Evening star., 1952-05-09
All the Knocks Aren't for the Postn1on


together that it is easy to get mixed up
so 1t is not the carriers fault. Ac-
cord1ng to this, as understand it, the
carrier starts at the end of street and
from then on he distributes the mail
by number only, not necessarily looking
at the name of the addresSee or the
name OF the street. Thus when he came
to 1910 1t could have been Stuart, Tay-
lor or Killarney. Some one had put
the 1910 letter in the Stuart street pack
age and regardless of the name of the
street it had to be delivered to 1910
Stuart street because some one at the
Office had put it in the Stuart street
package.
A. Edward Hardman.
X
All this criticism of the mail service
does not seem justified. For every letter
that goes astray or is delayed, there must
be hundreds of thousands that are deliv-
cred promptly. I think they do a very
good job and 1t has always been my ex-
perience that the employees are cour-
teouS and helpful. You would be doing
the public greater service by airing
the many sins of Capital Transit, an
outfit about which little good can be
said.
E. M. Degerholm.
have read with interest your recent
series which touches upon some of the
problems involved in handling mail in
the post Offices in the Washington area.
The installation of the sorting machine
described in the concluding article is a
step in the right direction, but there is
available machine working along diff
ferent lines which is more rapid and
efficient. The laboratories Of the Inter-
national Telephone and Telegraph
Corp. have designed an apparatus for
the Belgian government which is used
to sort mail without being touched by
the handlers. Mail is fed into one end of
the machine, passes along a conveyor
which presents each letter, in turn, to
the Sorter. BY depressing keys on a small
keyboard the letter is routed to the
proper receptacle automatically, which
may be one Of as many as 800.
Perry F. Crabill, Jr.
What about delivery Of publications?
In our neck of the woods in Arlington,
you are lucky If you get your magazines
within the week following the date they
appear on the stands. We have cancelled
our subscription to nearly all the maga-
zines we used to take. 1t costs more to
buy them at the drugstore, but it's less
frustrating.
M. E. G.
should like to commend your series
on D. c. mail service-or lack of it.
had a personal experience with local
service last fall which aroused my ire.
mailed two letters on Monday morn
ing in time for the $3.50 am. pickup,
both stamped for special delivery. One
was addressed to the downtown area, the
other to resident in Northeast Wash
ington The former was delivered by
pm. of the same day, so I knew that
they had been picked up. Next day. the
other addressee called to say that the
letter had not been delivered, and had
to dictate it's contents over the tele-
phone The letter was finally delivered.
still by special carrier. on the following
Thursday afternoon with the pencilled
notation mot at" It was correctly ad-
dressed, and typewriter. so that there
was no question Of illegibility.
Mrs. Edward b. Morris.
So. everybody is complaining about
the post office? Well, so did I, until
started work as subterranean clerk.
Then my emotions changed in favor OF
the post Office.
It's mostly the public, both addresses
and addressors, who are to blame for
faults attributed to the post Office. Let
ters addressed to 'Durham, North York"
or Newark, New Dakota" and wash
ington, District of Carolina" ad infini-
tum. A carrier or clerk has to be neo-
lithic code decipherer or hieroglyphic
expert.
Then there are those who send regu-
lar letters in air mail envelopes. put one
cent stamps on bales of cotton, write
special delivery" on three-cent letters,
and glue pennies to post cards.
The public should know that postal
clerks and carriers are required to be
$50 accurate. Imagine yourself with so
pigeon holes and 1000 letters and
clock, and start pitching letters, such
letters consisting Of divers streets, sub
streets, half streets, zones and rezoneS,
code and Sub-sections, all going in diff
ferent boxes. Such pandemonium is con-
tinuous for eight to IL hours. And dur
ing ChriStmas-whew!
If the public only knew the meticu-
lous care and headaches and special
services behind each letter the mailman
brings-rain, snow or hail-they'd say:
Thanks be to Allah, another miracle"
Mavin Barrett.
enjoyed your articles about the ter
rible post Office service, also the COM
plants / would like to add several
I sometimes mail bills with incorrect
addresses such as 1922 when it should be
1923 or 1925. just across the street Re-
suit, returned to me for better address.
mailed bill to an address; it was
returned for better one. I looked it
up and found that there was nothing
wrong with it. took it to the Friend
ship Office and asked what was wrong.
They didn't know. but at my insistence
took II hack and delivered IT, 7 refused