Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1904-01-13
THE PHOENIX POSTOFFICE
How Patrons Can Make Its Service
Vastly More Efficient.

! The Phoenix pOStoffiCe service has
been materially improved in recent
years and there is not only room but
q great need of still further improve
ment. What has been done has been
accomplished by the postmaster as
much or more through the education
of the public as through the employ
ment of better clerks or the installa-
tion of greater facilities. Everybody
who stops to think knows this, but few
people stop to think. Few people real
iZe that the greater part of the trouble
: at a DoStoftice is caused by themselves
and of course unintentionally.
Every writer wants to know that his
letter Will be delivered. He can have
no assurance of that unless the letters
are properly addressed. The postof-
/ flee officials are authority for the
statement that of the thousands of let
/ tiers received in Phoenix every day,
but little more than OEe-third of them
are properly addressed, to box num-
/ Der or a street number. What follows?
4 Their delivery depends entirely upon
/ the personal acquaintance of the clerk
with the adGresSee, or that of some
other clerk to whom it may BE- refer
red, else it is placed in the general de-
/ livery after reference to the postoffice
directory which is finally resorted to if
necessary. There is nowhere else to
put it. Phoenix is not large city but
neither is it a country village with one
postOfiice CLERK who knows every per-
son IN it. There are probably 10000
different people getting mail through
this office every week, and possibly a.
greater number. Where is the man in
any city who knows the residence of
every one, or of one in every hundred
of any given bunch OF 10000 people?
The deduction is clear. If person
wants his mail to reach him he should
have it addressed to a box number, a
street number or a rural route as the
case may be, or if he desires it in the
general delivery that fact should be
stated on his letters by his CORE
spondents. This should be done wheth-
er the man has lived in Phoenix one
day or ever since it was a fourth class
0ostOffice. Even, if a clerk has known
John Doe for ten years. when he be
gins work in the pOstoffice, he doesn't
know whether he wants his mail sent
to the postoffice, the store or his resi-
dence, granting that he knows where
they all are. 1t is therefore no reflec-
ton on the Phoenix pOstofiCe clerks to
say that the mail of this town is main
ly delivered by guesswork 1t cannot
be otherwise till the patrons them
selves correct the evil
When 10000 letters are received here
in the morning, probably 1000 Of them
are sent to the right place at once be-
ing correctly addressed. Another 5000
are sent to the right place by the
clerks who happen to know the bust
ness firms and individuals to whom
they are addressed and know from
habit where their mail goes. The rest
are necessarily placed in the general
delivery where most of them perhaps
belong. Those that do not belong
there are rescued from time to time by
clerks who may not have previously
handled them.
There are many families, the elder
members of whom are known to the
clerks, and who have been getting their
mail here for years, but Sally and An
ME and Jimmie grow up and begin to
have correspondence before the clerks
have ever seen them. Having lived
here all their lives they wouder why
their letters do not go to papa's box
and papa In turn thinks it strange that
his family should not be well enough
known to get its mail in a town he
has lived in half his life In truth the
letter was not addressed. other than
Phoenix. Arizona. which means it was
presented to pOstoficc clerk for a
guessing game. If one were going to !
Chicago or New York, or even to Los
Angeles, he would be careful to have |
a box or street number on his address !
There is just as much need of It in |
Phoenix and the postmaster has asked |
repeatedly that this be done. He now |
announces that within few months. |
probably during the next summer s-a-
son when the business of the office is !
at its lowest ebD, he proposes to in |
augurate the Same system employed in |
all the cities for the sorting of mail. /
That is every properly addressed let !
ter will be delivered at once. Every |
letter with an insufficient or partial |
address will be thrown to a directory |
clerk who will by reference to his adj
dress books, determine if possible
where the addressee lives then pass
II on to the proper carrier or put it |
in the mans box if he has one. After
it has passed his hands if no address
be found it will go to the general de-
livery. If it was intended for that de-
partment all the time 1t Should have
been 50 stated in the address. This
will mean a delay in delivery of from
one hour to possibly some days. if it
is ever delivered, but when it is dis
posed of the postofice will he able to
either deliver it or know that it cannot
do SO. There will be no further guess
work about it.
Often patron viii buy a box and a
few days later look in 1t after the mail