Omaha daily bee., 1890-04-06

habitants, he may institute the far nobler
inquiry as to the means of giving free delivery
of mails to all the people of the land, writing
on the banner of the service the worthy motto,
From Writer to Reader.
Evidently the first condition of establishing
q universal free delivery is to establish rate
of compensation within the means of the de-
partment. Our carrier service, thought of
only as luxury for the great cities, was
established with city rates of pay and even
these were exaggerated to meet the views of
politicians who were to dictate the appoint
ments, and naturally wished the 'spoils'' to
be as attractive as possible. The free delivery
was thus made needlessly expensive even for
the cities the carriers receiving much more
than is paid for other work requiring equal
strength and ability. Six hundred, eight hun
dred and thousand dollars a year-the COM
mon pay of our city letter carriers-are, as
wages go, disproportionatef fora service which
requires only good pair of legs and intelli-
gence sufficient to read the addresses and re-
member the location of few houses and
streets. The extension of the service to coun-
try villages and districts on such pay is obvi-
ously impossible, But are there not thou
sands of competent men and stout boys who
would be glad to do the work in the rural dis
tricts for one-third of these rates? No pay is
really small when numbers greatly i'll excess
of the demand are ready to leave other EN-
pigments and undertake the work for the
compensation offered.
The pay of the English carriers or postmen,
though larger than that on the continent, and
confessedly less than it ought to be in Great
Britain, l6 shilling week NEARLY S2OS year,
for beginners, and only % shillingS week
(nearly 1864 year, for the most experienced
still never fails to attract as many compe-
tent men as are wanted for the work Fifty
per cent added to these rates, or say $500
year for beginners, and $500 a year for the
oldest and most experienced would be ample
pay for the service in the small towns and
country villages of the United States,
and would be eagerly sought at those
rates by an abundance of applicants of good
character. In England, in the country places,
half-time men are employed for some part Of
the service. The postmaster at Redhill in
Surrey told me last summer that he had two
outlying country districts which he served
through shoemaker and tailor, who, after
their days work on the bench, were glad to
take an hour or two of walk in the country
for a small compensation of seven shillingS
week each. In this way the whole rural dis
trict is reached at little cost.
If the enormous expense of this extension
of free delivery system seems appalling, a
brief calculation will show how much it now
costs the people to get their mail, and how
much would therefore be saved them by the
proposed reform. Given a village pOstOfce
serving hundred families within radius of
three mies-an office fairly representing
thousands througout the country-allow to
these families an average of one hour day
spent in seeking on sending mail the total
cost at 10 cents an hour would be $40 q day,
or 1860 a year. Supposing the service to be
done partly by children, and the average cost
to be but cents AN hour, or 81 q day
for the whole district; this would still amount
To 81 S25 a year or, emitting Sundays, to
81 ,5G5 the year. One carrier at full time and
one on half time would easily deliver the mail
twice a day TO all within one mile. and ut
least once a day TO all outside of that distance,
walking only the sixteen miles a day expected
of the English postman in the country. The
cost of this deliyerage less than two dollars
day.
If in place of our many small pOstoffices,
where the service is almost necessarily in
ferior and often ignorant, large postal dis
trlcts We're formed each under one chief and
each covering the territory served by six or
eight of these small offices, all the post
masters, except the one being replaced by
carriers or postmen, mounted or on foot as the
distances might require, the free delivery
crease of cost, and in some eases, at posi-
tive saving Let the people think; there is
no reason for giving free delivery OF mails TO
the dwelers in the cities and refusing il To
those in the country places. IL is in the
country and its villages that the carrier $
service is most needed. The greater dis
tances and the absence of good sidewalks and
lighted streets, double the difficulties of send
ing 10 the pOstOlflce without at all diminish
ing the necessity. II Is admitted that no
other branch of the public work comes so
home TO the business and bosom OF all the
people as this Of the postal service, and none
therefore demands such wise and liberal care