Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It’s a saying that we’re all familiar with: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

While the Postal Service has no official motto, the popular belief that it does is a tribute to America’s postal workers.The words above, thought to be the motto, are chiseled in gray granite over the entrance to the New York City Post Office on 8th Avenue. The inscription was supplied by William M. Kendall of the architectural firm that planned the building. 

The original saying was spoken about 2500 years ago by the Greek historian, Herodotus. He actually said “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

This was said during the war between the Greeks and Persians about 500 B.C. in reference to the Persian mounted postal couriers whom he observed and held in high esteem.

‘Neither Snow Nor Rain’ Day is September 7 – the anniversary of the opening of the New York Post Office on which the saying is inscribed.

The saying was also the motto of the Pony Express riders, who were the most famous early American mailmen.

The saying is a tribute to the mail carrier who doesn’t always get to witness the joy they bring when they deliver holiday cards, birthday greetings, etc.

The mail carrier makes sure the mail gets through 6 days a week 52 weeks a year. 

While radio, television and the Internet have irrevocably altered our information-gathering habits, postal correspondence remains the most secure and resilient form of communication, providing the American People with a delivery infrastructure vital to our National Security.

The role of the USPS is vital for the U.S. economy, consumers, and the mail services industry to serve 153 million residents, offices, and businesses at every corner of the country. Over the years, the USPS has created major breakthrough innovations that have significant applications for the way Americans do business in the public and private sectors. Without receiving tax dollars, the USPS creates, expands, and maintains a sophisticated infrastructure that no other business entity can provide. The mail services industry is facing a challenging time: E-commerce is growing and businesses are fiercely competing by lowering shipping costs, cutting transit time, and introducing same-day as well as Sunday deliveries.

In contrast, the USPS raised prices and is proposing cutting back services. Since the U.S. mail services industry is highly interdependent, the operational and price changes of the USPS will hurt American businesses, e-commerce, entrepreneurs, and customers, which in turn will have negative impacts on USPS revenues and its future. Given the current trends of consumer and business expectations, the USPS needs to be innovative to create services instead of scaling back their essential operations. Furthermore, the USPS needs to maintain and preserve the high standard and fast services for First-Class Mail, which contributes to the largest share of revenues and the highest profitable mail segment for the USPS.

Like newspapers, the USPS faces competition that endangers its services to the community.

Every day, the mailman arrives, and usually right-on-time. Sometime during the day, we can walk to our mailbox and pick up the day’s mail. If we need to mail something, we simply put the letter in the box and raise the flag, and it is gone the next day.

It is very easy to take for granted the simple sending and receiving of mail. It is also easy to overlook the important role played by the Post Office in our everyday life.

America’s Founding Fathers understood the importance of maintaining open lines of communication as people moved away from population centers in the east to settle in what was at the time an untamed wilderness, devoid of towns and villages. 

We often complain when stamp prices increase, but the price of a stamp is small when compared to the price of a gallon of gasoline, the salaries of postmen, the cost of operating mail vehicles, etc. It’s the price of convenience. Like everything else, we want the service, but we don’t want to pay.