Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-06-18
Delayed Letters.

ain view Of the fact that over So
600, 900 parcels of mail matter are annu-
ally delivered from this office, and
over 200, 600, 900 annually sent from it,
is il strange said Postmaster Tobey
to a Globe reporter, yesterday, "that
errors occasionally occur?
"There is one thing" continued the
Postmaster, "that we constantly inn
press on the minds of our employees,
and that is that they must at all times
be courteous and polite, however irri-
tating the public may be, when sup
posing the management OF the Office at
fault Ii would be an act of simple
justice on the part of any one who may
have cause for complaint, real or mag
mary, to make it known to the Post
master direct, thereby giving him the
opportunity to investigate the matter,
and apply a remedy, if any is needed,
instead of complaining to the public,
and creating a very erroneous impress
sion as to the efficiency of the service
generally.
The statement that letters are oft
EN- delayed at this office is an erroneous
one. 1t will be seen Mt a glance that
the original fault is with the senders in
not preparing at least one rate Of post
age. If one full rate is paid, namely,
2 cents, no matter how much moro
postage may be required, the letter
will be delivered at once, and the de-
iicient amount collected on delivery.
If to be delivered in the CITY the car
rier must pay the postage before tax
ing it from the office and collect it from
the addressee on delivery. This, as
you viii see, occasions no delay
"How if the letter is addressed to a
boxP"
In that case notice is at once
placed in the box requesting the adj
dresseo to call at section three in the
post-otlice, pay the extra postage and
receive the letter. Neither is any de-
lay occasioned by this. 1t is not a red
tape regulation of the Boston post
Office, but postal law, requiring full
payment of postage to be made ON all
mail matter before delivery. These
letters | have referred to are known in
the department as 'short-paid letters.
The letters upon which full rate has
not been paid are designated as held
for-postage letters, and cannot be de-
lyered by law until the full postage is
paid by either the writer or the adj
dressce. When the writer's address is
on the envelope the letter is at once re-
turned for the necessary postage but
If the envelope does not bear the adj
dress of the writer a notice is ut once
sent to the addressee.
The latter system is certainly a
vast Improvement over the former law
requiring held-ior-postage letters not
bearing the address Of the writer to be
sent to the Dead Letter Office, from
which the addresses were notified that.
upon receipt of the necessary postage,
their letters would be forwarded to
them. This, OF course, occasioned
much unnecessary delay. The Boston
post office, under its present manage
ment. was the second Office in the
country to adopt the system of card
notices | have described 70 YOU, and,
by demonstrating its advantages to the
department, it was the means of its in
PRODUCTION throughout the country.
If letter bearing the address of
the writer, and addressed to a street
and number in Boston, can not be de-
hyered mo such party being known
a circular is sent to the writer stating
the reason for its non-deliyery and
asking for a correct address On an
average about twenty-five of those cir
cuIars are sent out every day, and in
almost every instance they are returned
with the information that the letters
were intended for some other city.
They are then forwarded as requested.
Charges of red tape in this Office
and delay in the transmission Of mail
matter are not true, concluded Mr..
Tobey. "and in all eases where letters
are detained it will be found due TO
negligence of the senders Boston
Globe