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Show November Dead Line For Xmas (jii'ts 'Jin- lollov.-ii,-. lil.t.r r from the P').--;l,ni:i.-;l,(-i- f'.i-n'-ral ha,.s ly ; n ::' iit l,o ))d:;I n);is;;r.-' t,i i rou 1 10 1 j 1, Uie nation in II it-, hope ol ::r::i.l,t(.-rinr; the deliyrt of Chri.sl ma.s mail over a v,;U-r period of time. There can be no a.s.su ranee, in view of. the unavoidable handicaps, handi-caps, of war, that tjifts and eards mailed in the weeks immediately preceding Christmas will be delivered de-livered on time. .Sueh matter must not impede the movement of war materials and personnel and military mail. Transportation facilities arc heavily burdened. The number of railway cars and airplanes available for handling Christmas mail is far below that of former years. Facilities simply are not available to transport and deliver, deliv-er, in the' last 3 weeks before Christmas, the tremendous quantities quan-tities of mail that we we heretofore hereto-fore moved in that period. More than 30 thousand postal employees have gone into the armed forces. They have been largely replaced with less experienced exper-ienced personnel. In the past, we have called in more than 200,000 temporary employees to help us with the holiday mails. Great numbers of these are now in the armed forces and war industries. This year we must rely largely upon women and high school boys and girls, who cannot work long hours or at the high speed of experienced personnel. per-sonnel. The only way, therefore, in which deliveries of Christmas mails can be made on time is by spreading the mailings over a longer period so that available transportation equipment and postal personnel can be used during more weeks. Special efforts should be made also to extend the use of postal delivery zone numbers on all mail addressed to cities havine that system, because the numbers num-bers expedite mail distribution. The Postal Establish. nent today to-day is delivering record-breaking volumes of mail and also is performing per-forming huge extraordinary wartime war-time tasks. The Christmas mails will be in addition to all tlie.se services, which must be kept at maximum efficiency. We must have public cooperation if these mails are to be delivered on time. Last year, at the urging of postal' people, the public did start its mailings earlier than usual, but i,he early volume was small. There was a deluge of later mailings. mail-ings. Many people who dirt not mail within the time specified by the Post Office Department learned to their regret that their friends did not receive the cards , and gifts until after Christmas. Postmasters and other postal employees therefore should use every means to bring to the attention at-tention of mailers this warning: THE WAR HAS DISLOCATED THE CHRISTMAS MAILING SEASON. THIS YEAR, NOVEMBER NOVEM-BER IS THE TIME FOR MAILING MAIL-ING CHRISTMAS GIFTS AND CARDS. GIIFTS SHOULD BE MARKED, "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL UN-TIL CHRISTMAS." If that message is spread widely wide-ly and effectively through your local newspapers, radio commentators, commen-tators, theaters, schools, churches, church-es, chambers of commerce, posters, post-ers, post office bulletin boards, and other means, it will then be fairly up to. the public to make-its make-its own decision. If the decision is to mail early, gifts and cards will arrive on time. If mailings become a last-minute deluge as in peacetime years, it will be physically impossible to deliver them by Christmas in view of the wartime handicaps. Frank C. Walker Postmaster General. |