Rural Mail to be Delivered in Late Afternoon, March 30, 1924

Rural Schedules on Mail Changed. . . Carriers Traversing Country Districts to Leave Post Office at 2 p.m.

Tuesday marks the beginning of a new schedule for the rural mail carriers of the Durham post office. Orders have been received by J.K. Mason, postmaster, from the post office department in Washington to change the schedule so that the rural carriers will leave the city on their respective routes at 2 o’clock in the afternoon instead of 8 o’clock in the morning.

No reason was assigned by the order from the post office department for the change in the schedule and all that Postmaster Mason could say regarding it was that the order should be complied with. Several theories for the change in schedule of leaving the local post office have been advanced. One is the post office department is putting the new schedule into effect for trial to see whether or not it will give the patrons on the rural routes better service and more satisfaction. This will permit the residents of these routes to receive the mail coming into the city up until noon on the same day received by the post office. This may, it is thought by some, be the best plan, while others are of the opinion that it will prove to be very unsatisfactory to the farmers. In the past the mail has been in the homes of the farmers by noon or soon thereafter, whereas under the new schedule it will be in the late afternoon when many of them will receive their daily mail. This will be especially unsatisfactory to the farmers during the present season, it is thought, as they are busily engaged in preparing their fields for the crops. Most of the farmers prefer to get their mail around noon so that it might be read during the noon time meal and while resting from the labors in the field. With the mail coming in the afternoon, the farmers will have to read at night, whereas most of them retire early through the summer months in order that they might arise early the next morning to resume work in the fields.

There are eight rural routes leaving the Durham post office. They cover from 22 to 30 miles of territory. With the majority of the rural mail carriers using automobiles in carrying their mail, only a few hours’ time is needed in which to cover the route. Under the old system of horse-drawn vehicles, seven or eight hours were required.

From the front page of the Sunday Morning Herald, Durham, N.C., March 30, 1924