example, today, a 3-eeht stamp will deliver a letter in San Francisco, or Rice. Va. — 3,000 miles or ten miles for the same rate. Every American can be reached by mail, wherever he may live. The service extends to the remote sections of this vast country. The patron who gets ten letters a year at the end of a 20 rniie rural delivery route is. just as important as the business which re ceived thousands of letters a day. There is a ready-to-serve cost which must be met regardless of the volume of mail delivered. Our contention is that the general public, through tax monies must share in this ready-to-serve cost. Congress has a re sponsibility in providing sufficient funds to make possible this ready-to-serve cost. We base this opinion on the premise that the postal service will be economically op erated and on a business-like basis. Con gress could well investigate this phase of the operation. No doubt some procedures could be instituted to increase efficiency and reduce cost. An overall study could well point to these possibilities. First-class mail rates must be kept low to assure volume and to provide service. Some of the many other activities of the postal system might be curtailed or the rates increased — for example, money orders, savings bonds, parcel post, insured mail, registered mail, printed envelopes, etc. Second class mail, principally publica tions, has been increased 60 percent within the past three years. Because these publi cations, in general, are necessary for the dissemination of public information pre ferential rates may be justified. Congress is in the squeeze, and will prob ably vote the deficit appropriation for con tinuation of the full postal service without curtailment. At the same time a peep into the efficency of operation of the postal service might be helpful.

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