Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-08
The Lost Letter

m M AN, including woman, is, of all crea-
lNI lures, the most careless. So must one
infer after reading the Literary Di-
gest's remarkable story of Americas misdi-
rected mail. That two hundred million letters
year have to be scrutinized by postal clerks
and re-addressed before they can be delivered
that upwards of sixteen million year are
puzzles so hopeless that they must be sent %
the Dead Letter Office, and that in seventy-fve
of the larger postoffices five hundred and
eighty-fve clerks are engaged eight hours a
day in correcting wrongly addressed letters,
at an annual salary cost in excess of a million
dollars-of such facts is the crowded record
composed.
II the tax upon the Government were the
only i'll, that of itself should bestir the pub
lie, which at last must pay, to break down
this monstrously stupid reign of carelessness.
But consider, besides, the personal penalties
and griefs. 1.-THE immediate property loss, "
says the Literary Digest, sis enormous The
indirect loss of business and money as a re-
suit of failures to keep appointments, failures
to secure or place orders, failures to complete
important deals, all because necessary letters
have gone astray, is beyond computation"
Further, and of an import most pathetic:
Anxious waiting for expected letters has
turned many hearts sick. Families have been
separated, love has been slain, human TRACE
IA 1hoT hove ont inn
lives to destruction, because letters have been
wrongly addressed and have not come"
When one ponders the gigantic and ever
mounting demands upon the United States
postal service, with its daily flood of thirty
three million letters and seven million par
cells, the marvel grows that it maintains SO
high a record of efficiency. But what shall
be said of the citizen who is SO slovenly, SO
needless of his own and others interests, that
he will not take time and pains to prepare let
tiers and packages properly before mailing
a wayfaring man, though fool. cannot err,
If he will put his mind upon them. They are:
Place the stamp in the upper right
hand corner.
Write plainly and fully (1) the name
of the person addressed, CD the street
and the number Tor the number of the
rural route) and (3) the city and the
state. Do not abbreviate.
The address should be- written in the
center of the envelope with sufficient mar
gin below the stamp so that when the
letter is postmarked and the stamp can
celed no portion of the address will be
blotted out.
Always place return card in the up
per .left-hand corner of the face of the
envelope, being careful to give name,
street and number Cor the number of
your rural route) and the city and state.
Ink or typewriter should be used in
addressing envelopes. Never write with
pencil
When addressing a letter in care of an
other person, be sure to use the street
and number of the person in whose care
the letter is sent.
Never address a letter in care of. Gen
eral Delivery unless you know the per-
son so addressed is in the habit of call
ing at the general delivery window for
his mail.
Observance of these safeguarding and es
sential rules is duty which the people OF
Atlanta owe to their own city's excellently
administered postoffice, to their own business
and social concerns, to their friends and loved
ones near and far, and to the commendable
effort now being made throughout the nation
to stop the curse of carelessness.