Mcallen Daily Monitor

Commercial Lines
Take Up Task Of
Carrying Mails

By the Associated Press

Flying the airmail was resumed today by commercial planes.

Over four routes private airlines relieved the army of the mail carrying, and postal officials said at Washington that other routes would be surrendered to commercial ships within the next few days under the contracts awarded last week.

A United Air Line plane left Newark at 1:15 a. m. (Eastern Standard Time) for Oakland, Calif., with the first bags of airmail touched by a private line since Postmaster General Farley's order cancelling contracts became effective February 19.

The plane carried 1,200 pounds of mail and six passengers. Pilot Robert Dawson was at the controls. At Cleveland he was relieved by Pilot R. E. Coulter.

Other routes over which the airmail moved once more in commercial ships were between Seattle and San Diego, Salt Lake City and Seattle, and Salt Lake City and San Diego.

A United Air Line plane left Salt Lake City for Seattle at 2:57 a. m. (M.s.T.) with a cargo of mail and five passengers and five minutes later another ship left the Utah city for San Diego.

As a parting gesture in completing its mail flying, the army air corps carried out a 2,732-mile flight from Oakland to Newark yesterday in what it claimed was record time for the northern transcontinental route. The flight was made in 14 hours, 8 minutes.

A similar flight was made by Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc., over the southern route from Los Angeles to Newark just before the mail carrying job was taken from private lines. This flight was made in 13 hours, 5 minutes. However, the route flown by the army was 279 miles longer.