247 Itella, the Finnish postal service, keeps a digital archive of its users’ mail for seven years and helps them pay bills online securely: Leonard, “The End of Mail.”
248 “Staples is open seven days a week, they’re open nine o’clock at night,” he said: Author interview with Donahoe.
248 “This is a direct assault on our jobs and on public postal services,” he said: Joe Davidson, “Staples’ Selling Postal Products Without USPS Workers Stirs Fear of Privatization,” Washington Post, January 17, 2014.
248 “We talk to the White House people,” he said: Author interview with Donahoe.
249 “There’s a little saying that we have,” Donahoe said: Ibid.
249 “We did this with the idea that we were going to have some non-traditional deliveries—evening deliveries, Sunday deliveries,” says Jim Sauber, the NALC’s chief of staff: Author interview with Sauber.
249 “We did get a rush of packages at the end, and our people came through,” Donahoe said: Laura Stevens, “The Secret Weapon at Christmas at the Post Office: Sundays,” Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2014.
250 David Vernon, an analyst at Bernstein Research who tracks the shipping industry, estimates that in 2014, the USPS handled 40 percent of Amazon’s packages—almost 150 million—more than either UPS or FedEx: Devin Leonard, “It’s Amazon’s World. The USPS Just Delivers in It,” Bloomberg Businessweek, July 30, 2015, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-30/it-s-amazon-s-world-the-usps-just-delivers-in-it.
250 “I never thought I would order groceries and have them delivered to my house, but people do it,” Donahoe says. “It’s amazing”: Author interview with Donahoe.
251 “Nobody is really delivering letters anymore,” Sapp says: Author interview with Shante Sapp.
251 Amazon warehouse employees in some cases make only $12 an hour: Robert Channick, “Amazon Hiring for Holidays; Online Retailer Adding 100,000 Temps, Including Hundreds at Its Joliet Factory,” Chicago Tribune, October 21, 2015.
251 “Amazon will drop us in a heartbeat if they find a better way,” says the NALC’s Sauber: Author interview with Sauber.
253 “Who is he?” a senator asked: Author interview with U.S. Senator Thomas Carper.
254 “Today,” she said, “Dr. Angelou receives the Postal Service’s highest honor”: “Postmaster General/CEO Megan Brennan, ‘Maya Angelou’ First-Day-of-Issue Ceremony,” April 7, 2015, https://about.usps.com/news/speeches/2015/pr15_pmg0407.htm.
255 “The strength of the postal service”: Bernie Sanders speech to APWU conference, October 14, 2015. http://www.apwu.org/news/web-news-article/bernie-sanders-addresses-apwu-conference
255 “The goals are laudable”: Lisa Rein, “Bernie Sanders’s Passion for the Prosaic—or Why the Post Office Is Part of What Makes America Great,” Washington Post, November 9, 2015.
255 “Do I have to watch these?’” he asked her: Author interview with Megan Brennan.
Index
All page numbers refer to the print edition of Neither Snow nor Rain. Please use the search feature on your reader to locate the text that corresponds to the index entries below.
Advanced Services, 221
Air Mail Act of 1930, 112
Air Mail Service
background, 87–88
coast-to-coast, 104–108, 109–110
debut of, 87
Edgerton and, 96
end of, 110–111
first anniversary, 103
first night airway, 109
inauspicious start, 89
movement to cancel, 104
New York and Chicago route, 98–102
pilots, 97–98
praise for, 109–110
second anniversary, 104
as “Suicide Club,” 90
airmail contracts
awarding of, 111–112
cancellation of, 124
rebidding of, 124
Allison, Ernest, 106, 108
Amazon.com
same-day and drone delivery, 251
sorting centers, 249
USPS Sunday delivery for, 249–251
William Henderson and, 230
American Anti-Slavery Society, 25, 33, 34
American Express, 83
American Letter Mail Company, 31
American Philatelic Society, 119
American Philatelist, 119, 126–127
American Postal Workers Union (APWU), 178, 185, 199
American Weekly Mercury, 1–3
Angelou, Maya, 254
Angelou stamp, 254
Anthony, Susan B., 123
anthrax attacks, 234
Armstrong, George, 49
Army Air Corps, 124
Association of Postal Commerce, 255
Assyrian postal service, 5
