The Springdale news., 1918-07-26
HANDLING OF MAIL
 FOR THE SOLDIERS
Problems Gradually Overcome by Close Cooperation of Post Office and War Departments.

The Committee on Public Inform ,ation issues the following statement based upon reports from the Post Of- flee and War Departments:
 i Development of the mail service at home and abroad to form a prompt means of communication between American soldiers and their relatives aa friends las been ore of the prob lems incidental to the war. In this country the service is handled by the Post Office Department with the CO., operation of the War Department. On the other side the War Department now is in control.
 Mail in This Country.
 The handling of soldiers mail at the camps and cantonments in this coun- try is under the supervision of J. c. Rooms, First Assistant Postmaster General. There have been established 1O5 branch post offices, ore at each of the camps, each office fully equipped to transact postal business offall kinds. About 1,2O0 experienced postal clerks from the larger post offices throughout the country have been detailed to this work.
 The business transacted at many of these military branch post offices exceeds that of post offices having more than 100000 population. Reports show that in many of the larger camps approximately 150,000 letters and about b tons of parcel-post and sec ond class matter are handled daily.
 Close Cooperation of Departments.
 Close cooperation between the Post Office and the War Department officials has facilitated the efficient handling of this mail With the rapid expansion of Army plans the post office buildings at some camps have been too small to accommodate the buisness, especially in holiday seasons, but emergency tents have been thrown up and detailed to help, and the mails have been handled with dispatch.
 Unusal movement of soldiers to or from the camps greatly increases the volume of the mails. When all is quiet at the camps mails run reg ularly, but when there is an early movement to an authorization point or when new details of recruits arrive the volume grows enormously.
 Return of Civilian Clothing. The return by the recruits of their civilian clothes after entering the camps forms an important of the Post al Service. The care exercised in hand ling this matter is evidenced by the few complaints of lost packages.
 Immediately on its receir+ the mail is seperated by the camp post-office NACAho, oAOAdAu6 tO tAlC nd0lSooCo, lOi the various military units, such as di- visional headquarters, hospitals, bat talions, companies. In some camps these units number 76.
 The mail is then turned over to the military mail orderlies who deliver il ts the headquarters of the various units. Each chaplain superintends the mail service within his respective command, and in units having no chaplains this duty is performed by some officer designated by the unit commander.
 The mail orderlies call at the branch post office at stated times during the day for mail for their organizations Delivery is made by the regimental or separate battalion mail 'orderlies, who in turn deliver each piece of mail to addressee cS, ,ept in case of regist- cred and collect on delivery mail where the addressee is sent notice and calls at the regimental post office