February 19, 1969 (12 pages)

_-tT = <—— a 1 i Sh em ee spay ence and exploration to usable terms, will have one certainreaction to the heroic flight of the Apollo 8. If we can send men around the moon with clocklke precision, why can't the Post Office move a letter from one city to another with comparable and dependability? Undispatch til now, the "Post Office mess" — has been accepted with philosophical resignation. How much longer this state of affairs will go on is anybody's guess, But it is likely the time will come when resignation and somewhat amused tolerance of postal incompetence will suddenly be displaced by anger and public demand for correction. Months ago the President's Commission on Postal Organization recommended scrapping the present postal system. It recommended the formation of a federally-owned, nonprofit corporation, which would bring basic business procedures to the Post Office. The corporation would set up a career service to put hirings and management on a nonpolitical basis instead of on a patronage basis as at present. Promotions would depend on merit instead of political influcence. A corporation such as envisioned in the Commissions’s report . would encourage a professional management corps. Postal rates would be set on the "actual cost of service, value to those served and changing market demands." Of the present state of postal affairs, former Postmaster General Lawrence F, O'Brien has ‘said: "No human being can efficiently manage the nation's postal service as it now is conw A private organization known as the Independent Postal System of America, with headquarters in Oklahoma City, has developed a method of handling bulk PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY BY NEVADA COUNTY PUBLISHING CO, 318 Broad Street, Nevada City, Ca. 95959 Telephone 265-2471 Second class postage . paid at Nevada City, California, Adjudicated a legal news. pepedyd get circuon by the Nevada County Superior Court , Juce 3, 1960. Decree mail without infringing on the law against setting up a private postal operation. As may be imagined, its business is rapidly expanding. The head of this unique undertaking declares, "We're willing to prove that private enterprise can put the U.S. Post Office out of business if necessary. They've proven they can’t do the job in a businesslike way, piling deficit on top of deficit. Well, we can take it off their hands and still pay the taxes the free enterprise system is required to pay." Typical of the plight of larger cities with regard to mail service is that of San Francisco. A late survey of the business community by the Greater San Francisco Chamber of Commerce reveals all too clearly the unfunny side of the postal debacle, Seventy-five per cent of the respondents of the survey said that today’s mail service is worse than five years ago. A number of companies reported incidents of financial loss due to inadequate mail service, During the month of September alone, 55 per cent of the responding firms indicated cases of lost or misplaced mail. The rate of incidents increased to 65_per_cent when considering delivery over a three-month period, Such loss of letters, checks and important documents is causing undue expense and embarrassment to the San Francisco business community. One firm complained: ‘Numerous letters containing checks have been lost in the last six months, Important legal documents were destroyed in the mail. Replacement required considerable time and expense." Another company reported, "Recently a substantial bank deposit took approximately one week to get from South San Francisco to San Francisco; as a result we were overdrawn."" As a consequence of deteriorating mail service, many business firms in San Francisco use special messenger services, One concern has gone:so far as to set up a statewide messenger system, using automobiles and aircraft. The impending collapse in postal service is no joke. No doubt countless other cities share the experience of San Francisco. In the words of a Life magazine editorial, ". . . EH the American people really understood the disaster that faces this vital service, their clamor would s§ 3 E g a H ? Early Washingtonians were agriculturists at heart By Rye Slye . In 1858 it was estimated that the number of ranches and value of improvements on them, inthe Township of Washington were: Ranches--6. Value of improvement s--$7,000. (Thompson & West History of Nevada County, 1880) ea bd That the “Old-Timers” tried out many different kinds of fruit trees can be proven by the many varieties of apples, quince, peaczas, walnuts--three to five different varieties grafted on the same tree, that still are growing in the District. There is a hickory nut tree on the Clyde Cole property that produces ’ nuts each year. The piace of land on the corner of Main Street and the new county road was used to raise potatoes for his hotel by Mr. E. T. Worthley for many years. Old