More and Louder

this is about the US mail people always did care about it but back in early 1970 the United States mail became a matter of real concern just kind of bad like I say to Folks at home you know how come you never write me right like I'm up here I'm lonely will you write me and then they say well I do we wrote you a couple letters but like they don't come where is the address anyway oh right here Mommy I don't think I know how to make a five it's running a tremendous deficit every year the service is not getting any better yeah given their enormous uh load they're doing astoundingly well but they're fantastically inefficient and they could do a heck of a lot better I expect under the new system everybody felt the service was deteriorating do you think it's going to get to Daddy today I doubt it of course the Postal System had come a long way since Ben Franklin switched back and forth from kite flying in Revolution to supervising the maale it grew up [Music] [Music] n [Music] they've come a long way and they've still got some to go comes 5:00 and in some places the big change in close to 200 years is simply more and louder and the load will not stop in 1900 the post office handled 7 billion pieces of mail it'll be close to 120 billion before 1980 a critical situation what with politics rul rules regulations a hodg podge of layers of law the managers didn't run the post office they just sort of administered it if they needed a new building they had to go to Congress money for new equipment go to Congress a new location a wage increase a change in rates Congress had to approve and Congress has a lot of other things on its mind some things certainly should be political some should not in 1970 the president of the United States signed into law an act designed to take the business of handling mail out of politics to establish a postal system independent within the government able to set postal rates and raise its own capital for Change and growth simple words but a whole new ball game what will the changes be on the inside it means professionals at every level the ability to plan and act on the plan in a long period of shaping up but to the public the questions are a little more personal but what new Services can I expect will the rates go up will deliveries improve how will they handle Parcels will they be closing places up do you think we'll get their by tomorrow more in the last 10 years private industry's productivity increased close to 40% the post office's increase was less than 3% lopsided but logical the communications industry in general backs up each worker with $35,000 worth of Hardware in the post office until 1970 it wasn't much over $1,200 this has got to change it means mechanization in the right place at the right time aim to take the burden off the human eye and arm and extend them keep it all moving right through the [Music] process it'll take years but this kind of mechanized magic is beginning now get rollers and electric eyes to extract non-conformist packages air mail Hotel Keys wallets and offbeat envelopes from the main stream find the stamp and cancel [Music] it carry mail on its way with speed and accuracy as never before sophisticated coders can put an address code right on the envelope that will route any letter to its destination automatically by best route best transportation and at its destination let machines read the code and sort again not only by address but write down to a particular letter carrier route and someday in the exact sequence he needs for delivery not yet but [Music] coming machines and coding gadgets can handle Parcels too but separate from letter mail it's not sensible to handle salamis and postcards on the same production line stations and new parcel networks will be out of the hurly Bly of downtown and outlying locations with easy access to airplanes and highways even more is coming companies who send a lot of mail like bills can use standardized envelopes and address type electronic scanners can actually read these addresses at a rate of 84,000 an hour and code the envelopes for Destination someday maybe people can enter code in advance saving even that step this kind of mail handling is not a dream it can happen but one thing it takes is money what the public pays for postage goes to salaries maintenance indebtedness the general cost of running the operation but to raise investment capital for the first time the system is now able to issue bonds to borrow on the open market not go to Congress had in hand what products and services does a future hold for customers there are no final answers but a lot of ideas are being tried out how about a special kind of mail where people can use pre-marked envelopes or containers for a small premium ear marked for fast service like one day delivery when it really is important how about Courier Service combinations of radio teletype or TV and delivery so messages can be transmitted instantaneously across the country or overseas and hand delivered these are only examples the question now is what do we need what will we buy $4,000 well I guess I'll have to have two American flags and 200 all [Music] whoever we are wherever we are the United States Postal Service already handling more male than the rest of the world combined will reach out and find us it still belongs to all the [Music] people and the new United States Postal Service emblem a symbol of change will be appearing everywhere to show [Music] it of course few changes will come overnight some will hardly be [Music] noticed letter a letter for you well I don't know we just have to take a look in here and see let's go up here and take a good look what's your name Craig Craig who Pi Craig picking I've got a letter here from Master Craig picking from a James H picking who's this James H picking my father that's your daddy my goodness I got for my daddy don't wave [Music] it what's your name I don't live here [Music] of course some things are probably not going to change much at [Music] all there're still going to have to be that man or woman out there meeting the people and delivering the mail the fact is after all the words that's what they're selling wherever it takes them [Music] [Applause] w n [Music]