Postmaster General Anthony Frank says the new 29-cent price for a first-class stamp is just plain dumb.

Frank, speaking at a mail plant dedication ceremony Friday, said the U.S. Postal Service had asked that the price be boosted from 25 cents to 30 cents."The Postal Rate Commission apparently never met an even number that it liked," Frank said. "That's the most printable thing I can say." He said 29-cent price was "dumb," adding the only people benefiting from the odd-number cost were copper miners in Chile, jokingly referring to the increased use of pennies as change brought on by the price hike.

Frank said new postal plants like the 132,000-square foot Clarksburg General Mail Facility he dedicated will make what he called the world's best postal service faster and more efficient.

"We expect to have the postal service fully automated by 1995," he said. "We are going through a period of change that is greater than all the changes in the preceding 216 years."

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He also praised the Postal Service's work delivering the avalanche of mail sent to the Persian Gulf during the war. "We went from zero mail to 100 tons a day," he said.

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