Chuck ’s Reviews > Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service > Status Update

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.

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.