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The Peoples9
Postal Service
Speech of Hon. Burr P. Harrison of Virginia in the House of Representatives, Tuesday, March 9, 1954:
Mr. Crosser. Mr, Chairman, I yield 12 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Harrison).
Mr. Harrison of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous concent to speak out of order.
The Chairman. Is there any objection to the request of the gentleman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
(Mr. Harrison of Virginia asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. • Harrison of Virginia. Mr. Chairmari, I want to address myself to a matter that is of very grave concern to the rural people of our country, a matter of great injustice to them, being carried on by the administrators of the Post Office Department.
The postal deficit for the fiscal year 1953 was $662,851,000. A very small part of that—about 31 percent of it—might be traced directly to the operation of rural post offices, fourth class, throughout the United States. If all of those post offices were discontinued,4 every one of them closed down, and the people now receiving service therefrom were given no service whatsoever, the postal deficit this past fiscal year would still have been approximately $640 million.
Now, I favor, and I think the rural people all over the United States favor, any measures, however small, which result in economy in the operation of the postal department and which will not incur interruption of service. I do not think the administrators of the Post Office Department would find any objection from any rural area to the discontinuance of any post office where such discontinuance would result in economies without impairment of service.When
this matter first came up, I sought and obtained from the Postmaster General personal assurances that, in the making of these decisions on rural postal service, there would be no political consideration whatsoever; that the matter would be determined in each individual case on the outcome of nonpartisan investigations made by the field officials of the Post Office Department, and that no consideration would be given what ever to &ny partisan advantage. Now, I was not satisfied with that, Mr.
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