Wyatt at Work

While Congress was talking its budget-cutting best, Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield rode up to Capitol Hill last week like Wyatt Earp moving in on an edgy town board. Before an economy-tortured House Appropriations .Subcommittee Summerfield sat down and made his peremptory demand: a deficiency appropriation of $47 million to carry on until June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Bluntly he threatened to "drastically curtail" post office services unless the committee gave him what he wanted; he invited Congressmen to say "whatever services you would have the American people be denied."

Threats & Heartbreak. The subcommittee turned as purple as the magnolia blossoms on the Mall. Snorted Missouri Democrat Clarence Cannon, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee (who is well equipped to snort): "He is attempting to sandbag us with threats.''

Roared Virginia Democrat J. Vaughan Gary (who is well equipped to roar): "If we're going to yield to threats of that type, we will lose all control . . ." The subcommittee voted to give Summerfield $17 million and no more.

With that, Summerfield went for his guns. At an "emergency"' press conference, well reinforced with pamphlets and charts that obviously had been carefully prepared long in advance, he said that unless the Appropriations Committee voted the full $47 million in a matter of hours he ("and it breaks my heart even to consider such action") would have to take a whole string of drastic steps: 1) shut down post offices on Saturdays, 2) stop Saturday mail deliveries, 3) trim business-district deliveries and 4) curb third-class mail and postal money-order services.

Old Washington hands groaned or grinned at what was going to happen to Postmaster General Summerfield, trying to bully Congress like that. Then it became apparent that Summerfield had some real convincers in his holsters. Last January he had warned Congress that he would have to come in for an emergency appropriation. One reason was that Congress had revised the postal workers' pay structure, increasing the payroll $17 million a year. Beyond that. Summerfield had the solid argument that unprecedented growth of population and of economic activity in the U.S. had increased the amount of mail handled yearly by the Post Office Department from 36 billion items to 56 billion in ten years.

As cries of support for Summerfield began to come in from postmen who were worried about their pay--and voters who were worried about their mail--Congressmen began to recall that the mail is one Government service that reaches almost every constituent almost every day. The day after Summerfield's press conference, the Appropriations Committee turned tail, voted to reconsider his request. In a second press conference, the Postmaster General announced that his proposed cutbacks would not take effect until this weekend --the day after the committee is scheduled to make up its mind about that other $30 million. It looked as if the mails would go through as before.

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