
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991                   TAG: 9103100092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CLARKSBURG, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Short

OFFICIAL: 29 CENT STAMP `DUMB'

U.S. Postmaster General Anthony Frank says the new 29-cent price for a first-class stamp is just plain dumb.

Frank, speaking at a mail-plant dedication ceremony Friday, said the U.S. Postal Service had asked that the price be boosted from 25 cents to 30 cents.

"The Postal Rate Commission apparently never met an even number that it liked," Frank said. "That's the most printable thing I can say."

He said 29-cent price was "dumb," adding the only people benefiting from the odd-number cost were copper miners in Chile, jokingly referring to the increased use of pennies brought on by the price increase.

Frank said new postal plants will make what he called the world's best postal service faster and more efficient.

We are now in an era of automation," he said. "We expect to have the postal service fully automated by 1995. We are going through a period of change here in the first half of this decade that is greater than all the changes in the preceding 216 years."

by CNB