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Money Talks
The Election Exposes Why the Post Office Should Not Be Treated Like a Business
It can be an arm of government or a profitable business — it can’t be both
Money Talks is a column that explores what happens when business, the economy, and culture collide.
On April 13, 1957, America was rocked by a national crisis: The mail did not come. It was a Saturday, and Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, facing a budget crisis, decided to cut off Saturday deliveries. The decision was sensible, economically speaking. But it was politically disastrous, provoking a huge outcry from Americans who found it intolerable to wait two days for a letter. Later that week, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill that provided more funding for the post office, and on April 20, letter carriers across the country were back on their appointed rounds.
That April 13 hiatus was the only time in the history of the U.S. Postal Service that mail wasn’t delivered on a Saturday, and from one angle, it looks like just a little quirk of postal history. But it was actually a perfect expression of the post office’s basic dilemma: It’s expected to be run like a business, but it isn’t allowed to do the things a business in its position would.
