The United States Postal Service has endured many changes since America’s founding and has remained the lifeblood of rural America. We are now facing a major crisis.
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Newman, his nemesis on Jerry Seinfeld’s sitcom of the same name, made the famous (and creepy) statement. “When you control your email, you control yourself.” information. ”
It was something Renaissance man and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin knew all too well. He oversaw the postal service from 1753 to 1774, improving the rough system that connected Britain’s 13 colonies. However, Smithsonian Magazine writes that when it became clear that war between the United States and Great Britain was inevitable, Franklin and his fellow rebels relied on underground communication networks to share information that would prove critical to the revolutionaries’ success.
In 1775, the Continental Congress created what would become the United States Postal Service, with Franklin as its first postmaster general. According to the agency’s website, this was “the new government’s first and, for many, most important role.”
Now, 251 years after its founding, the USPS remains an important government function for many Americans, but the service is facing a financial crisis that has forced it to suspend pension plan payments and raise prices on parcels, priority mail and stamps.
According to Steve Kochelsperger, USPS historian and manager of corporate information services, mail is delivered to Americans no matter how far away they are. And they deliver letters, luggage, and parcels by any means necessary: by car, boat, plane, or even mule.
Let’s take a look back at this iconic American institution, which has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years.
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War and commerce drive postal innovation
Kochelsperger explains that before the Civil War, Americans had to go to their local post office, and in many small communities that meant going to a general store or another store downtown.
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Newspapers, an important source of information from colonial times into the 20th century, were given subsidies to send by mail as a means of communicating information to people. But Lynn Heidelbaugh, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, said mailing letters and correspondence can be expensive. Postage rates were lowered in 1845, making it more affordable, and stamps were introduced in 1847, making it more convenient. Mail was delivered to the post office by horse, stagecoach, and later by train.
According to Heidelbaugh, when the Civil War broke out, it was not uncommon to see women with children waiting in line at urban post offices for letters from sons and husbands who had been estranged by the war. Free home delivery began in urban areas in 1863, but it took “decades of debate in Congress” for it to spread to small towns and villages, he said. By 1902, free rural delivery became the norm across the United States
John Wanamaker, a Philadelphia department store owner, was appointed postmaster general by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889 and promoted free rural delivery (RFD), commemorative stamps, and pneumatic tubes, innovations that were introduced after his term ended in 1893, Kochelsperger said.
“Sears & Roebuck and Montgomery Ward, they were the Amazons of their time,” Kochelsperger said. “Business grew because catalogs could be sent directly to people.” Starting in 1913, Americans could receive parcels no matter how far away they were.
Infrastructure equals access
Heidelbaugh said the USPS’ universal service mission means it must be able to reach sometimes hard-to-reach areas, which has helped strengthen physical connections in many communities.
“Rural delivery helped advocate for better roads,” she said. “Rural areas were already working to improve their roads, and rural truckers could use those roads to make a case for better roads that are graded, paved, and maintained.”
The Constitution gives Congress the power to establish post offices and post roads, and Heidelbaugh said this clause has “great latitude” and has been interpreted to include not only paved roads, but also waterways, canals, railroads and air mail services. This is also affecting rural areas and commercial organizations. “When funds are routed to other (postal) routes, the companies that transport the mail receive a steady stream of income, allowing the railroad companies that transport the mail, for example, to invest more in passenger service.”
Reach hard-to-reach places
The Postal Service can be a figurative and literal lifeline for many Americans living in remote and remote areas, from rural parts of the continental United States to hard-to-reach areas of Alaska to far-flung territories like Guam and military bases around the world.
Kochelsperger said newspapers and letters “help keep families informed and connected, especially in times of crisis, such as during wars, when loved ones are far away.”
The mail is the means by which the federal government serves and communicates with people (for example, the Internal Revenue Service communicates with taxpayers by mail). During the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, post offices were “crucial in delivering life-saving medicine and much more” to people unable to leave their homes.
“If your nearest pharmacy is a day’s drive away, you may be able to rely on the post office for life-saving medicines,” he said.
The American Samoa Post Office is the only U.S. post office in the Southern Hemisphere. Kochelsperger said there are post offices in Antarctica and Greenland, and there are also post offices on ships around the world. USPS only delivers during certain times of the year to remote villages in Alaska that are only accessible by air. The Detroit River Service delivers mail to boats navigating the waterway, and the Spy Post Office delivers mail to the Havasupai Tribe people in the Grand Canyon. Mule trains are the “best and most cost-effective way” to access areas that are inaccessible by car and too dangerous for helicopters and small planes, he said.
Across the country, “when you drop something in a mailbox, it’s a given that it’s going to arrive in the mailbox,” he said.
“The calculation is very easy.”
The 21st century has brought tough challenges to the postal service. The Postal Service has struggled for decades to maintain costs while delivering to areas across the United States and around the world.
The USPS has lost money every year since 2007, totaling about $109 billion by fiscal year 2024, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office. Americans’ habits are changing, and they can now communicate, pay bills, and even sign documents all online. According to the Postal Regulatory Commission, the USPS delivered 112 billion pieces of mail in fiscal year 2024. While this may sound like a huge amount, it’s actually down nearly 50% from its 2006 peak.
Postmaster General David Steiner said in comments May 8 that the Postal Service’s financial outlook is “unsustainable” under its current business model.
“The math is very simple,” he said. “Revenues and services cannot offset the costs associated with universal service obligations.”
He said Congress sees allocating more money to the Postal Service as “public service reimbursement for the universal service that the Postal Service provides to the public, a service that no other private company has the desire or ability to perform.”
But Steiner admitted to Congress in March that 71% of mail routes cost the Postal Service money. Meanwhile, postage rates remain among the lowest in the developed world, despite frequent increases.
Critics say the Postal Service needs a fundamental overhaul. The Wall Street Journal wrote in a May 11 editorial that another “bailout” for the Postal Service by Congress is not the answer. “That business model is anachronistic in a digital world,” as the number of addresses that need to be reached continues to grow and so do costs.
“Something has to give,” the paper said, calling on Congress to let go of postage and nationwide shipping obligations and “let Mr. Steiner run it like a business.”
Meanwhile, Steiner proposed updating Congressional reimbursement amounts to better reflect today’s fiscal realities, including changes to USPS’ borrowing capacity and reform of the retirement system. The need for a strong postal service shouldn’t be partisan, Steiner added.
“The Postal Service was established to serve the nation,” Steiner said.
Phaedra Torresan is a national correspondent for USA TODAY and writes about history and Americana. Contact her via email at ptrethan@usatoday.com, X @wordsbyphaedra, BlueSky @byphaedra, or Threads @by_phaedra..
