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Show Excalibur "How about mail in plastic ban! Clerks, and the National Association of Letter Carriers joined forces to prevent passage of the bill, arguing that a shift of operations would deny them direct access to Congress in seeking pay increases. The specious conclusion they drew, was that postal reform was bad for the nation, would victimize the workers and somehow deny them pay increases." "Well the workers should know what's right for the Post Office," I injected. "After all they're the ones who actually move the mail." Free market "What gullibility!," Mr. Whig roared. "Your economic background is blatantly deficient. If a service is to be provided, it is in the interest of all people that it be done in the most efficient manner possible. In this way, we save natural and human resources for other more critical tasks. The free market mechanism is the most efficient and responsive producer in history. But for some reason we have eternally been deluded that the market could not operate in the sphere of postal service. We feared some conspiratorial monopoly or anarchial disintegration of cohesion. Such hogwash! Pure Interstate Postal Sep,. V 15 PnVate corp f delivering mail for recent re-cent per piece incer,,;? states. And they do th being prohibited bv 1 using the mail boxe 1,,lstead ey must p ' P'-tic bags adha Joornob, Preposte: ' Whig, red with J exploded," Absurb!" At a litl'e length, , continued in a lower the former President, Lv.(: Johnson, recognized the reorganize the Post recommended prornpl t And the Postmaster fr-W.nton fr-W.nton M. Blount, is anm give up his cabinet post i(f: set the system up air lines." 1 "Well, I don't thinkJ, Ineffiency will increase "I think," he said, hit,;-. ' in his chair and reflectingd; "I think that the postal who have managed tosacrii: rest of the population to interests, are intent on itt their special privileges " inefficiency of the postals and its workers will contit. increase, so lone as il is BY BILL MARLING Last Sunday I had the occasion of conversing with the venerable Mr. Whig. He is, for those of you unacquainted with him, an elderly gentleman, stately in appearance and eloquent in speech. A political analyst of the old school, he is quite interesting to listen to. When I arrived, his fireplace was roaring and he was seated in front of it, quite agitated-and apparently brooding. "Thank Heavens, I'm glad -you came, young Marling," he said "My concern grows more and more each day for the state of our beloved republic, and no wonder when our representatives in Washington let preposterous fiascos and scandals go unheeded." "I don't believe I follow ", I started to answer. Private corporations "You obviously are not abreast of the day's intelligence, a state which I find less and less uncommon among people today. I'm referring to the ignominious defeat of the plan to convert the Post Office into a private corporation. It was shelved by the House Post Office Committee in a tie vote. And this decision was reached without any consideration of the public interest. Rather it was effected entirely by a powerful interest Hogwash!" "1 don't see ," I began. "It's elementry. For example, A.T.&T. is a product of the market mechanism, is owned by private citizens, and yet more than meets our need of nation-wide communication." He paused, regaining his breath. Mail in plastic bags "You are familiar of course, Marling, with the case of the by tax money. If the system required to be self-si, inefficiency and feathtik: would be eliminated." "Union members would . be subject to the law oh.:: and demand, as all the rest are. Then he roared, "Bin: people have a vested inlet incompetency, and once .: they have been given then enforce it." group." "What do you mean? " Workers victimized "Come now, young Marling! Surely you are cognizant of the enormous power yielded on capital hill by the postal unions. The National Postal Union, the United Federation of Postal |