AT&T, 138, 142, 151–152, 154, 168, 223
automation, 209–210
aviation craze, 111
“Aviation: The Air Mail Game,” 111
“B. free Franklin,” 15
Bache, Richard, 10, 15, 16
Bailey, Theodorus, 23
Barry, William, 24, 25
Baucus, Max, 244
Beaumont, Gustave de, 22
Bell, Alexander Graham, 87
Benger, Elliott, 4–5
Benjamin, Maynard, 246
Bennett, Joseph, 67–68
Beranger, Paul, 134
Bezos, Jeff, 230, 251
Bigler, Mike, 202, 203
Biller, Moe
Anthony Frank and, 208–210
on automation, 209–210
on Late Night with David Letterman, 210
postal strike and, 171–172
at Royal Oak, 216
blacks, ban from carrying mail, 20–21
Blair, Montgomery
background, 46–47
franking abuses and, 50
free home delivery, 48–49
hiring of letter carriers, 161
as lawyer, 47
mail transportation improvements, 49
pornography and, 51–52
as postmaster general, 47
special agents and, 50–51
street address requirement, 141
succession advantages for, 48
wartime postal system and, 47–48
Blanchard, Jean-Pierre François, 90
Blood’s City Dispatch, 32
Blount, William
background, 154–155
changes, 182–183
determination, 155, 157
Kappel Commission, 155
merit-based hiring, 156
Nixon and, 155–156
at Postal Reorganization Act signing, 181
postmaster general appointment, 154
public relations team, 157
Rademacher and, 158
Republican lawmakers and, 156
resignation of, 183
sealing of mailboxes, 172
ultimatum to president, 155
warning of catastrophe, 157
Bolger, William
background, 194
E-COM, 222
Fred Smith and, 195–197
nine-digit zip code, 194–195
private express prevention, 195
suspension of USPS monopoly on overnight letters, 198
Boyd’s City Dispatch, 32
Boyle, George, 88
Bradford, Andrew, 1–3
Breaks Virginia post office, 244
Brennan, Megan, 253–255
“Brother Wanamaker,” 78
Brown, J. B., 78
Brown, Leonard, 215–216
Brown, Nathan, 69
Brown, Walter Folger, 111–112, 123–124
Buchanan, James, 43
Buffalo Bill, 43
Bukowski, Charles, xv
bulk mail centers, 183, 184
Burleson, Albert
background, 92–93
as “the cardinal,” 87
firing of union presidents, 163
first annual report, 92
image, 92
as longest serving postmaster general, 92
NALC and, 164
Praeger and, 94–95
as progressive, 93
Burrus, William, 178, 234
Bush, George W., 236
Butterfield, John, 41, 42
Byrd, Richard, 123
California
Gold discovery, 39
San Francisco, 41
Wells opportunity in, 41
Campbell, Jim, 197–198
Canada delivery cutback, 247
Cannon, Joseph, 128
Carlin, Paul, 156
Carlisle, Chris
Charlie Withers and, 215
firing of McIlvane, 212
life insurance purchase, 214
murder of, 215
New Jersey slayings and, 214
Carlstrom, Victor, 98
Carmel, Daphne, 255
Carpenter, George, 76
Carper, Thomas, 241
Carr, Wilbur, 113–114
Carter, Jimmy, 193
Catholic monks, 6–7
Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company. See Pony Express
cheap postage, 34–38
Cheers, 199, 200
Chicago post office
closure, 146
as hub of postal universe, 144
McGee and, 145–146
Mount Semrow, 145
racial tension, 147
Semrow and, 144–145
statistics, 144–145
“child mailing,” 86
children’s stamp clubs, 116–117
Claflin, Tennessee, 54
Clark, Daniel, 60
Cleveland, Grover, 65, 70–71, 80, 162
Cliff Island post office, 237–239
Clinton, Bill, 231
coast-to-coast airmail service. See also Air Mail Service
first attempts, 106–108
hazards of, 104
plan for, 105
regular, beginning of, 109
success, 108
Colfax, Schuyler, 54
Colgate, Samuel, 57
collective bargaining, 173, 181
collective bargaining agreements, 185
Collins, Patti Lyle, 73, 207
colonial postal system
Andrew Hamilton and, 9
beginnings of, 8–9
Benjamin Franklin as comptroller, 3–4
Benjamin Franklin removal from post, 14
dispensing of jobs, 10
financial statement auditing, 12
formalization of, 9
improvements, 11
“King’s Highway,” 9
Native American attacks on, 10
newspaper circulation, 11
postmaster hardships, 10
riders, 9–10, 12, 14
Thomas Neale and, 9
Colson, Charles, 169
“Columbians,” 116
commemorative stamps, 79, 115–116
Compton, Ranulf, 136
Comstock, Anthony
after war, 52–53
anti-obscenity crusade, 53–58
arrests, 56–57
background, 52
death of, 63
Heywood and, 58–62
investigative work, 56
legacy carried on by Post Office, 63–64
as purification agent, 53
