Daily Kennebec journal., 1921-12-05
Postmaster Gives
Christmas Message
to School Children


and his corps of teachers in Augusta,
place before the school children of Au-
gusta Postmaster General Hays
Christmas message on holiday mail.
1t is as follows:
Christmas is almost here.
Your great post office department
has 4 big Job ahead and needs your
help.
Think what 1t means to be Santa
Claus to our 1oo.0o0,ooo people and to
deliver Christmas parcels to everv
family in this great country within the
short space of few days and with
out disappointment.
| 1t can be done. and we're going to
do 1t II we may have your help. I
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 be-
fore Christmas that he won't be able
to deliver all the presents by Christ
mas 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 appearance ur-
spoiled. You can put on your pack
ages 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 messen-
ger, your letter carrier, may not be
able to find the house where the pres
ent belongs.
There are some other things. too, ir
which you can assist in improving the
mail service and in saving our great
that is now wasted because Of our
carelessness-yours and mine.
Every day that you drop lettr-
in the mail box 10000, 600 other lcttc~s
are already pushing and ianmir.
through the postal machinery. Ol,-
letter day for each family Of f,e
persons in the United States is given
10 Uncle Sam to deliver
When you send parcel to the nost
office for mailing any day there are
about S,06o,h00 other parcels ahead of
yours passing through the postal hop
per. This is in ordinary days; a.
Christmas time it is multiplied many
times.
One family in about every ten
puts badly addressed letter in the
mail every day. This mixes up over
2,WU,OOD half addressed letters wit
the a0,0O0.00O 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 thoughtless
family in every ten.
First find out it your family is the
careless one. then bear in mind that
your letters must be handled by
skilled mail distributors standing in
postoflccs and on sWaying postal
cars OF nilc-a- minute trains, often
under poor light
The address on every letter. OF
package must be correct. complete
and legible, including the hous,
number and name of street, and f. Q
From" address should be in the llp-
per left hand corner so that the mail
will be returned to You in case il is
not delivered. Do not abbreviata
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 postofFice 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 postofiice clerks. DO not
use envelopes of unusual size. The
little ones that are so frequently
Z used for cards and notes at Christ
mas time cause an untold amount of
; trouble and labor. as they will not
fit our canceling machines and must
therefore be cancelled by hand. Be-
cause OF their size and tendency to
slip out of a package, these small
envelopes are more likely to be over
looked 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