Arizona republican., 1913-12-24
M 'CL|NTOCK IS
 REMINISCENT
Postmaster. Looks Back on a Dozen Holiday Seasons Veteran of Phoenix Mail Service Analyzes Local Growth

A dozen Christmas rushes. and no two at the same point on the line have carried Postmaster McClintock pretty near his goal. The last Christ mas. perhaps. he will ever experience in the service of the postal depart ment is now here. with the colonel yielding d splendid tool in the form of a larger organization and bigger quarters When such milestOnes as the Yulctide are Hitting by, il is easy to get a man of experience to be come reminiscent
 This is my twelfth Christmas in the Phoenix pOstoffice," said Post master McCIintock, and l assume that the course of politics will make it the last one. Every year the hoIi- day season has had it's own peculiar service conditions, in consideration of such points as office room, equip ment, relative strengths of clerk and carrier forces. character of weather and irI Iegularity of receipt of mails from the railway mail service. So, every year there were changes of methods Last year, for instance. we had to send most of the outgoing Christmas parcels down to railway mail cars for separation, while the city carriers had to do their office separations Crammcd into an alley way 10X40 feet in size. The office lobby, where thousands of people were served. was only 30N15 feet. Yet. really the hardest Christmas work l have experienced was the first. in 1902 when the office was at the corner of Adams and First avenue, though the total December receipts were only $2,93926 With those figures may be compared the stamp sales for the past eight work ing days aggrcgating $S47144 In other terms. three days of this Christmastide equal the whole of that December.
 In 1902, however, the regular force of the office was only eight clerks and four carriers. Today the rcgu- lars include twenty-five clerks, six teen city carriers. six rurals, two par eel post men. one laborer and one messenger. For the holidays have been added fifteen temporary em- ployes That they were needed is shown by the mere cash receipts. as | well as by such items as the post marking of 19,00O letters and post cards in the outgoing mails division between 200 and 6:O0 r. m. on Mon day, together with the dispatch ot tons of sealed package
 Thus far we have handled the work with absolutely no congestion. i either in the lobby or working 1 rooms. This has been made possible I by the abundance of lobby windows ! and by tht method we adopted for 1 the rush periods of affiXing parcel stamps within the windows I don't 1 believe patron has had to wait this 1 Christmas season as much as five minutes at any window.
 l The incoming mails are bit 1 delayed, due to bad weather in the
 east and on the plains and to the packing of the mail caIs as they have never been packed before But we will get it all out. carried to tho homes as fast as it comes You see the bulk of the mail matter has beer ! immensely increased by the parce
 post. now hardly more than estab- Hshed It has not. in my opinion
 made q commensurate addition to tn, cash receipts of the postoffice de-
 partment. for the rates are far lowe
 than were known last December, wheI
 IaIceIs we're carried at uniform ratt
 of one cent an ounce, regardless O distance