Quiz
LET'S PLAY
POST
office
True False
by Alfred Balk
The U.S. Post Office is a big factor in your life from birth to death.
Yet many postal pointers and mailbox myths aren't widely known. How
do you rate? Take this test and see.
1. If you're mailing a book, the cheapest way
is by parcel post.
2. If you buy a stamp on which something is
printed out of place, better take it back.
3. Even if you're not a collector, stamps can
be as good an investment as stocks.
4. The Post Office still has "pony express"
routes.
5. The new 4-cent stamp for first-class letters
should eliminate the $2-million-a-day postal
deficit.
6. The Post Office is the nation's largest
enterprise.
7. Only Congress passes on subjects for
commemorative stamps.
8. To be appointed a postmaster, you must
have had some experience as a mail carrier.
9. For a record of the mailing 'and delivery of
items such as bank books or insurance policies,
you must send them "registered."
10. If you visit Europe or write friends there,
always allow for slower mail delivery than here.
Answers:
1. False. There's a special book rate about one-fourth that for
parcel post.
2. False. Because the Post Office makes few such mistakes, it may
be a collector's item. One, a 24-cent air-mail stamp (1918), showed a biplane
upside down on 100 copies now they're worth $6,000 each.
3. True. You must hold them up to 20 years and know what you're
buying, of course. But it's common to earn 5 to 10 percent a year on sheets
of commemorative stamps of which some 400 types have been issued
since 1893. A $100 bloc of Louisiana Purchase 10-centers of 1905 today is
worth $10,000!
4. True. Rural Free Delivery has more than 100 horseback routes
and nearly that many boating routes. But most of the 18,000 RFD carriers
use autos to the tune of 1,500,000 miles a day.
5. False. Officials admit it's only a stopgap though a necessary
one. Modernization and selected rate increases also would be needed, plus
some adjustment in bookkeeping for "side" services offered.
6. False. The Telephone Company and General Motors each have
more employees than the Post Office's half-million. Eleven firms top its
$3-billion-a-year volume. But it is the world's largest Post Office.
7. False. In 1948 it did, voting 29 commemorative issues. Now, the
Post Office handles it, with a seven-member citizens' advisory committee.
And more than 3,500 suggested subjects are now-on file!
8. False. It isn't necessary, but you must pass a civil-service exam
for the job and be picked from a list of qualifiers. x
9. False. "Certified mail' 25 cents cheaper per letter provides
essentially the same type registration. (One other little-known saving: an
"air-letter sheet" sold for a dime can be alr-mailed anywhere in the world).
10. False. It may be faster. London and Paris have three deliveries
a day. Special delivery within Munich arrives in an hour. In Japan, Hong
Kong, and other places, mail may not be that fast but it often equals ours.
Family Weekly, March S, 1959
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