Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-21
FREE DELIVERY.
New York Globe.

degI4a or settlement and of density OF
5esa5 7EYation which makes it the duty of
the government to deliver all letters,
newspapers and other mail matter to the
persons to whom it is addressed, and at
| the place to which it is addressed Just as
is now done in the 35S principal cities of
the Union, and as has been done for years
in both England and France.
There is no good reason why this boon
to the residents of 35S cities should not
be extended by the government TO all the
inhabitants of the country. The people
of Arizona have just the same claim
upon the government for mail facilities
as the people of New York City; and eT-
cry argument that can be made in favor
of sending out carriers to deliver and to
collect the mails which pass through the
35S privileged postoftices, applies to the
81 900 other offices TO which people must
go (often five or ten miles, in order to
see whether there be anything for them
in the postoftice, and TO deposit in il their
own letters, etc.
The poStoftice was never intended to be
a money making department of the gov
eminent, or a source of federal revenue.
1t was established, and ought to be Oper-
ated, for the good and for the happiness
the country as well as of the people who
live i'll the great cities-for the hard
working miner and his family who live in
the sparsely settled regions of the far
West rs well US for the man whose office
Is within five minutes walk of Il city post
office, or for the young woman on whom
the carrier calls half n dozen times Il day
to deliver her love letters, and who needs
walk only few steps in order to mail her .
own missives and send them on their way
1t would not add greatly to the cost of
the mail service if this universal free de-
livery were adopted, and even this in
creased cost might be provided for
Though it ought not to be) by charging a
cent or two for the delivery of letters TO
persons living five miles or more from the
posteffice. No one expects the army or
the navy to save money for the govern
ment, The postoffice is thousand times
more benehcent than either army or
navy, and is just as essential TO the main
tenance of the government and the pros
perity of the country. .....
Consider what an amount of time and
money would be saved to the farmers of
the Union if their mail matter were de-
livered to them, and collected from them
by carriers, and they should themselves
be thus relieved of the necessity of going
miles to the pOstoffice to deposit or to
get, Il letter or Il newspaper Think of
the anxious hours that would come to an
end were 4 carrier to take daily to the
distant farm house the looked-for letter
from far away child or parent, letters
which might otherwise lie in the post
office for weeks.
There is at this time hardly a settle
ment so remote from an established post
off hot t,.,tI y-a1 af
office could not be delivered within
reasonable time and at small expense to
every person to whom letters, printed
matter or packages might be sent BY
mail.
The carrier would soon learn to know
every man, woman and child in his dis
triCt by name, and would take their mail
matter to them whether it were directed
precisely or not. Letters would not
remain III the pOstoffice for months IN
called for, as now happens, and then sent
to the dead letter office, but they would
be promptly delivered. And who can
estimate the sufferings which they would
or the happiness which they
would give.
As has been well said: eff the carrier
delivery system is, admittedly, success
full in its application to the more popu-
portionately advantageous when extended
to smaller communities. In fact, the
more scattered the population, the more
desraBle andmore beneficial is well
dsfery by carriers
81 AZ ids<E postal service is one that
9atters, papers and parcels,
Mt a mans door, and receives from him
similar matter to be placed in the mails,
and at the same time gives him the
choice of box at the office and the hand
ling of his own mails if he prefers. There
should be an accelerated movement in
that direction
If it be just, expedient and
right to tax the Illinois and
Texas farmer, and the miner or
ranchman of the West in order to employ
carriers to deliver letters and other mail
matters to person living in New York
Dr. in Pittsburgh, it is more right to tax
all the people of the whole country in
order to extend the benefit of the carrier
delivery to every in1abitant of the Union.