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Show . YOUR POST OFFICE I By Gilbert L. Janson, Postmaster Direct air mail service became available to Cedar City In July. 1946, when the Western Air Lines placed our city on its route be tween Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Cedar City is one of the six Utah cities which now have the advantage of air line connection, con-nection, the other five being Salt Lake City, Ogden, Logan. Provo, and Price. For some unexplained reason the citizens of Cedar City have not thus far used the air mail service to the extent that those who worked for Its inauguration antlcipated.Though it is more than two and a half years since the first air mail pouches from Cedar City "took to the air", at present only a very small percentage per-centage of our first-class mail is dispatched by air. This was the case even when a full-ounce letter let-ter could be flown across the continent con-tinent for a nickel. On the basis of speed and . maintenance of schedules .the air line have now demonstrated their dependability for getting the mail through. Last spring and summer our Western Air Lines made every scheduled trip here for a period of more than three months, and could the approach to our airport and the runways have keen keep clear of snowblocklng, there would have been very few failures even during the rigorous winter from which we are Just emerging. In fact, occasionally the planes came through when ever the trains were stalled. One common complaint until within the past six months was the too frequent changes In trip schedules. These changes took place on an average of every few months and covered a considerable considera-ble range on the clock, thus keep- Inp the users of air mall service in confusion as to the proper time for posting air mail letters in order to connect with the planes. However, our air mall schedule now appears to be well "stabilized" so that It Is probable that in the future the only changes will be from a "winter" to a "summer" schedule alternately. alter-nately. Based on present perform-ance perform-ance our air mail service merits our support, and the most effective ef-fective way to encourage its continuance con-tinuance is for all of us to put air mall stamps on more of our first-lass letters, especially oni those addressed to the more distant dis-tant zones. ; As you know, the air. mail postage rate was increased to six cents last January 1. You need not use the regular air mall stamps for air mall service. If more convenient, Just use two ordinary or-dinary 3-cent stamps, or any other combination of ordinary stamps making a total of 6 cents. However, when ordinary stamps are used instead of the distinctive distinc-tive air mail stamps, be SURE to write or typewrite "AIR MAIL" Just below the stamps used so that it may be seen in conjunction conjunc-tion with the stamps. This is necessary because In the case of a heavy letter It cannot be determined de-termined without weighing whether whe-ther the extra postage is intended intend-ed for air mall or the overweight. over-weight. Never use the red-white-blue air mall envelope unless you desire de-sire air mall service and place full air mall postage on them. These envelopes are intended exclusively ex-clusively for air mall letters, and placing notations on them altering al-tering them in any way does not change this purpose. An air mail envelope used for ordinary mail must be returned to the sender, if known, for additional air mail postage or forwarded "postage due" for the difference. Incident-ally, Incident-ally, may I urge that you always have your name and address on every piece of mail which you send. This point can not be over emphasized, for frequently this omission may have far-reaching effects. Too much of your mall goes to the dead-letter office, because be-cause of lack of proper address or return addres. Distinctive air mall cards are now available at the post office. These cards sell for 4 cents each and are very convenient for speedy short messages. With your return address in the upper left-hand corner, they will be promptly returned if undeliver-able. undeliver-able. Just a reminder: Westbound (south) air mall should now be deposited In the post office not later than 2:15 p. m. and the eastbound (north) not later than 3:30 p. m. In order to be sure of scheduled plane connection. |