Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1921-11-29
LETTER FROM THE POST
MASTER GENERAL.

OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER
GENERAL,
Washington, November %, 1921.
To the BOYS AND GIRLS OF THE
UNITED STATES.
Christmas is almost here.
Your great Post Office Department
has a big job ahead and needs your
help.
Think what it means to be Santa
Claus to our 100,000,000 people and
to deliver Christmas parcels to every
family in this great country within
the short space of few days and
without disappointment.
1t can be done, and we're going to
do it if 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 go 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 before Christmas that he
won't be able to deliver all the
presents by Christmas eve."
The parcels must be we'll wrapped
and tied and addressed plainly in
order that they may arrive in good
condition with their Christmasy ap-
pearance unspoiled. You can put on
your packages, "Do not open until
Christmas"
And, there must be a number on
your house and mail receptacle,
too, for, if there isn't, Santa Claus
messenger, your letter carrier, may
not be able to find the house where
tn present belongs.
There are some other things, too,
in which you can all assist in i'm
proving the mail service and in
saving our great Government mill
ions of dollars year that is now
wasted because of our carelessness-
yours and mine.
Every day that you drop a letter in
the mail box 40,000,000 other letters
are already pushing and jamming
through the postal machinery. One
letter day for each family of five
persons in the United States is given
to Uncle Sam to deliver.
When you send parcel to the post
office for mailing any day there are
about 100000 other parcels ahead
of yours passing through the postal
hopper. This is in ordinary days; at
Christmas time it is multiplied many
times.
One family in about every ten puts
a badly addressed letter in the mail
every day. This mixes UP over
100000 half addressed letters with
the 20,000,000 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
bunch of dad 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 thoughtless
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
skilled mail distributors standing in
post offices and on swaying postal
cars of mile-a-minute mail trains.
often under poor light.
The address on every letter. card.
or package must be correct, COM
plete, and legible, including the house
and name of street, and the ''From''
address should be in the upper left
hand corner so that the mail will be
returnsa to you IN case it is not de-
llYered. Do not abbreviate names of
States, because so many look alike
when 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 carriers to stop and study, and
thus lose time. Make the address
plain and easily read, and always use
pen and ink or typewriter and light
colored envelopes, so as to save the
eyes OF the post-office clerks. Do not
use envelopes of unusual size. The
little ones that are so frequently
used for cards and notes at Christ
mas and other holiday times cause an
untold amount of trouble and labor,
as they will not fit our canceling
machines and must therefore be can
celed by hand. Because of their size
and tendency to slip out of a pack
age, these small envelopes are more
likely to be overlooked or lost.
Mail your letters and packages
early in the day, because this avoids
overlooking and delaying mail at the
end of the day.
Your local postmaster and your
teachers will tell you more about the
Postal Service.
Do these things, and you will win
the grateful appreciation of the
people in your post office and
especially of
Your Postmaster General,
WILL H. HAYS.
P. S.-Don't forget to mail Christ
mas packages THIS WEEK.