The St. Joseph observer., 1921-11-26

To the boys ard girls OF the United
States
christmas is almost here.
"Your great Post Office Department
has big Job ahead and needs your
help.
Think what 1t means to be Santa
Claus to our 00,0OO.0oO people and
to deliver Christmas parcels to every
family in this great country within
the short space OF few days and
without disappointment.
ut can be done. and we're going to
do 1t IL we may have your help. l
want to enlist the active assistance OF
every boy and girl in the schools Of
our country in getting parcels mailed
this week to relieve the rush that
comes directly before Christmas.
"Will you so home today and take
this message to your parents and
friends?
our postmaster has asked us to
mail our Christmas parcels this week,
for. unless we do. Uncle Sans load
may be so heavy the last few days be-
fore Christmas that we won't be able
to deliver all the presents by Christ
mas eve.'
1.-THE parcels must be well wrapped
and tied and addressed plainly in or
| der that they may arrive in good con-
dition with their Christmasy appear
ance unspoiled. You can put on your
mas
And. there must be a number on
your house and a mail receptacle, too.
If there isn't. Santa Claus messenger.
your letter carrier. may not be able to
find the house where the presents be-
| long.
Other Ways That You Can Help
There are some other things in
which you can assist In improving the
mail service and IN saving our great
government millions OF dollars a year
that IL now wasted because OF our
carelessness-yours and mine.
Every day that you drop a letter
in the mail box 10000, 900 other let
ters are already pushing and jamming
through the postal machinery. One
letter a day for each family of five
persons in the Tn Ssd States is given
to Uncle Sam to deliver.
when you send a parcel to the post
office for mailing any day there are
about 5000. 900 ether parcels ahead OF
yours passing through the postal hop
per- This is in ordinary days: at
Christmas time it multiplies many
times.
zone family In about every ten puts
a badly addressed letter In the mail
every day. This mixes up over 2.0OO,-
900 addressed letters with the
40.0O0,0O0 fully addressed letters.
That means that the fully addressed
letters must wait on the slow-moving
poorly addressed letters Just like the
larger boys and girls are delayed by a
bunch of bad kids tagging along.
You boys and girls can help the
Postal Service and save your father
some money. because he has to help
pay the cost OF searching addresses on
letters and parcels sent out by this
one careless and thoushtless family
in every ten.
First find out If your family is the
careless one, then bear in mind that
your letters must be handled by skill
cd mail distributors standing in post
offices on swaying postal cars OF a
mile-a-minute mail trains. often under
poor light.
Every Address Must be Correct
"The address on every letter, card,
and legible. including the house num-
ber and name OF street. and the
From address should be in the upper
left-hand corner so that the mail will
be returnable to you in case it is not
delivered. Do not abbreviate names
of states because 50 many look alike
when so abbreviated
"Put the proper amount Of postage
on your letters and wrap the parcels
carefully. Avoid fancy writing, which
causes post-office clerks and letter