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This is a World War I registered-mail Return Receipt card. It carries a clear Portland, Oregon machine cancel with the U.S. Food Administration slogan "Food will win the war / don't waste it", and it was returned to a sender in Klamath Falls, Oregon. It shows two things at once: how registered mail worked in 1918 and how the Post Office's cancelling machines were used for wartime messages at home.

1. Postal Markings & Operational Analysis

The Format: This is a Post Office Department Form 3811 "Return Receipt" penalty card, marked "OFFICIAL BUSINESS" and "PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE TO AVOID PAYMENT OF POSTAGE, $300", with printer's code "c 5—6116" on both sides. The card is a salmon-pink stock and measures about 5 1/8 x 3 inches. The face has printed lines for the Registered Article No. and Insured Parcel No., a "Return to" block for the sender, and a box marked "Postmark of Delivering Office and Date of Delivery." The back holds the receipt itself: "Received from the Postmaster the Registered or Insured Article, the original number of which appears on the face of this Card."

The Origin Postmark: The card has a machine cancel reading PORTLAND, OREGON / FEB 18 / 2:30 PM / 1918, with "523" in the dial. To its right is the boxed slogan "Food will win the war / don't waste it", with killer bars running across the delivering-office box. Portland was the delivering office. The receipt was signed there and then postmarked and mailed back to the sender.

Postal Rates & Law: As an official Post Office Department form, the card travelled free under the penalty privilege, so it needed no stamp. The sender would have paid the return-receipt service at the window when mailing the registered article. No adhesive stamp is attached or expected.

Payment Status: Postage-free official penalty mail. The sender's original registered article number, 49867, is stamped in red in the delivering-office box.

The Destination Address: The card was returned to "B. C. Thomas [?] / Box 266," and the post office line carries a purple-violet handstamp reading "Klamath Falls, Oregon."

The Receipt (reverse): The addressee is signed as "Commercial Corporation," and the agent's signature reads "Irene Mulcare [?]." The date of delivery is "Feb 18, 1918," which matches the Portland postmark.

2. Historical Significance

"Food will win the war" was the main slogan of the United States Food Administration, which Herbert Hoover headed after the U.S. entered the war in 1917. Its campaigns asked Americans to save wheat, meat and fats so that food could go to the troops and the Allies. Many post offices put the slogan into their machine cancels in 1918, so ordinary mail carried the message across the country. This example is unusual because it appears on an official return receipt rather than an ordinary letter. It records a single registered transaction between Klamath Falls and a Portland firm during the war. I could not find any documentation on the sender, "B. C. Thomas," or on the "Commercial Corporation" that signed for the article.

3. Transcription

Face:
Return to: B. C. Thomas [?]
Box 266
Post Office at: Klamath Falls, Oregon (handstamp)
Registered no. (red handstamp): 49867

Reverse:
Commercial Corporation (Signature or name of addressee)
Irene Mulcare [?] (Signature of addressee's agent)
Date of delivery, Feb 18, 1918

Condition: The card shows even toning and staining, most heavily on the left side. There are light creases, a few small surface scuffs and a minor edge nick at left. The markings and signatures remain clear and legible. Please see the photos.

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