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PARCEL POST ANNIVERSARY Public Invited to Attend "Open House" at Main Post Office This Week. Postmaster Ernest J. Kruetgen has issued a special invitation to civic organizations, including womens clubs, school children from the eighth grade and over, and the public in general to attend "open house" at the main Post Office, Van Buren and Canal Streets, during the week of November 21 to 25, inclusive except Thanksgiving Day as part of the celebration of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Parcel Post. A parcel post display will be on view in the main lobby. Tours of the structure will include special emphasis on parcel post handling from the time the package is received and the various steps in its handling to its final dispatch for delivery, Mr. Kruetgen stated. The Postmaster revealed figures showing that Chicago is the parcel post center of the world. "More packages are handled by the Chicago postal establishment than any other place," he said. j From a total of 30,000,000 pieces originating in Chicago in 1913, when the parcel post system was inaugurated, the figure has steadily increased until for the 1938 fiscal year some 75,000,000 were mailed in the Chicago Post Office. In addition to that, some 37,000,000 pieces were received for Chicago delivery. The volume of pieces originating in Chicago for the fiscal year weighed approximately 374,000,000 pounds and filled 7,700,000 sacks for a total of 7,700 carloads. Parcels received for delivery locally weighed 114,-500,000 pounds, filling 3,500,000 sacks for a total of 3,500 carloads. The total of 11,200 cars would make a solid train 138 miles long, reaching from Chicago to Clinton, Iowa. Against this figure the 1913 volume was only 2,545 cars.
