive the backing of the populace. Second class mail generally general-ly is confined to surface mail. This is to say that while most first class mail goes by air, second class goes by boat. First class mail receives first attention by postal departments de-partments second class is distributed after all first and third class mail is distributed. dis-tributed. Generally, second class mail is done during slack time of postal employees and therefore does not actually ac-tually raise the cost of mail delivery, since few postal employees actually work over three-quarter of their regular shift hours anyway. So in fact, second class mail subsidizes first class mail users, by making use of otherwise idle employees' time. Postal employees could not otherwise be cut back without cutting peak efficiency on first class mail. The lower second class rates make it possible for Americans to enjoy newspapers news-papers and magazines as in no other country. Generally, subscription rates for publications pub-lications in the U.S. cost little more than the cost of postage to deliver them. Advertising Ad-vertising pays for the costs of production and any profits. HERE'S MORE ABOUT JUST BETWEEN tributed to the demise of passenger pas-senger service but certainly cer-tainly they can stop the waste of hauling mail through its destination to a sectional center and then return. They can stop giving airmail service ser-vice to first class mail and they can stop charging airmail air-mail prices for first class met il |