Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-12-01
EXPRESS COMPANIES ISSUE
EARLY CHRISTMAS WARMING
Join Hands with Merchants In
Urging Early Christmas Ship
ping, as Well as Early
Christmas Shopping

Owing to the unprecedented volume
of express traffic, and conscious of the
steadily increasing demand upon the
express facilities of the country, the
various express com panies are iustruc-
ting their employees throughout the
country to cooperate with the various
merchants in a systematic campaign
to lessen the Christmas congestion.
Although this crisis arises every year
as regularly as the holidays come
around, the extraordinary conditions
of transportation prevailing at the pres
ent accentuate the need for early ship
ping this year.
The railroads are already working
under high pressure, but it is believed
that with the holiday shipping eas
stretched over the entire month OF De-
cember, more adequate service can be
given than if the entire Christmas
movement is jammed into the week
Immediately preceding Christmas.
In spite of the fact that the eleventh
hour buyers and shippers themselves
are the worst sufferers, the early shop
ping agitation advanced during the
past few years by department and
other stores has done much to alleviate
the hardships of those whose duty it is
to serve the Christina public.
"Early shopping states Agent Phil
lippi, of the American Express Com
pany, in his plea for early action on
the part of the public, ''gives every
body an advantage"
statesmen have more time to give to
each customer; the customers them
selves have more time aud a greater
variety from which to choose their
gifts, the store management is able to
make prompter and more reliable de-
liveries, and there are fewer tired work
ers at the end of the day.
"Early shipping has the same points
In its favor. Our company alone is
called upon to handlenearly 100, 900 ,00C
shipments a year. Our equipment is
adequate and is keeping pace with the
demands made upon it. In fact during
the past year we have added 342 motor
vehicles to the 951 which we already
operate, this in addition to the 5000
horse drawn vehicles in constant use.'
sit is the man element which must
be considered in the propaganda fol
the early Christmas shopping The
man on the express wagon at Christ
mas time is in the same position as the
girl behind the Christmas counter. HI
must serve while others are at theil
pleasure, and he can only serve up to
his physical capacity
ut is our purpose to cooperate as
extensively as possible with the mer
chants in this movement, and as a pre-
liminary aid we have printed for dis
tribution throughout the country owe
a million pamphlets on "How to ShiI
Christmas Packages and are making
an early distribution of three million
especially printed Christmas labels"
"Each year, many thousands of ship
ments are made early, and when they
bear the label "Don't Open Unit
Christmas" the result is the same as il
they were not purchased until the
night before Christmas"
"The general prosperity of the coun-
try promises to make the coming
Christmas the most commercially &C
tive the country has ever known, hence
the timeliness of the public and its SER
wants joining hands to make it mutu-
ally the pl~eassntest Christmas on rec
ord.n