The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-01-02
Frederick Haskin's Letter
The Postoffce and the Missing Man.
(epecaal Correspon<Anee Of TAa. Ar

Washington, D. c., Jan. 2.-Will
Hays plan to help locate missing
persons has resulted so far in a
large amount of correspondence
for the postoftice department, some
reunited families, and a few puz-
Zled postmasters who have search
ed the postal regulations in vain
for instructions showing how to
proceed in a search for missing
relatives.
Mr.. Hays has no idea, it seems,
of turning the postoffice department
, into a complete detective agency.
1t merely occurred to him one day
that it was rather cold-blooded to
turn down by form letter requests
for help in locating lost husbands
and wandering sons.
: Pleas for help in such cases have
always cone to the government.
Many people seem to think that the
postoffice department has a huge
alphabetical file of all the persons
in the United States. AS a matter
of fact it has no such list Nor
have the local postoffices any card
catalogs of the populations they
serve. The only reference list to
which a postmaster can refer is
| delivering mail to persons whose
address is unknown in the city di-
rectory-the same book that is
available TO the public in drug
stores, libraries and hotels, all over
| the city.
| Incidentally, there is also a pop
ular belief that the census bureau
has an alphabetical list of the pop
ulation, and as a result the bureau
receives large number of requests
| for addresses of missing persons.
The census bureau, of course, has
no way of giving these persons
i en- by the bureau enumerators are
positively confidential
| The state department is a third
! government office that has often
been asked to help locate the miss
ing, especially by foreigners. The
state department almost never tries
! to trace persons in this country.
Where foreigners are searching for
lost relatives they are generally re-
ferred to their consuls in this coun-
| try.
So, in the past, seekers for miss
ing relatives have received scant
help from the government MIR.
Hays considered the rule which
says that postmasters may not give
out = information concerning the
names and addresses of persons us
! ing the mails. He recognized that
the rule is wise in that it insures
to persons using the mails protec-
ton against annoyance. That was
the purpose of the regulation and
! the postmaster general had no de-
sire to change it. Every one who
entrusts letters to the United States
mails is assured that employees are
not allowed to tamper with them
and the regulation is Safeguarded
by heavy penalties.
| But if relatives who were sep
arated by accident could be brought
together without violating the
spirit of the ruling, Mr.. Hays de-
cided that the service rendered
would be valuable to the public
Hays Plan.
| Mr.. Hays plan is simple. Those
who are eager to locate missing
relatives go to their local postmas-
! ter in person and consult with him,
giving such facts as the last city
where the missing man or woman
lived, name, description, and why il
! is desired to get in touch with him
or her.
This last is especially important
1t is the main reason why the seek
er is urged to go direct to the post
master, instead of writing a let
ter. The postoffice department has
no intention of helping to locate
persons who are being sought for
the purpose of collecting debts, nor