The Cordova daily times., 1923-03-09
FLYING THE MAIL

The transport and delivery of the mails in the United States has always given ample foundation for tales of romance and adventure. From the days of the pony express there has
 grown a tradition of service which puts the 1 speedy and efficient performance of the al
 lotted task above all else scorning difficulty
 and peril. Never, however, has the Postoffice l Department made better record, either in efficiency of organization for carrying out g
 piece of work or in the devotion and courage
 of the couriers to whom the actual transport
 of the mail is entrusted, than in the four years
 of operation of the Air Mail Service
 Americans have fallen into the habit of
 thinking of Europe as ahead of LIS in the com
 mercal use of aircraft. It is perfectly true
 so far as passenger transport is concerned, tha'
 we make a sorry showing but if comparison
 is made on the basis of total distance flow,
 for commercial purposes during year the United States stands ahead of any European
 country. In fact, they come close to equalin"' the total of all European countries together.
 for the Air Mail alone flies six thousand miles a day, six days week. and fifty-tWo weeks
 year with the regularity approaching that
 of clockwork. In comparison, it is an excep- tionally busy day at the London Airport when the six companies operating services between England and the Continent send total of twenty airplanes across the Channel to or from Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam, the twenty representing an airplane distance of roughly
 five thousand miles, During the winter the
 maximum cross-channel traffic drops off to
 four or five machines a>day, but the Air Mail goes on unfailingly.
 fho 4bof fb0 o,1 Ibv air under every conceivable adverse eli matic condition, combating fog and snow and
 sleet and hail, going through when no pass
 enger air line would think of sending out a machine the safety record is extraordinary The last fifteen months of operation shows 2 total distance of two million miles covered without single fatal accident in the regular course of mail delivery service. When, about a year ago, certain European air line com
 pleted a million kilometers, or little over six hundred thousand miles of flight without injury to passenger, it was the occasion of
 great rejoicing. Congratulatory telegrams on that really very creditabe performance were received from many sources, and laurel wreaths were hung in the firms office windows. The officials of the Air Mail, however, after flying more than three times as far with the same freedom from accident, are far too busy to
 pause to gather any laures for themselves
 None the less they are entitled to them. It lis a great thing to have flown the mail daily over the whole route between New York and San Francisco with performance approxi- mating 96 per cent perfect and percentage of actual arrival and delivery schedule l. time which a railroad might be proud to equal
 Git is common saying along the route that
 one's watch may be set each day by the time when the mail plane passes overhead), but it is far greater thing to have demonstrated
 concusively that the airplane, with the ex-
 ercisc of properly unceasing care in every detail of its maintenance and operation can
 be operated with safety comparing we'll with that of older and better -patronized means
 of transport That demonstration, more than anything else that they have done, entities the