New Britain herald., 1918-08-02

Estne vast amount
 he local post of-
 I'M In the number
 NgoiIg packages
 EeHght of large
 3H Enormous. In
 Sgiyen out show
 sof 5000 pounds
 kF is handled at
 Office each day.
 outgoing mail Nkhird applies to
 sn1lt 75 per cent.
 shandled in thi.
 does ot come
 Ntil o'clc<k in
 a dec1ded rush
 le 8 o'clock with
 List as they can
 2may be cleaned
 Rhr between 5 :45
 NHaily occurrence
 Hween 5000 and
 SDsted at the local
 &ters are dropped,
 Belled sorted and
 ' all the energy the
 Elan expend to take
 FAmount of mail in
 See of time, yet it
 The last evening mail,
 bses ct 6:15 o'clock.
 Ter that hour will not
 York that same night,
 gSted before 6:15 o'clock
 Sferred to trains for all
 84that same night.
 9put six months ago, the H for closing the evening tAs a little longer. Mails for E3Tn New York state, Pennsyl- IN New Jersey and Southern 4es, closed at 6:30 D. m., while that 4Ur< <Central and Northern New York State, the Western states and Prov inces of Canada, did not close before 7:3O D. m This means, since the schedule was changed six months ago, that the post office clerks must now do in one-half hour practically the same amount of work they were pre- viously given about two hours to do. Between the hours of 3 and o'clock each afternoon, post office en- pIoyes have very little actual work to do and could easily handle some of the surplus mail apparently destined to come in later. At 4 o'clock, how ever, the grand rush begins, but it is more evident after 5:30 D. m, The general public is appealed to, espe- cialIv the large mailers, to post some of their mail earlier in the afternOn, instead of %Ving it all for the last minute The local postmaster, MT. Delaney, took the matter up some time ago with the local manufactur- CTS, on more than one occasion and the matter was remedied to a certain ex- tent, but conditions are as bad now as they ever were.
 Known throughout the state as "The Hardware City,, accounts, to a large extent for the heavy output Of parcel post matter by New Britain. From 1900 to 2,000 parcel post pack ages are mailed at the local post of fee each day, and a fair percentage or them weigh as heavy as 70 pounds each. which is the limit allowed by the local post office department.
 Parcel post matter aggregating one and one-half tons, has been known to be posted at the local post office by one manufacturing concern alone, pe- tween 5:30 and p. m., and every package of 1t was sent out in the mall scheduled to close at 6:15 O'CLOCK That is practically one-half Of the average outgoing parcel post mall fo1 one day, and it had to be handled 1T the short space of time of three-quar' l ters of an hour.
 It has been stated that the parce 1 post business carried on at the loca post office is much greater than II any other city the size of New Britain 1 This is because, being mostly nara | ware. the packages weigh heavier the greatness being in weight rathe' l than size Actual hustling does no 1 cease at the post office until after lC o'clock at night. This is to take care of mail that is posted during the eve ming All mail posted in the evening is dispatched during the night, bu none of it goes farther than Nev York until the following morning. One fact with which the genera public is probably not acquainted, the rule adopted by the post ofic 1 department a number of years ago providing that the eight hours of wor { on the part of post office emplOye be scheduled inside of ten hours. Thl means that if a post office clerk re ports for work at a. m. he must b ready to stop work for the rest of tn dav at p.m Only two hours inter mission are allowed to any clerk afte he starts work for the day. Unde the old ruling the postmaster was em powered to tell the clerks just when report and their hours for work Wer usually during the busy times. Tn made 1t necessary for some to repo1 for work early and quit for the day lat at night, with a long intermission pc riod
 The public, especially large mailer are urged to take the post office en ployes into consideration by mailin a large number of their letters an