Chuck > Recent Status Updates

1970 postal workers strike: a modern economy is sustained by an endless flow of carefully directed paper, Newsweek observed. The US Postal system, for all its creaky inefficiencies, simply has no parallel in performing this vital function.
Nixon declared state of emergency and said he would send 27k soldiers into New York to break the strike

1934 postmaster general O’Brien- service was deteriorating around the country, and there was little he could do about it. He was running an organization with $4.8 billion is sales, more than any American companies other than AT&T, Sears, and A&P. But can’t do anything without congressional approval.

1963 Harry Semrow postmaster- Chicago post office was the largest mail processing facility in the world. 2 city blocks, 3 million SA feet, 14900 clerks sorting 21 million pieces of mail a day.

The post office reached its zenith, delivering 36 billion items. Its annual income surpassed $1 billion, employed more than 300k workers, and postal savings bank deposits peaked at almost $3.4 billion. The department had never been bigger or more prominent.

The Great Depression caused the post office’s volume to shrink between 1929 and 1933 from 27 billion to 19 billion items, and its revenue to decline from $696 million to $588 million.

1921: transcontinental airmail flight completed in 33 hours
Final last ditch stunt by Praeger, saved the airmail service from being eliminated

Airmail pilots— used to be us army, but the army withdrew in 1918 and allowed private pilots to step in. 4 people were hired first— one was Eddie Gardner from Plainfield IL (racecar driver). Nicknamed Turkey Bird because his takeoffs were wobbly 😆

Wanamaker (department store) became post master general in late 1800s and was proponent of rural free delivery (RFD), post offices as banks (became the largest bank within 50 years), and parcel post.

It’s always been religion and morality and ethics. That has always been the problem.

Wild to realize the same names I know from 2026 were involved in the shaping of the US — suppression of vice society (control) — JP Morgan, Colgate, McAfee, Wells Fargo back in 1860.

Private companies like Wells Fargo saw themselves at odds with a powerful government agency that was bent on destroying its rivals even when it couldn’t provide the same services as efficiently.

Pony express only lasted 18 months.

Congress was content to subsidize the post office… the department still talked about how it needed to operate like a business, but Congress regarded it as a public service. In a country as vast as America, this was inevitable.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” — Greek historian Herodotus marveling at the king of Persia’s mail service

Six days a week, the USPS delivers 513 million pieces of mail, more than 49% of the world’s total volume. People often talk about how the postal service is lumber and inefficient… but the USPS delivers mor items in 9 days than UPS does in a year. It transports more in 7 days than Fed Ex does in a year.