Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-01-17

The truly vast and important
work that is carried on by the
postal department of this govern
ment is little understood or ap-
preciated by the average person,
who merely remembers that by
sticking stamp or two on letter,
paper or parcel and depos1t1ng it in
the proper receptacle, it's delivery is
assured in the briefest possible time
an any part of the country, or any
where in the civilized world for that
matter and that answers, papers
and parcels come back IN the same
manner. The cost of this service is
comparatively insignificant consider
4ng the real task involved in handl-
ing, carrying and delivering each
separate consignment, and in fact
at would be utterly impossible to
perform the commission were it not
for the fact of the great bulk of
business that is all handled at the
same time and IN the same manner.
What posi- le chance, for instance,
would there be for transmitting a
single message from New York
TO San Francisco, Alaska or the
Philippines for the stipend of two
cents, or having it delivered in
Europe, South America, Australia,
or IN nearly any part of the world
for the bagatelle of a nickel-fve
cents2 And yet this is so much of an
every day occurrence that people
cease to wonder at it and lake it
merely as matter of course.
Nor is the transmission of regular
mail matter the only valuable
service tnat is performed by the
postal department. The popularity
of the postal money order as a
means OF transmitting money is
proved by the fact that during the
past year in this country more than
5000, 600 money orders were is
sued, transmitting something like
1923, 100000, of which about $4,000,
600 were sent to foreign nations.
The ease with which money can
thus be sent and collected COM
Unend6 the system, and that there is
little danger of its going astray is
shown by the statement that dur
ing the past year only one in each
166, 260 orders was paid incorrectly
Some cases of fraud in raising the
amount of the original order having
lately come to light, a new form
of blank has been introduced
which is calculated to make this i'm
possible.
That the usual amount of careless
ness continues to prevail in the
sending out of letters and packages
dis shown by the statement that
last year nearly II, 900, 600 pieces of
mail were sent to the dead letter
office, many of them containing
valuable enclosures. Year after
year the report goes forth of the
greaJ amount of mail matter that
fails of delivery because of inadequ-
ate address or for lack of postage.
in the absence of the sender's adj
dress, and still each year the dead
letter Office receives quantities of
letters and packages with nothing
TO identify the sender and no way
of tracing the addresses, If people
would be more particular to prop
oerly stamp and address each article
cons signed to the mails, and in ad-
dition would invariably affix their
own addresses in order to facilitate
return to themselves IN case the
ocOnsignee could not be found, it
would save a great deal of trouble
for the department. and much an
nOyance for themselves and their
friends. But people are naturally
careless in these little matters. and
Sin suite of repeated advice and hav-
ing their attention called to the
matter it is probable they will con-
ytinue the same carelessness to the
eend of time