Evening star., 1942-08-06
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.

Every day at the Washington
Post Office is like the Christmas
season used to be.
That is to say, more mail is moved
in and out of the wartime Capital
than it handled when Yuletide was
at flood in a peaceful era.
In fact, every month lately the
volume has been greater than dur
ing any December up to and lnclud-
ing 1888. The old Christmas peak
levels have been left far behind.
But all this business. tremendous
load, inching up each month, is
being taken in stride-so far. Be-
hind the scenes, back of the win
dows through which the public
peeks family at the mystery Of what
happens to mails, there are more
people at work, but there is no con-
fusion. Within the guarded areas
life goes on much as it always did.
Letters and packages come in and
are postmarked and 60 out on pretty
much the same trains. There are
no delays here, despite the volume.
FaclIltIeS strained.
Yet there is a growing tension as
the war goes on and the pressure in
creases. The demands of city
which has jumped in population
100000 in about two years are
straining its postal facilities.
There is the serious problem of
personnel. The main post Office and
it's 81 branches employ approx
imately 3,600-an increase of Is per
cent since the rearmament program
started.
More than 300 employees have gone
into the armed forces. They had
to be replaced And to date Post
master Vincent o. Burke had not
begun to employ women to take over
work which men have done.
But, although no plans for femi-
nine requirements have been made,
and no applications from women
are being taken, it's a safe bet that
eventually they will be hired in
force unless the war closes with
unexpected swiftness.
Still Take Young Men.
Meanwhile, the post Office even
has stuck to its policy of employing
young men. despite the likelihood
they will be called into the service.
1t has been found that the younger
men make the best clerks, carriers
and leaders. and are easier to train.
Some, indeed. taken on as late as
February and March, already have
been called by the Army. And, so
far, Mr.. Burke has not asked de-
ferment of a single employe on the
ground that he would be difficult
or impossible to replace.
Taking on women Is not as simple
as it sounds, post Office officials
point out. Much of the work Is
heavy, requiring muscle as we'll as
skill-such tasks as juggling sacks
and pounches, driving trucks and
loading heavy mail Some of this
labor is beyond the strength of
most women. Then there is much
night work.
Women could, of course, sell
stamps and money orders, rubber
stamp letters and parcels and do
other such jobs. And undoubtedly
they'll be put to doing this work
later.
so Women in Office Work.
At present, only about SO women
are employed in the local post Office
system, exclusive of charwomen
They are stenographers, and they
run accounting machines and do
bookkeeping.
The tremendous increase in busi-
ness here is due not only to the
arrival of Government workers by
the many thousands, but TO the
big rise in official mail as depart
ments and bureaus have expanded
Franked mail leads. But this is not
due to the much discussed use of the
free mail privilege by members of
Congress. Mail of Congress is only
a small portion of the truckloads OF
official letters that roll back and
forth every day. Most of it comes
from Government offices.
outgoing letter-size mail filtering
through the City Post Office and its
branches runs to something like 49,
000000 pieces a month-an increase
of IS per cent over the average when
Washington was a smaller, more
tranquil town, in 1899.
Since most people take the mails,
Like the lights and the telephone,
for granted, as an inherent right
which should perform like sunrise
and sunset, they probably don't
know that IS per cent of their letters
are processed and put on trains at
night. While they sleep, the largest
force of the "a hours tolls through
the stacks of their letters. A cogent
reason for this is that more letters
are mailed late in the day than at
any other time
While the mailed material has
gone out and arrived on normal
schedules-thati is, under the same
postal routine prevailing in less
frenzied days-some delays have
been inevitable because trains often