Stamp Out Competition

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night can stay the P.H. Brennan Hand Delivery Service from its appointed rounds, but the U.S. Postal Service has finally succeeded in doing so. For more than two years, Patricia and Paul Brennan delivered first-class mail along with other papers and parcels in downtown Rochester, N.Y. For 10-c- a letter, they guaranteed same-day delivery and served close to 400 satisfied clients.

The U.S. Postal Service, charging that the Brennans violated its statutory monopoly on first-class mail, filed suit last year to close them down. A federal judge ruled against them, and as appeals were heard, the Brennans operated on a day-to-day basis.

Last week, the Brennans were told that the federal court of appeals had denied a stay, and they sadly closed. Mrs. Brennan will make a final appeal to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, but a reversal seems unlikely. The last Postal Service competitor who tried to deliver first-class mail, in Pittsburg, Kans., was forced out of business in March, when the Supreme Court denied a rehearing.

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