The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-09-16
BAD ADDRESSES
 SEND MAIL ASTRAY
Big Importers and Export CTS Are Among Frequent Offenders - Even Effci- ency Experts-Address- ing Machines Operated Carelessly Blamed For Much Delay.
BY H. K. REYNOLDS, International News Service Staff
 Correspondent.

Washington, Sept. 16.-Large manufacturing and exporting firms
 1ciency have been found by the De- partment of Commerce to be the most frequent offenders in carelessly ad- dressing their foreign mail.
 "The Department of Commerce" says a statement from Secretary Hoo ver's office, "as well as the Post Off, fee Department, frequently receives complaints of non-delivery or slow de- livery of catalogues and other printed matter in the foreign mails. In tnves- tigating recent cases of this kind the question arose as to whether the faulty addresses were not a cOntrt-
 butory cause of the trouble. super ficial examination of certain mail mater seemed to support such view, and the cooperation of the Post Of
 lice Department was sought in an fn- vestigation of the way in which print ed matter was directed.
 Tremendous Volume. "A formal request from the De- partment of Commerce resulted in
 careful survey of the printed matter passing through the outgoing section
 of the Foreign Mail Station in the New York Post Office. The average
 daily volume handled in that section amounts to over S0,000 pieces. des- t ned for almost every country in the world.
 The survey proved the frequent
 occurrence on printed matter of ad-
 dresses so carelessly written as to
 be absolutely illegible. There are two serious features of the situation. One
 is that the most frequent offenders are not the small business concerns, but the large commercial and exporting corporations and even the specialists in commercial efficiency. The second is that some automatic addressing ma chimes seem to be so careless1y opera ted that the resulting printed ad-
 dresses are almost if not entirely il- 1egible."
 It was made plain by officials that this statement was not intended as a criticism of addressing machines, or an argument against their employ ment.
 Machines Badly Operated.
 Machines of many types have been in service all over the country for
 many years and for every kind of ad- dressing and recording" the depart ment said. Their efficiency and eco- nomy are beyond question. They are not proof against careless handling, however and, like every other me- amount of care on the part of the operator in order to do absolutely re- liable york;
 Discussing cases of pure neglect, the department stated:
 "A mail package addressed to city as large as Frankfurt-on-the- Main, without any more detailed di-
 rection, is surely destined to delay, and one addressed to Cuba, Jamaica,
 Haiti, Azores, or Brazil is fortunate if
 it ever gets on the right route. "The practice of splitting the name of a country into two lines or using
 an abbrevtation that is not generally
 employed will invariably make trouble.
 It is well to consider that defective
 addresses are much more serious in
 foreign mails than in domestic ser vice. since in many foreign countries postal employees are poorly paid and much overworked- In times Of mail congestion additional help is rarely available, and an address in a foreign
 language is sufficiently difficult to de- cipher without adding unusual marks,
 arbitrary abbreviations or careless di- rectionS.'