Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-02-22
With THE FLYING MAILS
Government Has Large and Efficient
Organization:
SYSTEM is NOW WELL ORGANIZED

Flyers Take their Work as idatter Of
covrs.-Many Letters That Travel
Across the Continent arc Changed
From Train to AirpIane.
Everybody knows vaguely that there
is SUCH 4 thing as anialr mail. bit few
reaR.e how thoroughly the system has
by now been established. A certain
railroad president had this impressed
upon his mind some time ago. Visit
ing tho air-n,ail 'Held at(Bellcfontc, Pa,
he was taken all over ''the place an'l
shown the shops: the: hi.ngars. and all
the other appurtenances Of an air. boat
terminal. All these things interested
the railroad man nt1butI what particular
ly made him -apen his eyes was the
regular and bIsinesslike way in which
mail planes kept arriving and depart
ing. 1.-The whole. thing worked as
smoothly and simply as one of his own
functions. During his visit the rail-
road president was told of how re-
serve pilot connected with this field
kept an engagement with his girl one
evening in New York, gao miles away.
He had missed his train and no plane
was available He was bemoaning his
luck when mail plane loaded with
some $4,000 letters mailed west Of the
Mississippi the day before glided into
the field. 1t was bound for New York.
but there was no room for the reserve
pilot, and So, d the story was tod the
railroad man., he strapped his suitcase
to one wing and lashed himself to the
other and thus. kept his appointment.
"Well, that beats me-" exclaimed the
man of the raalsS 'sWhen these fiiers
start deadheading back and forth, the
flying game must be getting pretty
tame" 1t is the tamcness induced by
familiarity. To those in the air-mail
service the flying game no longer Of
fers thrills. Itgis s,their days work, and
they are at it as regularly and uneX-
citedly as.the engineer Who pulls the
daily local. There are now $500 miles
Of air-mail routes between New York
and San Francisco, We are told in IA
review of the air-mail service by
Howard Mingos,... in: the New York
Times Magazine. Though one seldom
sees a machine in the air, owing to
their flying so high. yet these air.
carriers. transported more than 10,OoO,-
900 letters last year, according to the
official records. Says, Mr.. Mingos:
They are as regular as the railroads,
these mail planes. They maintained
their schedules SO per cent. Of the time
all last year, rain or shine. rs consist
emily as other mediums Of transporta-
ton. The comparison stands. The air.
mail system is like a railroad. 1t has
it's junction points and terminals, its
repair depots and service stations.
Every 400 miles or so-Ncw York.
Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Cheyenne.
Salt Lake, Reno and San FESnclsco-
St. Louis and st. Paul Washington
and Philadelphia--are the terminals
connections at intervals of hundred
miles, and emergency fields at con-
venicnt points between them.
Each Of the thirty machines-there
are 100 in the service today, but two
thirds are held. in rcserve-carrics from
10000 TO 10000 letters. rs many as the
average railway mail distributlng-c car,
which, with its pigcon-hole compart-
11hents and space for the necessary
clerical help, has little more capacity
It costs more to operate the mall-cars,
says the officials. because railway-mail
clerks employed on the trains arc more
highly paid for less mail handled by
them than arc the clerks at the rail-
way-mail distributing terminals IN all
cities where the air mail is sorted at
night. Officials explain the saving IN
time by pointing toaone~ city for en-
ample.
The bulk of New Yorks mail is de-
posted after four O'Clock. in. the after
noon. The last tranScontinental mall
train leaves at $40 o'clock that even
ing. 1t can not carry AL of the late
mail, because the pouches can not be
made UP in time. What is left over. as
well as the mail deposited during the
night, is dispatched westward by plane
shortly after daylight. 1t is carried. IN
trucks TO Curtiss Field. Long Island,
and the plane sets out Immediately.
The procedure is followed at each
terminal and island junction point,
planes taking on the accumulation OF
night mail in the. respective cities, as
well as that brought in on trains ana
planes from other points. The planes
make so much better time than the
trains that saving OF from twenty :
four to fourty- eight hours is eifcctcd
in delivery from, coast to coast, ap-
proximately half sthe time required pS
the all-the way train delivery. Your
letter mailed in New York is delivered
in San Francisco inside Of fifty hours
With perfection of the system, they eA-
pect to attain thirty-SiX hours delivery
Not only does that mail which starts D!
plane arrive more quickly. but aiso
that starting on the trains all along the
transcontinent:I system, because DE q
close-connection system all the flrSt-
class mail is changed and intercEanEcu
from train to plane wherever II VIII
create a saving in time.
pilot Christensen on December
flew $1,000 letters from Chicago to New
York in five hours and thirtE-ohC
minutes. The fastest trains require
eighteen hours. Possibly one OF your
letters flew with Christensen. There Is
no telling, for your letter.. mailed in the
rsual way with an ordinary two-cen'
hostage stamp affixed. may leave towI
by rail or plane; If it goes far 1t VII
he transferred from plane to train on
vice versa ut least twice.
."The mails must Ny." is the slogan ol
t,l thnfl1