More for Mail

When it comes to fluctuating prices in the current renewed surge of double-digit inflation, those for postage stamps are no exception. Uncertain as to just what the rate for first-class letter mail will be by Christmas, the U.S. Postal Service is printing 1.5 billion 1975 Christmas stamps that come in two designs but have one common distinction: no postage is indicated on them. Last week, however, it became almost certain that Americans will be paying more for first-class postage, if not by Christmas then soon thereafter. A new series of recommendations by the Postal Rate Commission could have the effect of raising the current 10-c- letter rate to 13-c-.

The commission's decision reverses a May ruling by its chief administrative law judge, Seymour Wenner. He favored lowering first-class postage to 8 1/2-c- while sharply raising rates by 122% for second class (newspapers, magazines) and 67.6% for fourth class (parcel post, records, books). Wenner's reasoning: first-class users were assuming more than their share of postal costs, "subsidizing" other classes and turning the Postal Service into a "tax collection agency, collecting money from first-class mailers to distribute to other favored classes."

Wenner's views appalled many postal officials, including Postmaster General Benjamin F. Bailar. He felt that sharply higher second-and fourth-class rates might actually work to cut Postal Service volume and revenues and thus "ultimately drive first-class rates even higher than anyone has proposed."

The five-member Postal Commission evidently agreed. It repudiated Wenner's method of calculating mail costs and concluded that first-class users were not being penalized. The commission said that the 10-c- rate, which has been in effect on a temporary basis for the past 18 months, should be made permanent. That move, under the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, allows the Postal Service Board of Governors, the final arbiter, to authorize raising rates by 33% over the current ones within 100 days, again on a "temporary" basis. The governors could hold off or change the commission's recommendations, but there was no indication last week that they would.

While the Postal Rate Commission rejected Wenner's proposals, it came up with other recommendations, among them one that would raise the second-class rates so crucial to publishers and their readers by 42% over the next four years. That new increase, which the Postal Service is expected to adopt this week, comes on top of other second-class rate rises totaling 127% since 1971. While the latest jump is far less than the 122% proposed by Wenner, the increase--not to mention others that are certain to come along between now and 1980--poses an economic threat to many magazines and newspapers. This threat again raises the question of whether it is wise national policy to make the mails pay for themselves, as the Postal Reorganization Act mandates, or whether the service should be subsidized in the interest of informed public opinion.

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