Goodbye, Mr. ZIP

In the Cabinets of most Presidents, the Postmaster General is the forgotten man. But in one way J. Edward Day was different from most of his predecessors: he put his stamp on the Post Office Department.

A vice president of Prudential Insurance Co. of America before he joined the New Frontier, Day brought big business savvy to big government. He launched Accelerated Business Collection-Delivery (ABCD), a service in which letters mailed in any of 273 cities by 11 a.m. are delivered to any point in the downtown section of the city by 3 p.m. the same day. Day's recently inaugurated Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP), using five-digit codes affixed by the sender, is designed to speed mail service by pinpointing exactly how the letter should be routed--through one of ten U.S. regions, and on to states, cities, towns, postal zones or even large office buildings. Already in use by advertising mailers, ZIP eliminates as many as six separate handlings, and, says Day, will save the Post Office $15 million in its first year. The Post Office will soon begin using still another Day innovation: air mail stamps printed with magnetized ink so that air mail can be separated quickly from regular letters by electronic devices.

Last week the White House an nounced Day's resignation. He had experienced his share of frustrations in sharp-elbowed Washington, but the only reason he was leaving, he said, was that "an unusual opportunity" had knocked. He will leave the New Frontier next week to set up a Washington office for Sidley, Austin, Burgess & Smith, the Chicago law firm in which he began a legal career 25 years ago.

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