Though not widely known, the post office has been moving a lot of ordinary first-class letters by air for some time. If there’s been room aboard a plane, along they went. There are now over 500 cities in the airlift network, and the postmaster general says 75 percent of all first-class mail deposited before 5 p.m. is being delivered the next day. That’s why Joe Citizen has been so often surprised at the fast trip made by some of the letters he’s received.

However, the present arrangement carries no assurance. If things work out that way, the letter takes wing; if not, it goes by surface mail. There is no way to guarantee that a letter will go by air except a 10-cent air mail stamp — and there won’t be until a new single class priority mail service is formally established. That will take an act of Congress, and the post office says it will ask that body next year to merge airmail and first class into the new service.

The postmaster general was a little silent as to what price will be put upon extension of the air age to the basic component of the postal system. But we’d hate to bet that we will get the fast-service guarantee for all first-class letters for just the new six-cent rate. Look for something between six and 10 cents, and hope that this time it will not be just a higher price tag for the same service, but a real new guarantee of higher speed all the time every time.

— Columbian editorial; Jan. 17, 1968

Update: In 1971, the independent U.S. Postal Service replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department. First-class postage increases to 42 cents on May 12.