pictures show a vegetable garden where the present River _ Rest cabins are now located. This was to supply vegetables for the energetic Mr. E. T. Worthley. The town slaughter= house was in back of this area. Since bull-dozed off to make a camp site. Chinese gardeners raised “wonderful vegetables” along the river and supplied many homes via the “old-basket-onthe-pole" service, : The same old pictures, taken from Phelps Hill (Sheep Hill) show fruit trees and vegetables growing around the houses of Clyde Cole, Worthley place @resent Bruce Williamson place) and the Isabella Williamson home on Alpha Road. Family traditions tell of the large strawberries with a "wonderful flavor" that were raised when the town had "plenty of water," : Until well into the 1930's large er etevations, Hi H FR i [i it rH sa? enough chickens for their own "We received Thursday, from . That is one of the things C. Grissel, via the Washington stage, 2 quantity of his mammoth rhubarb, Everyone who has seen this rhubarb says it will eclipse any raised in Nevada County. Washington appears to be. peculiarly adapted to raising rhubarb." (Nevada City Daily Transcript, September 5, 1860) * * * Geo. Grissel, the stage driver, brought from Washington yesterday a hen's egg that measured seven and three-quarters by six and one-half inches, It is from a blue Andalusian hen. The egg is on display at Hotel Antlers. (Nevada City Daily Morning Miner, September 2, 1903) * * * a Ed, Brimskill of Washington, unearthed in his garden a potato that weighed two andonequarter pounds. (NCDI, October 17, 1903.) Letters Mr, Editor: 3 I wonder if there is any of the oldtimers left who remembers Mr, Tailor's coffee store on Pine Street between Commercial and Broad Streets in Nevada City? You know, that was all he handled --just sacks and more sacks of green coffee. I guess everybody bought coffee from him. He would roast your coffee and I am not kidding, you. could smell it a long way off. I in some time I can still smell the coffee roasting in Mr. Tailor's coffee shop. I will never forget. And there's a whole lot more, One other thing I remember is the three breweries that used to make steam beer. Some of us kids used to roll the beer kegs in Gehrig's brewery when he would put hot pitch in the kegs, We would roll the kegs until t i z 8 Z SRE ep 4 i Es Ef "H i : : They were good old days, not much in the line of wages. But had a full dinner pail and a lot happier than they are today with their big wages. So long, JACK BASSET ~ ? fen Oh Renin ste aan USA today By ROBERT M. SMALLEY While press attention is inevitably focused on the new President, his programs and his key appointees, the broad task of shaping a whole new national a tion has a vastness to it which may be unrealized publicly. Not only are the new man_ agers of government preoccupied with such w: ty matters as Vietnam, tion and crime, but. they must also be concerned with the huge continuing businesses of government, many of which may affect the nation’s economy or its society, with very few headlines along the way. A case in point is the Department of Commerce, Once one of the most prestigious, _it has been overshadowed recent years by other departments and agencies more immediately identified withe international problems or the social upheavals of the times. Yet the Commerce Department has vast influence on the nation’s economic policies, on its international trade, on the development of mate: and roducts vi gag — deense, and on a broad_spectrum of scientific. _achievements. Beyond its obvious interests represented by the Office of Business Economics, the Economic Development Administration, the Bureau of International Commerce, and the Domestic and International Business Administration, the Department embraces such independent entities as the Bureau of tne Census, the Maritime Administration, Environmental Science Services Administration, the Patent Office and the huge National Bureau of Standards, which . deals in everything from weights and measures to atomic physics, from meteorology metallurgy. These specialized and diverse interests have tended to develop their own separate entities in recent years, to the point that Commerce now may be characterized more as a collection of independent: bodies than as a Department of mutual interests, each contributing at least something to the others. A fairly heavy turnover of Secretaries has weakened the Department; its career people often have been left wanting in terms of immediate decisions and longterm planning. The new Secretary of Commerce, Maurice. Stans, is deSpeetatats oar et eee S en its pres’ . He is tly: intend pepe teen pgs cooperative and productive decisions and ‘making it clear that he intends to stay on the job for a full four years. 8 President Nixon re has a strong interest inthe Department, recsol “ Vv of the wi aa : : To the new ernment, the 65-year-old t of Commerce offers an cane uenee one to give a ee