as scourge of freethinkers, 58
in Union Army, 52
YMCA and, 53–54, 56, 57
Comstock law
attempts to rescind, 61
call for repeal, 58
Heywood guilty of violating, 76
passage, 55–56
“Comstockery,” 63
Constitutional Convention, 16
Coolidge, Calvin, 110, 118
Coughlin, Michael, 194
Cox, Christopher, 231
Cox, James, 118
Cox, Louis, 195–196
Crosby, Bing, xiv
Cunard steamship company, 28
Cupid’s Yokes, 58, 60, 61, 62
Curley, James, 147
Daley, Richard, 144, 145
Dalsey, Adrian, 187
Dark Ages, 6, 7
De Autremont brothers, 109
Dead Letter Office, 11, 18, 48
Deike, Levi, 149–150
Del Polito, Gene, 255
Deliv, 252, 255
delivery
comparisons, xiii–xiv
extent of, xiii
five-day, 245
home, 48–49, 77–78
one a day, 165
RFD, 74, 77–83
six-day, 246, 247
statistics, xiii
Sunday, for Amazon.com, 249–251
Democracy in America (Toqueville), 22
Depew, Chauncey, 127
Deutsche Post, 231–232
DHL
defined, 187
Deutsche Post purchase, 232
headquarters, 187–188
Hong Kong postal inspectors, 188
Jim Campbell, 197–198
USPS and, 188–189
digital postmarks, 227–228
Dimondstein, Mark, 248
Direct Marketing News, 252
Disney, Walt, xiv
Doherty, William, 165
Donahoe, Patrick
Amazon.com deal, 249–251
background, 239
as chief operating officer, 241
as crisis manager, 240
farewell speech, 252–253
five-day delivery, 245–246
Ingomar trip, 244
as new postmaster general, 239
plan to shrink USPS, 239, 241–244, 258
post offices up for closing, 242– 244
postal carrier, 239–241
resignation of, 252
scrapping closure plan, 245
Staples post offices, 248
Donaldson, Jesse, 138, 164–165, 194
dot-com boom, 229
Dyer, Anna, 237–239
Eaton, Samuel, 106
e-Bay, 251
E-COM
complaints, 223
defined, 222
failure, 224
messages sent, 223–224
speed, 222
Edgerton, James, 96
Edison, Thomas, 70
Edmond, Oklahoma post office, 202–204
Egyptian postal routes, 5
Eisenhower, Dwight, 138, 165
electronic bill-pay, 238, 245
Electronic Computer Originated Mail. See E-COM
Elvis stamp, 217–218, 237
E-mail, 225
Emancipator, 34
“endgame strategy,” 232
Envelope Manufacturers Association, 246
envelopes, 38
Esquire, 135–136
Express Mail, 196–197, 198
“The Express,” 27
Fairbanks, Richard, 9
Fargo, William, 37, 41. See also Wells Fargo
Farley, James
airmail contracts, 124
background, 119–120
blame for USPS troubles, 185–186
at Coca-Cola, 134
condemnation of, 121
farewell address, 134
Kent and, 129
mailbox deposit bill, 121–122
poem honoring, 126–127
postal inspectors and, 122
at Postal Reorganization Act signing, 181
as postmaster general, 121–128
presidential candidacy, 133
proof sheets, 126
as Roosevelt advance man, 133
Roosevelt’s campaigns and, 120– 121
in selling stamps, 123
sheet giveaways, 125
stamp gifts before Congress, 126
farmers
mailboxes, 81
Populist Party, 82–83
RFD and, 82
weather forecast, 81–82
Faulkner, William, xv
FDR Post Office, 250
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 122, 154
Federal Express
bigger planes, 192–193
Express Mail and, 198
first planes, 190–191
first profit, 192
founding of, 190
Fred Smith and, 189–194
move to Memphis, 191
naming of company, 190
original idea, 190
service launch, 191
start of overnight service, 198
USPS advertisement, 199, 220
Filbey, Francis, 185
first-class mail, 225, 233, 234, 244
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 63
five-day delivery, 245
Foery, Martin, 178
Fogel, Seymour, 130
Ford, Gerald, 156
foreign postal services delivery cutbacks, 247
Forever Stamp, 234–235
Foxcroft, John, 12
Frank, Anthony
automation program, 206–207
background, 205–206
Elvis stamp, 217–218
Escondido slayings and, 210
hiring practice review, 217
on Larry King Live, 218
“mini-post offices,” 206
Moe Biller and, 208–210
in new job, 206
“95 in 95!,” 207
resignation of, 217
response to Royal Oak, 216–217
Ronald Reagan and, 205
on what caused shootings, 218
“frank” letters, 4
Franklin, Benjamin
at American Weekly Mercury, 1–2
Andrew Bradford and, 1–3
“B. free Franklin,” 15
British Press and, 13
as comptroller for colonial postal system, 3–4
at Constitutional Convention, 16
crown payment, 11
Dead Letter Office creation, 11
death of, 16
Neither Snow Nor Rain Page 34