30-Cent Stamp Proposal

The U.S. Postal Service is facing the biggest one-year deficit in its history (front page, March 6). Is this supposed to be news?

Well, let’s try taking the millions (of dollars) wasted by the franking privileges of Congress and contribute it to the Postal Service deficit. I, along with millions of other taxpayers, never read these so-called newsletters. They go into the trash can along with all the other (tons of) junk mail delivered to America’s households.

My first suggestion is to eliminate all this junk mail by making everyone utilizing the service pay his fair share with first-class postage.

Secondly, discontinue the six-day delivery service. This is one of the biggest wastes. There is no mail that anyone receives through the Postal Service that is so important that its recipient will be adversely affected by receiving it on Tuesday instead of Monday, or receiving it on Saturday instead of Friday. By splitting the delivery service into Monday-Wednesday-Friday routes and Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday routes, one postman can cover twice as much territory, or deliver twice as much mail (first-class mail, that is).

And I am not suggesting laying anyone off; the new service would be phased in by attrition.

J.E. (JIM) HULGAN

San Gabriel