, 1921-09-26

According to data which has been
collected at the local Office under the
direction Of Acting Postmaster Bean.
there are about 1900 m~isdtrected let
tiers. constituting an alarming per
centage OF the business OF the ofiice
sent from Casper daily
About 5000 letters are being re-
turned to writers here eac week be
cause people do not supply proper adj
dresses or the addresses does not call
for the mail.
A good clerk IN the Office can han
die bout 20 misdirected letters each
hour. The volume Of mfsdirected
mail thus requires h full eight-hour
service of two expert clerk and five
hours each day of another clerk This
Is a cost OF s325 a month which Is
placed on the local ofice correcting
simple errors made by other people.
The tremendous handicap which
such a condition places on tho local
office is seen In the tremendous vol
ume OF business which Is handled
here with limited accommodations and
which should have the service OF the
men who arc now employed IN hand
ling misdirected letters
To show the large increase in the
postoffice work here. one department
alone. the parcel post department.
now handles over 100 sacks OF par
eel post mail each day.
In connection with tho misdirected
mall in Casper m item taken from
the Official Postal Guide OF the gov
contains interesting informa-
ton.
The suggestion of the article II
closely followed will enable everyone
TO know the method of correctly ad-
dressing nail. II one person out OF
the thousands of people who read this
article heed the suggestions. the saw
ing in time In the postofice Will be
well worth the space and for this pur-
pose II is reprinted:
cit reems almost inconccivable. but
IL Is reported as an official fact. that
$50, 900 pieces OF misdirected mali are
handled daily at tho New York post
Office, which Includes Manhattan only.
This means hat 1877. 10000 misdircct-
ed pieces are handled every year In
this one metropolitan center 1t re-
quires no imagination 10 appreciate
what this by way of hamper
ing and slowing down the postal serv-
ice. Great armies of postal clerks.
who might otherwise be engaged in
facilitating the general service. are
tied down to the problem Of rec
tifying the mistakes and supplying
the omissions that are chargeable to
careless correspondence. We Amer
sort of take our postal service
for granted. We kick like steers when
n letter out of the millions handled
daily goes astray or is delayed a
few hours; yet we are so neglectful of
our own responsibilities in this con-
necsion that we pile thousands OF
pieces of misdirected mail into the
p~ostoffice and expect hat the postal
machinery can and must in some way
surmount our own negligence.
THE New York situation Is merely
typical OF the situation In every other
city in the land. TAX Grand Rap
Ids, for example. Postmaster Hoga-
done says that. as nearly as can be
estimated. the local postofice handles
5000 pieces of misdirected mail every
"a hours: and, in addition thereto,
about 10000 pieces Of mail are re-
ceiyed without street addresses. 1t
requires the full time Of Ave clerks
here in Grand Rapids alone TO or
rect the addresses on misdirected mail
The mail without complete address
causes loss of time to distributors
who could otherwise nav e en-
ployed In handling properly the fully
addressed, mail. thereby making it
possible in many instances to give an
earlier delivery. We who constantly
yell for greater economy and great
err efficiency in the public service may
well pause and ask ourselves whether
It wouldn't be a good thing. a con-
sistent thing, II we took n little more
care In making economy and EFF
hciency' in the public service pos
sible.
Some Of the more common mis-
takes, locally observed. in addressing
NAH are noted al follows: Addresses
are written hastily and illegibly. oft
en- in lead pencil; pencil addresses be
come obliterated In h course OF
handling. Authorizations in the names
of firms. postoffices. n states are
oo,f,,s;ro and invita- trouble for in.