And so, the woes of the U.S. Postal Service continue: Saturday mail delivery will end in August. Add to this the cutback in hours of many smaller offices, the elimination of others, and the service offered and provided will diminish.

We warn readers of the Gazette-Journal today: If you live out of town, you may wish to convert to a digital subscription which will arrive on Wednesday afternoon. Mail moves slowly now, and it seems certain it will go even more slowly after this.

Who or what is to blame?

First-class mailings have fallen dramatically against the speedy, reliable and now-entrenched presence of e-mail, which did not start out as a threat to postal service, but quickly established its bona fides.

Then there is Congress, which has demanded the USPS fund its pension far into the future, a demand that has attracted its own conspiracy theorists. Some surmise that certain conservative members of Congress wish for the USPS to fail so that a private entity can take over and...