Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-11-22
URGES PROPER
MAIL DIRECTION
POSTMASTER M'cARTY SAYS PEG.
PIES cARELEssNEss DE.
LAYS DELIVERY.

| Postmaster Charles w. McCarty O
the Ottumwa post office has issued
cir laI letter to the patrons Of the 10
cal office. In this paper he states tn
difficulties incurred by the clerks AM
carriers by the carelessness Of the PEG
pie In the directing of mail. This en-
tails great loss OF time and brings
about a delay which causes an incon
venience many times to the sender ant
the receiver as we'll. The letter follows
To the patrons Of the postoffice:
wish to say few words regarding
the matter Of addressing your mail. Il
you know the full address Of the person
to whom you are sending, be 1t letter OF
parcel, be sure to put the street ant
number on, in addition to the city anC
state, and also put in the upper left
hand corner, your return address.
So many people have the idea that q
firm or person is we'll known and it Is
not necessary to have street and mum
that firm or person may be well
known, it is also fact that the dis
tributor who Is handling the piece OF
mail, may not know the exact location
and the consequence is, 1t is thrown to
the wrong carrier or thrown in the
mike box"
In any event 1t may be delayed sew
eral hours and no blame can be attach
ed to any one but the sender.
In every office there are new dis
tributing clerks, and it cannot be ex-
pected that they should be acquainted
with every man, woman and child in
the city; so In order to be assured Of
quick service, please put on street and
number. If your letter is to the corner
of some street and you do not know
the number, state which corner, NV.
Sc, etc. Just the corner OF Green and
Main Is not sufficient, for the reason
that there are two carriers who deliver
at the intersection of those streets, and
in the larger cities, there may be four
carriers on the four corners: or it may
be that particular corner Is the divid-
ing line between the territory Of the
main office and the territory supplied
by some station. -.
For instance, when the principal
mail trains going east on the "a" rail-
way reaching Burlington, the train is
boarded by clerks who make business
Of distributing the Chicago mail. They
throw what Is good to the main Office
In one pouch, and what Is good to
the different stations In other pouches,
each widely apart.
II your letter should not be addressed
so the distributor should be able to tell
III WHAT Ol6CrlCC IL belonged, ne
would place it in the mike box" and
send it to the main office, where the
NIKE clerks would try to supply the
proper address, If they are successful,
your letter is given to the right car
rier. but in the meantime, 1t loses sew
eral hours, if not days.
In our own office, we have about 200
letters each day that have to pass
through the mike" division and every
one of these letters are delayed from
one to twenty-four hours. The simple
fact is that II all mail was addressed
properly, the service would be improv-
ed to such degree that complains
would be a rare thing.
So, in order to secure good service, I
would ask that you do your part by
giving full address on all mail Of what
ever description, and in writing your
friends, caution them forgive full ad-
dress when writing you. BY so doing,
you will greatly aid the department in
giving better service.
And just here let me add that if your
service is not what you think it should
be, II you have any complaints to
make, do not make them to the neigh
bors, make them to us and we will
then have an opportunity to remedy
the matter. If there are flaws in the
service, we want to know it, so the
service may be made better, for our
aim Is to give the best service possible
with the force at our command.
ChaS. w. McCarty p M