The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-07-14
DEAD LETTERS CAUSE
OF ENORMOUS EXPENSE
CARELESS NESS OF CORE
SPONDENTS ALSO SOURCE
OF GREAT ANNOYANCE.
COST NEARLY 100000 YEAR
Large Force of Rescuers Required to
Look After Mail Improperly Adj
dressed. New York Office Alone
Handles 100000 Dead Letters.

Uncle Sam wishes to save money
by abolishing his dead letter office, and
is calling attention to means for keep
ing letters alive. The course he advises
is sure and simple-merely inscribe a
return address on the envelopes upper
left hand corner. 1t costs $1,700,000
more to operate the dead letter office
than the usual revenues of it come to.
A United States senator might be
paid with the proceeds of uncancelled
stamps found loose in the mails or en-
closed in dead letters; salaries of seven
members of the house of representa-
tives might be taken out of the cash
found annually in the same way, and
surplus would be left; and the presi-
dent might receive his stipend and
most of his travelling allowance from
the funds collected yearly in return
postage for letters reclaimed from the
dead letter pile The total annual rev.
enue of the department. is near $780,
900. This sum would be multiplied if
the checks, drafts, money orders and
so forth yielded up by dead letters
counted for anything but waste paper.
These represent $3,500000 a year.
The business does not pay because
the mikes" eat up what gains the
dead letters bring in, and call for
more. 1t takes almost 100000 a
year to look after them Mikes" are
letters with just enough of the proper
address 10 save them from the trash
basket and not enough to lead them
to their destination. They may be
vrittar II1aoihI,r. or fhaxy t,,a, he I'D
dressed in foreign script, which the
postman could not decipher. The name
OF state or city may have been omitted
or house and street numbers careless
ly interchanged In large cities a sep
arate staff of employees is needed for
corrective work. In New York the
nike" bill amounts to $500 a day.
Experts Required on "Nixies."
1t takes experts to save most Of the
mikes" Their rescuers at the New
York postoffice have been at the work
from twenty-five to forty years. They
can read the intention of almost any
writer from almost any fragmentary
address, and tell where the writer in
tended the letter to go. They are aided
by library of directions covering
many cities. If these and memory fail,
the mikes" go into the dead letter
lot if they are of American origin.
The foreign ones are returned un-
opened to the countries from which
they came.
The office at the top of the post
office building on Eighth avenue han
dies yearly 100000 dead letters from
New York and neighboring states.
They are slit open by machinery in
patches Of 100 and turned over to a
group of "selecters," who go through
their contents in search of identified
ton clues or enclosures of value.
Through the New York dead letter
office $l,500,000 of paper money was
restored to owners through inquiries
last year, $4,000 in cash and more
than $1,000 worth of stamps At that,
the public was out considerable sum
in cash and in stamps. Records are
kept OF the disposition of all enclos-
ues of value, and the books itemizing
the money finds are audited every day.
Movie scenarios, short stories, learn
ed assays. dollar bills, lottery tickets,
stamps and what not drop out Of the
envelopes, and 1900 dead letters are
thrown away every day because they
contain no address of sender An aver
age of about 5000 for every working
day are rescued, and either sent on or
back, according to the clues found
amid their contents Those enclosing
valuables, but no clues to the owner,
are stored in vault for month be-
fore the government may profit by
their contents.