The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-11-21
PATRONS ERRORS
HURT POSTOFF|CE
Lister Asks Business Men to
Cooperate With
Uncle Sam.
THREE BAD FAULTS
Official, at Friendly Talk,
THREE BAD FAULTS
Official, at Friendly Talk,
Points Out Results of
CareleSSneSS.

-.
Yep" say Missoulia business men.
| Who's to blame?
| Government, of course is the an
! swer.
| Right there the Missoula business
men have another guess coming, ac-
! cordng to Postmaster j. w. Lister.
! The Missoula business men, said
the postmaster yesterday 10 the eSecu-
tive committee Of the chamber of com
merce are largely responsible for
faults and delays in their mail serv
ice
Conference Over Mail Service.
The postmaster and the chamber of
commerce heads talked matters over
in IA friendly way at a special lunch
con at the Palace hotel yesterday.
"Ell admit said Mr. Lister that
the service is not perfect Bland
smiles appeared.
But"
\ moments pause.
THE service isn't helped any by
some Of the habits which Missoula
people have developed in their use Of
the postoffice.
Three Important Rules.
The postmaster proceeded to lay
down three important rules for bust
ness house mail, declaring that they
are frequently overlooked by Missous
people and that the postoffice serv.
ice suffers thereby. The rules are:
{ i. Sort big patches Of mail,
: tying city mail, eastbound mail
5 and westbound mail in separate
bundles.
2. Place return address in the
. upper left hand corner of each
! envelope.
3. Give street and house num-
I Der in the address on each en-
S velope.
Neglect Causes Delay.
Neglect of those simple rules
\ common and disorganizing, said tn
8 postmaster. MANY big bushes
n houses drop all their mail, mixed care
: lessly, in the first drop in the office
y The result is that some overworke
u clerk has to spend precious time i
} sorting the mail, to the neglect of 9th
er duties. If the letters were sorte
: and bundled they could be rushe
: through without causing second
delay.
Then you have no idea how niue
:. time is lost over undelivered mail, try
:, ing to return it to persons who ha,
: neglected to give return address.
And the failure of many of you
: give the street and house number ,
\ persons to whom mail is sent NEAR
5 hours of eXasperating labor whic
II p11pht tn ha in, rth
Postoffee Force Short.
>. The postmaster explained that II
draft and high wages in other fiell
have crippled the postoffice force. TT
Missoula office. he said, has bee
&C, short handed for months. In the.
:" circumstances all wasted effort meal
loss of efficiency. he said.
The whole discussion was amiabl
e The business men promised their c,
lie operation, and the postmaster prom
= ised more vigorous efforts to gi,
" good service
se One practical advance was ma,
when n. II. Mason, Missoula agent
f. the Northern Pacific agreed to ha,
l. the city mail segregated at the st.
ID ton Frequently IA great deal of tin
e is lost by the mail wagons while wal
IS ing for Missoula sacks to be separa
a. ed from Bitter Root and Occur d'Alel
10 mail at the station here, Mr. List
said
n Criticism Invited.
,e In conclusion the postmaster inyi
% ed criticisms of the postoffice wor
Il will welcome complaints"
/. said, land give them immediate a
tention, whoever they come from.
would like to suggest however, tn;
people with complaints bring the 81
velopes of misdrected letters wit
them, since the envelopes are II
only tracers we have