Milford chronicle., 1951-06-29
OUR POSTAL SERVICE

OOE EOOlAL SERVICE
A revealing article on the weird workings
Of bureaucracy appeared in the June issue
Of Harpers Magazine. Written by G.. Lester
Walker, it deals with the amazing case of
the United States Postal Service.
The post office is big business, with a
capital B. It also enjoys a total monopoly
in its field, which is true Of no other busi-
ness, big or little. It's annual revenues run
around 81 $50, 100000. 1t has 100000 en-
plOyees, $4,000 branch offices, and 10000 We
hicles. Yet some months ago people in varl-
Gus parts of the country complained of sharp
declines in the standards of postal service.
All kinds of mail-air, first-class, special de-
livery, parcel post-was taking longer and
longer to reach its destination. In some in
stances the delays seemed incredible-Mr
Walker writes, ''Mail from London, England
was being received in Radio City as soon as
mail posted at the same date and hour in the
Bronx"
This was the result of cuts in service
which were ordered in April, 1850 And the
reason for the cuts, according to the Post
master General, was that the department
would have deficit of about S530,O00,0O0 for
the fiscal year, and something drastic had to
be done.
Is it necessary for the post office to lose
money-and huge sums of money at that?
Mr.. Walker doesn't think so. The British
Post Office has made a=pEOft in almost every
year since I'LL. The Canadian Post Office
is also a profit-making enterprise. What
then, is the trouble with the U. S. Postal
Service?
MraWalker quotes telling sentence from
a Hoover Commission Report which said the
department has a "creaky, Over-centralized
OrganiZational structure Outmoded methods
and equipment; cumbersome budgeting and
accounting systems; a maze of tangled regu-
latlOns and restrictions" One of these faults,
excessive centralizatiOn, may be the worst of
all. The whole tendency Of modern industry
has been to decentraliZe, in the interest of
economy, efficiency and better service to Gus
toners. Mr.. Walker cites as one example of
this chain store system with 1872 stores
each of which has been given almost COM
pleCe managerial autonomy. In the Post Off
Ice Department, by contrast, Washington
runs everything. No decision of consequence
can be made without permission from head
quarterS-and this often takes endless
tlme-burning correspondence to get.
Mr.. Walker finds that the post office has
been about 100 per cent opposed to mechani-
cal handling and sorting methods which are
used both IN private business and in the DOS
tai services Of some other countries. 1t seems
to be case of what was good enough for
grandpa is good enough for sonny.
Going on, Mr.. Walker believes that the
post office personnel system is impossible and
inefficient. The pOstmasters themselves are
political appOintees-they are at the heart
OF the patronage system. And post Office ac-
counting methods, which are laid down by
the all-powerful General Accounting Office
seem to be as archaic as the bow and arrow.
MIR, Walker goes into details in his article
and 0f his aloAi5, ~
At the end, he summarizes a plan which. in
his opinion would eliminate all or practically
all OF the departments huge deficits In es-
sence, this plan would simply have the post
Office operate along standard business lines
something which, apparently, government
businesses never do. 1t remains to be seen
IT they ever will.
UNWORKABLE
The Chamber of Commerce of the United
States recently published a monograph call
ed Economic Policies for National Defense
which makes some interesting observations
on the problems and difficulties of price con-
troll Among them, it says this: "Once a
ceiling IS placed on a single item, it becomes
necessary TO control all the factors of pro
ductiOn involved And as in irving to trace
hidden taxes, the process is endless. Further.
more IN order to secure an equitable distri-
button OF goods in short supply. prices of
Mnlcn are controlled att levels below those
That would result from free market OPERA
lons, some form Of government rationing
may De necessary. This is especially true for
basic items in the cost Of living.
Meat IS a most conspicuous example. We
are once again running into the complications
we experienced few years Jack. The gov
sthLnent can place price ceilings at the re-