New Routes

Last week, a new mailcarrier entered the Government service, a thin, slightly wizened little man of 62 with graying hair. He was no man for arduous marches in extremes of weather. But he had not undertaken his job because of the stoutness of his legs and constitution. He had a fleet of aeroplanes, a corps of pilots. He had contracted to whisk letters and packages from Cleveland and Chicago to his home city, Detroit, and vice versa. His first plane, though he was not in it, was met at Cleveland by a fleet of Army pursuit planes. Unloading, loading, it soon sped back with Detroit's first air mail. There the citizens again gave thanks for their genius loci, Mr. Henry Ford. The New York-San Francisco air mail was started 1924; New York-Chicago service started July 1, 1925. Detroit was not made a stopping place on either service. Neither were Pittsburgh and Youngstown. But they will be served within two months if present U. S. plans go through. Neither was many another U. S. city. But the Ford service inaugurated a new policy in the Post Office Department, the contract airmail. Routes planned:

1) Boston to New York, via Hartford; 2) Dallas to Chicago and six stops: 3) Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, via Las Vegas; 4) Elko, Nev., via Boise, Ida., to Pasco, Wash.; 5) Seattle to Los Angeles; 6) Cleveland to Pittsburgh; 7) Chicago to Minneapolis and St. Paul; 8) Miami to Atlanta, via Tampa and Jacksonville.