THE NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
PosTAL SERVICE 
The Post Office should be brought up to a high state of efficiency 
and the attainment of efficiency should be the first consideration 
in the financial program of the postal service. 
Any revision of postage rates should be based upon a scientific 
determination in which efficiency is the first consideration and con- 
sideration is given, in addition to cost of operation, to the portion of 
fixed charges that should be met otherwise than through rates. 
Postal salaries should be readjusted by proper classification on a 
differential scale rather than on a uniform nation-wide basis. 
An adequate emergency fund should be made available to the 
Postmaster General to use in increasing salaries in communities 
where the Civil Service Commission certifies eligibles cannot other- 
wise be obtained. (Referendum No. 44, submitted January 7, 1925.) 
Revision oF Postar RATES 
Experience has definitely demonstrated that the present scale of 
postal rates is not on a reasonable basis and is resulting in consider- 
able harm to various users of the mails and therefore to the public 
in general. These facts have been brought out at the various hear- 
ings before the Post Office Committees of Congress, and the Postal 
Service Committee of the Chamber has rendered a report which 
shows clearly that a revision of postal rates should be made as soon 
as possible. 
There has been a more or less generally accepted idea that the 
receipts from the postal service should fully cover all of the costs 
of that service. This is contrary to accepted business principles and 
overlooks the fact that efficiency and adequacy of the service should 
be the first consideration. It also overlooks the fact that Congress, 
in its wisdom, has seen fit to use the postal service for carrying out 
of governmental policies by the granting and extending of “free” or 
“less than cost” services. 
In the making of postal rates, applicable to purely commercial 
business, the following elements should be fully considered: First, 
the cost to the Post Office Department of the handling of “free” or 
“less than cost” matter; second, the rates should be so made as to 
encourage the further use of the postal service and thus reduce the 
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