The Union County journal. [volume] (Marysville, Ohio) 1875-1951, 1950-05-15
Rural Mail Service No Better

The railroad strike, which the union bosses have
called to compel the railroads to pay two more
men to ride the deise powered trains with pay but
without work. continues If it continues long it will
bring paralysis to industries relying freight haul
age but so far the mail service is concerned there
is not much difference in conditions truck hauls the
mail between Columbus and Toledo, with service to-
Peoria West Mansfield, ETC.. which is than we
had before the strike
But in regard to ntra-cOunty mail service-that
is mail service between the various postofficeS of the
rural counties comprising ninety per cent of the ter
rtory of the United States-he condition continues
lust as it was before the strike The distribution of mail
between the intraconty postoffices is still nearly al
non-eXiStent condition.
While the postoffice department in Washington
boasts that it has clipped off few minutes time in the
delivery of mail between substatons of Chicago Los
Angeles and other cities by the silly of helcopter
planes which land and take off from the roofs of the
postoffice substations instead OF relying trucks
it still takes week to send a letter from MarysvilleI
Route to Milford Center Route two miles away, and
get reply and still takes week to send letter and
get reply between Plain City Route and Marysville
Route s. a mile or two away
Rural service believe it or not is infinitely worse
today than it was so years ago. Then you could get
letter to any postoffice in Union county the same day
it was written and you could surely get reply the next
day Today, we have competent mamen, fine build
ngS and equipment liberal salaries, amazing equip
ment to carry mail between poStotfices-and intra
county mail service.
man could take message and walk to any place
in the county, and return ten times over before the
postoffce would do the job And despite the hecopter
service information is that takes forever and day to
get special delivery letter from part of the big
cities to another, delivered
Sixty years ago it the boast of the embryo
socialists that the goVernmentOperated poStoffice de-
partment provided the fastest and cheapest mail service
in the world, and therefore government should take
all the utilities etc. So far the postal service
concerned that condition did exist then but the
postoffice department had nothing to do with attaining
those results.
We had magnificent system of privately owned
railroads. reaching every city and almost every hamlet
several times every day. 1t this wonderful pri-
Vate y-owned railroad system that took the mail and
got it everywhere on time, and several times day.
POStOceS dotted the countryside and few people had
to go very far to get their mail Rural and city letter
carriers potential betterment of the mail con-
Venience but of what benefit is that if the department
continues to take step to get mail to them other than
the through mail where trains still normally run
ming?
Now, here's the tragic status of this condition If
the department at Washington would send telegram
this morning to the posmasters in MarySvlle and Rich
wood telling them to get the mail twice daily to everv
posottlce in the county, at reasonable cost you know
that the mail would be there this afternoon and twice
everyday thereafter, without fail It seems as simple
as that. They could do it, easily
But it would take six months at least to get such
an order out OF what Dickens called the "circumlocu-
ton bureaus and doubtless the easy effort to dstrib
ute the mail would be Immediately met with gangs of
labor union goons to stop the service And nothing can
be done about that until-and five get honest and
laW-enforcing government heads
Ii we had man in the WhitehouSe with the moral
courage OF Grover Cleveland the first man who at
tempted to Interfere with the passage of the mails
would find himself in Jail, not for overnight stay
but as tarryng place until he reached the rockpiles
in some penitentiary for good, long stay. We had
strikes 90 years ago. but the labor unions learned not
to monkey with the United States mail
Knowing the incredible incompetence of govern
ment management and operation of anything it is prob
ably useless to hope for any change in the foreseeabe
future.