_-tT = <—— a 1 i Sh em ee spay ence and exploration to usable terms, will have one certainreaction to the heroic flight of the Apollo 8. If we can send men around the moon with clocklke precision, why can't the Post Office move a letter from one city to another with comparable and dependability? Undispatch til now, the "Post Office mess" — has been accepted with philosophical resignation. How much longer this state of affairs will go on is anybody's guess, But it is likely the time will come when resignation and somewhat amused tolerance of postal incompetence will suddenly be displaced by anger and public demand for correction. Months ago the President's Commission on Postal Organization recommended scrapping the present postal system. It recommended the formation of a federally-owned, nonprofit corporation, which would bring basic business procedures to the Post Office. The corporation would set up a career service to put hirings and management on a nonpolitical basis instead of on a patronage basis as at present. Promotions would depend on merit instead of political influcence. A corporation such as envisioned in the Commissions’s report . would encourage a professional management corps. Postal rates would be set on the "actual cost of service, value to those served and changing market demands." Of the present state of postal affairs, former Postmaster General Lawrence F, O'Brien has ‘said: "No human being can efficiently manage the nation's postal service as it now is conw A private organization known as the Independent Postal System of America, with headquarters in Oklahoma City, has developed a method of handling bulk PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY BY NEVADA COUNTY PUBLISHING CO, 318 Broad Street, Nevada City, Ca. 95959 Telephone 265-2471 Second class postage . paid at Nevada City, California, Adjudicated a legal news. pepedyd get circuon by the Nevada County Superior Court , Juce 3, 1960. Decree mail without infringing on the law against setting up a private postal operation. As may be imagined, its business is rapidly expanding. The head of this unique undertaking declares, "We're willing to prove that private enterprise can put the U.S. Post Office out of business if necessary. They've proven they can’t do the job in a businesslike way, piling deficit on top of deficit. Well, we can take it off their hands and still pay the taxes the free enterprise system is required to pay." Typical of the plight of larger cities with regard to mail service is that of San Francisco. A late survey of the business community by the Greater San Francisco Chamber of Commerce reveals all too clearly the unfunny side of the postal debacle, Seventy-five per cent of the respondents of the survey said that today’s mail service is worse than five years ago. A number of companies reported incidents of financial loss due to inadequate mail service, During the month of September alone, 55 per cent of the responding firms indicated cases of lost or misplaced mail. The rate of incidents increased to 65_per_cent when considering delivery over a three-month period, Such loss of letters, checks and important documents is causing undue expense and embarrassment to the San Francisco business community. One firm complained: ‘Numerous letters containing checks have been lost in the last six months, Important legal documents were destroyed in the mail. Replacement required considerable time and expense." Another company reported, "Recently a substantial bank deposit took approximately one week to get from South San Francisco to San Francisco; as a result we were overdrawn."" As a consequence of deteriorating mail service, many business firms in San Francisco use special messenger services, One concern has gone:so far as to set up a statewide messenger system, using automobiles and aircraft. The impending collapse in postal service is no joke. No doubt countless other cities share the experience of San Francisco. In the words of a Life magazine editorial, ". . . EH the American people really understood the disaster that faces this vital service, their clamor would s§ 3 E g a H ? Early Washingtonians were agriculturists at heart By Rye Slye . In 1858 it was estimated that the number of ranches and value of improvements on them, inthe Township of Washington were: Ranches--6. Value of improvement s--$7,000. (Thompson & West History of Nevada County, 1880) ea bd That the “Old-Timers” tried out many different kinds of fruit trees can be proven by the many varieties of apples, quince, peaczas, walnuts--three to five different varieties grafted on the same tree, that still are growing in the District. There is a hickory nut tree on the Clyde Cole property that produces ’ nuts each year. The piace of land on the corner of Main Street and the new county road was used to raise potatoes for his hotel by Mr. E. T. Worthley for many years. Old pictures show a vegetable garden where the present River _ Rest cabins are now located. This was to supply vegetables for the energetic Mr. E. T. Worthley. The town slaughter= house was in back of this area. Since bull-dozed off to make a camp site. Chinese gardeners raised “wonderful vegetables” along the river and supplied many homes via the “old-basket-onthe-pole" service, : The same old pictures, taken from Phelps Hill (Sheep Hill) show fruit trees and vegetables growing around the houses of Clyde Cole, Worthley place @resent Bruce Williamson

