The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-11-14
Postal Delivery for Co untry Dis
trIctS.

When town grows to 10000 popuia-
tion and puts down footwalks and puts
up numbers on the houses, the Post
Office Department is authorized by Act
of Congress to establish a carrier service
to deliver mail matter at the doors of
houses and offices. As the town increases
postal stations are established, Thus
the postal service keeps pace with the
growth of the town. While all this
postal work is going on at the thickly
populated points, the farmers, quarry
men, blacksmiths, millers, and artisans,
all paying the regulation rates of postage
are left to get their mail as best they can
from the post Office i'll the village or at
the railway station.
In hamlet of one hundred houses,
perhaps sixty persons from the village
and the vicinage make daily pilgrimage
of distance OF from one block to two
miles, from the nome to the post office,
to find out whether there is any mail or
not; and \ hundred more persons within
the circle OF the Office do not find it con-
venient to go to the post office oftener
than once a week. One hundred or more
persons are each day, in all weathers,
making trips to the post office, often at
great personal Inconvenience and discom-
fort, when single carrier could ouce or
twice each day make the round of the
village and distribute the mail, and save
the hundred a daily unnecessary tramp,
collecting at thu same time from the
letter boxes, located at the street cor
uers, the mail to be for@ arded. 4 news
paper brought every day to the door OF
the farmer or workman who has no olo
to 90 the post offio, FOR it, would find y
thankful subscriber and light q new
lamp in the household.
True enough, the village or cross roads
inhabltant, or the dweller on the farm
chooses his home for his family and
might live in the city, where gas and
water, and mails are brought to his door;
but when people everywhere pay the
same rate OF postage, why should one
portion of them have mail facilities
denied to other portions? Is it fair to
| the rural localities to refuse postal SER
vice equal to that provided for the cities?
| Is it not q reflection on the intelligence
and aspirations of the farmer and the
artisan to ignore his need of the couven-
| fences of correspondence and Of supplies
| OF newspapers and magazines? Does it
| not retard the settlement of country
districts, to neglect to provide, IN some
| form or other, means for at least daily
| intercourse with the rest of the world?
To carry letters, newspapers, and
| magazines, and leave them in an office
remote from the home to be called for,
| is only a partial iulfillment of the duty
! of the Department. With the well paid
railroads, star route contractors, and
mail messenger, traversing every high
| way to the uttermOst rook and corner
| of the land, there ought to be some prac-
| ticaI way to utilize all these forces and
| spread the house to house delivery over
| almost every square mile of this great
| country. | firmly believe that when
such q scheme is i'll proper operation for
| a year, it will b5 proven that the in
crease OF revenue will fully couuterEal
| ance the necessary expenditure.
| The last Congress lsteued to aTgu
mepts on this subject aud allowed the
| Postmaster General to use $40 900 of the
| appropriation for Free Delivery for an
| experiment in the small towns, villages,
and farming districts The fact becoming
| known to some extent through the news
papers, applications were made 'or Il
| trial OF the plan; and i'll the order receiv ed
| forty -seven offices in thirty one states
were equipped with Litter boxes ana
carrier service. The first twelve Of these
offices were designated February l, 1891,
and five months trial is all that has
been allowed up to the close OF the De
partmeut fiscal year. 1t is, therefore,
too soon TO get fnll results.
But it is clear from the figures at hand
that the increase of revenue more than
| paid all the Increased expense. This is
| a significant fact, and if the same results
follow further experiments, a great ex-
tension Of free delivery, is readily at
| hand.
A long forward stride would be made
in the postal service if the next Congress
could find time to consider what age
commonly regarded as the little things
of Post Office Department., but which
are really the necessary and almost all
important touch of the largest depart
meut of the Government upon the COM
fort and progress o! ali the families of
tho county. as well as of every business
enterprise, great and small.