The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-25
Often It Is Just a Matter of a Few Minutes Between Catching or Losing East ern Trains-Most Letters Posted After , O'Clock

Letters going east that reach the Birmingham postoffice by 2 o'clock in the afternoon reach their intended destination any where from "A to 36 hours earl fer than those mailed after 5 o'clock.
 According to officials at the local office, this is brought about by the fact that late afternoon and early eve ming trains are often delayed and miss connection at point where the mail is to be transferred.
 Eighty per cent of the mail collected in Birmingham daily is received at the postoffice after o'clock. This works a hardship on postal employees. They are forced to work late .u order to get the mail off on outbound trains. The majority of business and professional men do not sign their letters until the last thing in the afternoon and then when the stenographer leaves the of- flee, she drops them in the mail box. If the mail received in the morning was answered and signed and mailed, it would leave Birmingham several hours earlier and would probably, in many instances, reach it's destination a day earlier. On the other hand, the large amount of mail reaching the office late congests work at the postoffice and forces the employees to work overtime.
 According to officials at the post nff t~f1 casions to get the business men to mail early, and have seen some benefits, but only for a short time and then the old habit of mailing late in the afternoon is resumed
 FAST DELIVERY
 The largest mail from the east ar rives in Birmingham over the Louis- ville and Nashville Railroad at 626 o'clock in the morning. This train car ries a city distributing clerk between Nashville and Birmingham. He dis tributes all Birmingham mail, assort- ing it to the various routes, tying and labelling it to the proper route. In this way letters from New York and other eastern points are received by local business men on the first delivery in the morning.
 The distributor does not go any fur ther than Birmingham. This early morning Louisville and Nashville train is the only one carrying city distribu. tor.
 Letters for New York and other east ern points should be in the postoffice at 12:15 a. m., 5:30 a. m. 6:30 a. m, 2 p. m. 3:50 p. m 7:S0 D. m.. and S:30 D. m.. as trains are leaving for the east about thirty minutes later than the closing time mentioned above.
 For Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Chi cago and other cities oll the same line mail should be in the postoffice by 6:20 a. m., 11:45 a. m., S:30 p. m., and 11:30 p. m.
 For New Orleans, a. m., 1o:45 a. m. D. m., and 10:50 p. m.
 For Memphis and the west 6:45 a. m, 11:45-a. m., and 10:3O D. m.
 All of the big trains coming into Bir- mingham bring mail andd all with the exception of the Birmingham special exception of the Birmingham Special carry outgoing mail
 100000 A DAY
 More than 300.000 pieces of mail are handled daily at the local office while this number is much larger around the first and second days of the month.
 There are thirteen collections of mail in the downtown districts and office buildings daily, the first being made at 6;30 o'clock in the morning and the last at II o'clock at night
 On Twentieth street from the Louis vile and Nashville depot to Fifth ave- nue, and in all office buildings be- tween mail is collected practically every hour and half during the day, i while in other sections of the down. town district there are seven collec- | tions a day the last being made at 930 | o'clock at night.
 In the suburbs there are only two de- l liveries and two collections a day, and | these are made by the carriers. South | of Avenue F, the carriers work out of | the branch office at Five Points. The | mail collected by them is turned in | at this office and five times daily it is | sent to the main office. This is true | of the service in all suburbs, and it is | pointed out that a letter mailed la | downtown mail box get away so much | sooner than one mailed in the suburbs. l IS collections are made more often in the busiN>ss district.
 Mail is sent to the various branch | offices on the street cars five times i 1aily, it is stated, and every effort is | made by postal employees to give effi- l ,ient service and to get the mail going l )ut on the first train as well as to de- iver the incoming as soon as possible. | The schedule of mail collections in the | bushes district is as follows: 630l l. m, S:30 a. m., 10 a. m.. 11:so a. m, p. m., 2:30 p. m. 3;30 D. m. 4:30 p. m, ':sO p. m., p. m.. pm, s:3o p. m.. md II D. m.
 There are eight branch offices from | which carriers work; Avondale Wood avn. East Lake, Five Points, West | End, Fairview, Boyles and North Bir- ningham.
 One hundred and twenty clerks and | inety-five regular carriers are em- -;oyed at the local postoffice There gre a number of substitutes in both ines at work.
 Parcel post matter going out of the | 'tate is handled by the R. P. O. at the | Terminal Station. This matter is | stamped at the local office and then | sent to this station at the Terminal. where packages for each city are 'laced in individual small parcel post packages and are handled in a similar