place) and the Isabella Williamson home on Alpha Road. Family traditions tell of the large strawberries with a "wonderful flavor" that were raised when the town had "plenty of water," : Until well into the 1930's large er etevations, Hi H FR i [i it rH sa? enough chickens for their own "We received Thursday, from . That is one of the things C. Grissel, via the Washington stage, 2 quantity of his mammoth rhubarb, Everyone who has seen this rhubarb says it will eclipse any raised in Nevada County. Washington appears to be. peculiarly adapted to raising rhubarb." (Nevada City Daily Transcript, September 5, 1860) * * * Geo. Grissel, the stage driver, brought from Washington yesterday a hen's egg that measured seven and three-quarters by six and one-half inches, It is from a blue Andalusian hen. The egg is on display at Hotel Antlers. (Nevada City Daily Morning Miner, September 2, 1903) * * * a Ed, Brimskill of Washington, unearthed in his garden a potato that weighed two andonequarter pounds. (NCDI, October 17, 1903.) Letters Mr, Editor: 3 I wonder if there is any of the oldtimers left who remembers Mr, Tailor's coffee store on Pine Street between Commercial and Broad Streets in Nevada City? You know, that was all he handled --just sacks and more sacks of green coffee. I guess everybody bought coffee from him. He would roast your coffee and I am not kidding, you. could smell it a long way off. I in some time I can still smell the coffee roasting in Mr. Tailor's coffee shop. I will never forget. And there's a whole lot more, One other thing I remember is the three breweries that used to make steam beer. Some of us kids used to roll the beer kegs in Gehrig's brewery when he would put hot pitch in the kegs, We would roll the kegs until t i z 8 Z SRE ep 4 i Es Ef "H i : : They were good old days, not much in the line of wages. But had a full dinner pail and a lot happier than they are today with their big wages. So long, JACK BASSET ~ ? fen Oh Renin ste aan USA today By ROBERT M. SMALLEY While press attention is inevitably focused on the new President, his programs and his key appointees, the broad task of shaping a whole new national a tion has a vastness to it which may be unrealized publicly. Not only are the new man_ agers of government preoccupied with such w: ty matters as Vietnam, tion and crime, but. they must also be concerned with the huge continuing businesses of government, many of which may affect the nation’s economy or its society, with very few headlines along the way. A case in point is the Department of Commerce, Once one of the most prestigious, _it has been overshadowed recent years by other departments and agencies more immediately identified withe international problems or the social upheavals of the times. Yet the Commerce Department has vast influence on the nation’s economic policies, on its international trade, on the development of mate: and roducts vi gag — deense, and on a broad_spectrum of scientific. _achievements. Beyond its obvious interests represented by the Office of Business Economics, the Economic Development Administration, the Bureau of International Commerce, and the Domestic and International Business Administration, the Department embraces such independent entities as the Bureau of tne Census, the Maritime Administration, Environmental Science Services Administration, the Patent Office and the huge National Bureau of Standards, which . deals in everything from weights and measures to atomic physics, from meteorology metallurgy. These specialized and diverse interests have tended to develop their own separate entities in recent years, to the point that Commerce now may be characterized more as a collection of independent: bodies than as a Department of mutual interests, each contributing at least something to the others. A fairly heavy turnover of Secretaries has weakened the Department; its career people often have been left wanting in terms of immediate decisions and longterm planning. The new Secretary of Commerce, Maurice. Stans, is deSpeetatats oar et eee S en its pres’ . He is tly: intend pepe teen pgs cooperative and productive decisions and ‘making it clear that he intends to stay on the job for a full four years. 8 President Nixon re has a strong interest inthe Department, recsol “ Vv of the wi aa : : To the new ernment, the 65-year-old t of Commerce offers an cane uenee one to give a ee