From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for July 19, 1974:

The postal service’s new policy for sorting outgoing mail in Kansas City was appearing to cause a slight delay to long-distance mail. Mail to Hays, Ottawa, and Independence, Mo., was arriving in at its destination in the same amount of time under both the old and new systems, but letters addressed to more distant cities such as Baltimore, Md., Chapel Hill, N.C., Davenport, Iowa, and Gerald, Mo., were arriving a day later under the new system. “I can’t offer you an explanation for it, I really can’t. I just can’t believe this is going to make much difference,” said Lawrence postmaster Jack Harris. “Basically, this was not meant to have much effect on the service except to lower cost.” Under the new system, which had taken effect earlier this month, the outgoing non-local mail was taken to Kansas City, Mo., to be sorted by machine. Local mail, when dropped in boxes marked for local delivery, was still sorted in Lawrence.