Show CHRISTMAS RUSH holiday mail problem easier to handle S since ince public started helping postmen by HUGH THOMASON THOMASO 14 fRel taxed by fetn newspaper Newe paper union washington ASHINGTON by this time your christmas card to the folks who used to live next door has been delivered in a distant community and aunt matildaa Mat ildas gift package for the youngsters has arrived as usual right on schedule forty thousand postmasters are beginning to see daylight over a mound of letters parcels greeting cards and whatnot that showers down on the post office department each holiday season pretty soon it will be over for or another year and the weary mailmen will start preparing for 1940 ajob a lob that requires postage stamps an eye on the weather machinelike machine like coordt co nation of railroad and postal bacul facilities oodles of patience i w with ith the well meaning but lax public and a around ro und for extra clerk aure hire beware of cf fads I 1 it means watching out for population trends economic conditions an and d those unpredictable mailing fads that grip the public fancy each holiday season one year they a pour oceans of christmas cards on blittle a little village of called bethlehem md the next year on santa claus ind next on christmas pla fla and probably the following year at noel va why just to have their cards cancelled with a christmas y postmark which most of the recipients wont even notice but its I 1 fide fine old american tradition and the post office department must operate cooperate co holiday postal rushes arent what they used to be but that mean the volume of mall mail is decreasing on the contrary its on the upgrade but the public has memorized those oft repeated shop early mall mail early slogans and taking more pity on the hapless mailman theres still a disheartening deluge of mall mail each season to that graveyard of good intentions the dead letter office where go all letters and parcels suffering from illegible incorrect addresses and hopelessly poor wrappings from which the address has become lost altogether an old hand in the postal service Z 1 I V 1 ak k aj P 50 I 1 ir V 1 za V V 1 N AV 11 L DELUGE A flood of christmas mail descends on one of 0 americus Americ ds metropolitan post offices ices bound for cities and hamlets hamlet hundreds 0 I 1 miles away can decipher bana handwriting writing as illegible as an egyptian cryptograph but christmas Is just when the mall mail clerks dont have time to do it such detective jobs must then fall all partly on the shoulders of inexperienced substitute postmen which only emphasizes pha sizes the need for legible addresses T to 0 0 outfox the dead letter office ma mapy py post offices office s have a hospital to doctor decrepit packages in larger cities a half dozen men are assigned to this job during the holidays armed with patches glue and cord but sometimes the job is beyond them spelling grief tor for both giver and intended recipient mall mail volume anticipated christmas apte preparations pa rations in the post office department begin in mid sum mer when individual postmasters send in their requisitions for stamps they dont guess at it instead they turn to reliable local sources like the chamber of commerce board of trade and other commercial groups which can make a pretty good guess about local business conditions five or six months hence about the same time the bureau of engraving and printing begins turning out extra stocks stock of stamps fa for r christmas this office wait for the postmasters to make their check stamps must be printed immediately to avoid a logjam log jam later in the season transportation equipment Is the next problem when the post office department knows how much business is expected railroads are notified to have the proper number of mail service cars in readiness when the rush starts at local post offices office s special vehicles must be requisitioned for parcel delivery |