The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-22

1 nies, while the American postal officials look upon it as d purely business enter prise, as any private corporation would, and send the letters entrusted to their care by the quickest and most direct route. Thus it happens that practically all the British mail for the United States comes by the two British lines sailing on Wednesdays and Saturdays from Liv- erpool This plan is followed even to the extent of sending mail on nine and ten | days boats when there are others sailing on the same dates that make the voyage in six or seven days.
 Letter Delayed.
 l A letter mailed in London on Wednes- day is compelled to wait until Saturday before it starts on it's journey overseas and one mailed Saturday is delayed until Wednesday, It is true that when en- velopes are marked ''via American pack et,' letters will be sent on the American line from Southampton, but comparative ly few people will take the trouble to study the sailing schedules and to pro- vide this special direction.
 The English papers have frequently criticised this system of sacrificing the convenience Of the business world to the
 profit of British Steamship companies 1 and the London Express recently pub | lished table showing that the postoffce
 authorities frequently sacrificed a day
 or even two by sending mails by such , ships as the Saxonia and Ivernia when l one of the crack American liners as for
 example, the St. Louis or St. Paul, was
 sailing on the same day Striking illus
 trations of this delay have been afforded 1 frequently when freight despatched by
 the American line has been discharged in
 ,.1r hn aI,f, ti..t tA
 has reloaded and sailed for Southamp-
 ton again before the bills of lading for
 the import cargo have arrived by a
 slower British boat-one of John Bull mail steamers.
 l If the United States were to follow the
 British system 1t would ship all it's mall 1 by the vessels of the American line,
 which provide weekly sailings from New York to Southampton. So far from doing
 this. however, Uncle Sam invariably
 sends his mail out by the best available
 boats The result is that mail is de-
 spatched from New York five times week. instead of twice, as from England; and if a six-days boat is sailing on the i same day with q nine-day boat the for-
 mer carries the mail which Is again in
 strong contrast to the English system 1 The United States authorities have un- | dertaken to facilitate the movement of ocean mails by the establishment of sea l postoffices on certain steamers in which j, postal clerks sort the letters and make 1 them up in convenient packages as is | done on railway mail cars. The British | postoffice never has joined in this effort. although the work of the sea postoffces l frequently means a gain of from six to eight hours. sometimes even more, in the delivery of letter.
 As a further improvement in this d. rection, the United States officials of the postoffce have just arranged with the American line to change it's sailing day so that hereafter it's ships leave New York on Saturdays instead of Wednes- day. At the same time the White Star line which has its sailings on Wednes- days will establish sea postoffices on it's ships As a result the Wednesday mails will be handled as expeditiously as formerly, while there will be a decided gain in the Saturday mails Heretofore these have been sent on the Cunard line via Liverpool and the London letters have not been distributed until a week from the following Monday morning. as there is no distribution in London on Sundays. Under the new plan the Lon don mail will reach it's destination Sat urday afternoon, and there will he A gain of from thirty to thirty-six hours in delivering q large part of the mail for all British points.
 In consequence of the change the Amer ican line ships probably will carry more mail than formerly since the mails are naturally heavier at the end than at the beginning of the week. This will not be of any material advantage to the line which is paid under it's contract with the