Book Read Free

Neither Snow Nor Rain

Page 34

by Devin Leonard


  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

 

‹ Prev