Omaha daily bee., 1917-10-06
NJ uaary NJ all
B Ere gac j. HGskan
Washington, Oct. 3.-If you are sending mail

to soldiers address and pack it right!
This is the behest of an overworked Postof-
fee department TO the American public Since
the middle of last month camps equivalent from
the postottlce point OF view, to about sixty good
sized cites have sprung into being in the United.
States. The order to provide these with post
oihces was issued on August 5 and by August IS
mail was being delivered to them regularly from
their own branch Offices. Among the many mo-
bzations OF industrial and governmental forces
that have taken place since America entered the
this was not the least expeditions.
Including National Guard national army and
regular army camps and cantonments, training
camps, naval and marine stations, the Postofice
department row has sixty lew branch postofices
and many OF them serve 10000 to $4,000 men
each. Some OF them, OF course have only small
part OF their quotas at present, but at those under
construction there are 1000 to 10000 workmen
each to serve.
A camp OF 10000 men is equal in its demands
upon the Postofice department to a city Of about
l0O,OOO people, for only about one person in FIVE
OF average population is writer and receiver Of
letters, but every soldier is writer and receiver
OF letters--yea and OF many other things. Cakes
and candy and CIGARS chicken salad and grapes
and fried chicken and roast ham and stuffed OIL
ives and other dainties wrought by fair fingers
too numerous to mention, too squashy to handle,
too perishable to keep, often too poorly packed
for even the most patient and patriotic mail men to
successfully transport are pouring into the camps
by the ton.
One camp is receiving no less than fifteen tons
OF package mail per day and a large part of this
is in the shape of good things from home, dan-
tily wrapped in tissue paper, but often all unpro
tected against the harsh vicissitudes of railway
travel from some town in the north TO some can
tonment in the south. The boys in khaki are
getting almost enough cake and fried chicken to
sustain life without help from the government,
but some OF this volunteer grub is hardly recog-
nizable when it arrives So notice is hereby served
that if you want to mitigate the horrors of war
for Tommy by sending him quart of home made
sylabub or an angel cake you must pack the
same in a tin or wooden box and insulate it with
paper against the jars and accidents Of transpor-
tation 1872
Furthermore your offering must be correctly
addressed or the chances are against its ever ar
irving at ALL Great quantities Of mail are reach
ing all OF the cantonnients addressed simply to
Thomas Jones, Camp Meade, Md. There is no
that you communicate with Thomas during the
brief period after his arrival and before he has
been assigned to his company and.regirnent. For
after he is assigned it is onlysby company and
regiment that he can be identified. If he is in
the regular army, therefore, he must be addressed
fourth infantry, Camp Lee, Va. II he is with
the expeditionary forces, for Camp. Lee should
be substituted American expeditionary forces.
If Thomas is in the National Guard he should be
addressed the same way, with the addition of the
state organization from which he came thus: 'Pri-
and Fifty-hrst infantry (Sixty-ninth New York;,
Camp Lee, Va If he is in the national or draft,
army he should be addressed in the same way,
with the addition OF his state, thus: Private
Thomas Jones, Company c, One Hundred and
Thirtieth infantry (New Jersey, Camp Lee, Va.
In providing trained employees for these mill
tary postoffices the Postofice department has
adopted the interesting method Of calling for vol.
unteers from the large city postofhces--the only
places from which trained employees can be spared.
For most Of the camps and cantonnients are in
attached are too small to spare any employees.
Accordingly the Postofice department offers to
pay the railway fare and the subsistence in camp
of any postal empl ,ye who wants to volunteer for
service in an army branch postoffice. The re-
sponse to this call has been prompt Many men
who were rejected for military service have taken
this method OF getting glimpse Of the military |
life which attracted them. There is spice Of
change and adventure about the work and little
extra pay. So there has been no dearth of men,
especially young men.
This new postoffice machinery Is already work
ing smoothly. There has been no hitch or trouble
except those due to wrongly addressed mail and
poorly packed perishables and the soldiers ap-
preciate the difficulty caused by these things. Tee-
grams ware sent from the Postofice department
here recently to every postmaster who had a
military branch under his supervision asking for
a report and all replied that there had been no
complaints. The Postofiee department praises
the co-operation of the War department and vice
versa. All that is needed now to make the SOL
ders' mail entirely satisfactory is little co-opera-
ton from the public.