June 28, 2021

The Postal Reorganization Act attempted to transform the Post Office into a self-funding independent agency.  Courtesy of the USPS Historian we know:

On August 12, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed into law the Postal Reorganization Act, the most comprehensive postal legislation since the founding of the republic. The law transformed the cabinet-level Post Office Department into a newly independent establishment of the executive branch called the United States Postal Service. While portions of the law took effect in the months following its passage, the law didn’t take full effect until July 1, 1971.

To mark the transition, Nixon proclaimed July 1, 1971, as “National Postal Service Day,” a day “set aside … to give recognition to the contributions made through the years by the men and women of the Post Office who have served the Nation so faithfully and to mark the inauguration of the United States Postal Service.” Postmaster General Winton Blount called it “a day when the general public and the people of the Postal Service [could] join together in a warm and friendly manner.”

The cartoon below recounts Southern businessman and Postmaster General Red Blount’s warnings that without reform chaos was coming, including a postal breakdown–if changes weren’t made.  Sound familiar?