Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-07
PROTESTS OF NO AVAIL
Local Bankers Complain of Slow De.
livery System.
MORE "ISOLATED"
CASES
One Letter Addressed to Biltmore
Street Goes to North Carolina,
Another Visits Baltimore.

One of the chief sufferers from the
decentralization of the city postal service
is the Treasury Department. EXpostula-
ton, however. even from that important
branch of the executive results in no
Improvement.
BONDS are sent to the Treasury for
substitution or exchange for reissues
Formerly bonds sent from New York
were received by the Treasury in Wash
ington early the following morning. SO
that the business of exchange could be
completed the same day. Under the
present methods the bonds are received
at the post office as formerly. early in
the morning or near midnight of the
day when they are mailed in New York.
but they are held in the office so long
that they do not reach the treasury until
= o'clock in the afternoon. too late to
complete the multifarious processes Of
transference and exchange or the same
day.
Days Interest Lost.
The amounts of these bonds reach hum
dreds of thousands of dollars in almost
every instance, and the aggregate is
consequently enormous. Interest on the
money represented by the bonds is lost
by the delay in transfer and reissue. and
in period of tight money such loss
bears hard upon those interested. The
loss is no easier to bear, either, when
the loser reflects that it is incurred by
no fault of his own The bonds reach
Washington safely, but 1t takes them
longer to travel quarter of mile up
Pennsylvania avenue to the trea sury than
it does to make their long railway jour-
ney.
Nor does it lessen the basis for COM
plafnt that invariably these packages of
bonds are sent by registered mail. No
device appears to be efficient In sur
mounting the delays imposed by present
conditions in the Washington post office.
Maj. Gaines. chief of the mail division
of the treasury. has complained OF the
bad service, but can get no satisfaction.
His experience is like that of other COM
plainantS.
Interferes With Business.
Lewis Johnson & Co., bankers. 1919 r
street complain that they are constantly
annoyed by long delay In receiving let
ters which reach Washington on time, but
do not arrive at the bank until many
hours have passed. These bankers send
for their mail and recently they have
sent over and over again. at half hour in
tervals. for important letters which they
knew must be in the office, but which,
they were informed. had not arrived.
When the letters finally reached them It
was seen from the postmarks that they
had been in the office all the time that
the repeat ted inquiries had been made for
them. The firm has submitted to The
Star many envelopes. the postmarks of
each of which are ample evidence of the
slack and tardy methods of the city post
office.
An instance in point was given to The
Star this morning by financial agent.
He expected a letter from a New York
firm. inclosing a check. and knew that IT
should reach the post Office In Washington
on a certain day. Not receiving ii by
carrier he inquired for it at the office,
but was told that no such letter had ar
rived He repeated this inquiry for
number of days. only to receive the same
answer. At last he communicated with
New York and learned that the letter
had been sent on the day agreed. Armed
with this information he descended upon
the post office and finally succeeded in
inducing the officials to hunt for the let
ter which was at last found, its post
mark showing that it had been received
the day after it left New YORK. mat IS
what the officials call an isolated case,
a charming expression which SOUNDS IKE
smallpox, but fails to mt.
Took a Trip South.
letter addressed to Mrs. William c.
Keech, the Baltimore, Biltmore street,
Washington, D. c., was received at the
Washington office three weeks ago and
sent on to Biltmore, n. c. Eleven days
later the writer of the first letter sent an
other asking why no reply had been made.
That letter was also sent to Biltmore.
N c., and at last. three weeks after the
first letter had been originally mailed.
both letters arrived together at the cor
rect address in Washington. which was
given clearly on the envelopes.
A variant to this case is that of letter
addressed to Irving c. Norwood. also at
the Baltimore, Biltmore street, Washing
ton, D. c. This letter was mailed in
Washington and promptly sent to Bal
timore not reaching the address in this
city for week.
Occasionally a new sort of an isolated
case" crops up. One of them illustrates
the carelessness of the post office in OBJ
serving changes in address. Mrs. Nj. B.
Coffin. who formerly resided at the Port
ner but whose present address is 1412
Hopkins street. sent notice of removal
and change of address TO the post office.
but a letter mailed February II, in the
city, did not reach her until March 3.
Eight Squares-Five Hours.
Fred c. Dietrich & Co., with Offices in
the Ouray building, write to The Star
as follows:
1--WE read with interest your articles
with reference TO the prompt delivery
of mail i'm this city.
"The records of the Post Office Depart
ment will show that we have from time
to time entered complaint against what
we consider, to say the least. a very poor
mail service
Notwithstanding the fact that We have
been receiving mail for the past thirty
three years. 1t frequently takes the main
Office from three to five hours to transfer
our mail from the main Office to our box
at station c.
The following letter has been sent to the
postmaster by James s. Topham, manu-
facturer of trunks. etc. 1919 F street:
II inclose you herewith the envelope
which covered a bid that / deposited in
the letter box at the southwest corner of
18th and + streets at $50 March 3 Ii
bears the postmark at your office at
pm. March 4. and il was received at the
geological survey . am March >.
1T seems to me that this Is very slow
service. Ii certainly is not satisfactory.
II happened that this was an Informal
bid and in this case the delay did not
make a great deal of difference, but had
a..-<