Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-10-30
MAIL TO FARMS.
Agitation for Free Postal De-
livery in Rural Districts.
Postmaster-Ge Wanamaker's
Views on the Subject.

An organized effort is under way anon
farmers to secure from Congress free mail
delivery in country towns The Farmers
Alliance, Patrons of Husba ndrv and other
orders are canvassing the matter. Letters
are being written to Congressman in favor
OF the project, and petitions TO Congress for
free delivery are being circulated IN many
parts OF the country.
Farmers assert that a daily mail delivery
at their door would adj perceptibly to the
money value Of their farms and would BE-
worth still more because it would keep them
IN touch with markets and the outside world
and rob farm life of its isolation and mo-
notony. The farmers are writing to the
agricultural press that this convenience
would enable them quite generally to take
daily paper as well TO subscribe for the
local papers more literally
In the American Agriculturist for No
vember Postmaster General Wanamaker
states definitely for the first time that the
experiment made by the Postoffice De
partment for free delivery in farming dis
trlcts shows that the increase Of revenue
more than pays all the increased expenses.
He believes that universal free delivery
would, therefore, be self sustaining.
Mr.. Wanamaker's article also contains
this statement of the case:
when a town grows to 10, 600 population
and puts down footwalks and puts up num-
UcIS Ou Guo HOuSoS, Tile OSUOIlC0 depart
ment is authorized by act of Congress to es-
tablish carrier service to deliver mail mat
ter at the doors of houses and Offices. AS
the town increases postal stations are estab-
lished
Thus the postal service eeps pace
with the growth of the town. While all this
postal work is going on at the thickly pop
ulated points, the farmers, quarrymen
blacksmiths, millers aE1 artisans, all paving
the regulation rates of postage, are left to
get their mail as best they can from the
postoffice in the village or at the railway
station.
I'm hamlet of 100 houses perhaps sixty
persons from the village and the vicinage
make daily pilgrimage of distance of
from ono block to two miles from the
whether there is any mail or not;
and hundred more persons within
the circle of the Office do not find it
convenient to go to the postoffice oitener
than once q week. One hundred or more
persons each day, in all weathers are max
sonal inconvenience and discomfort, when
a single carrier could once or twice
a day make the round of the vii
lage and distribute the mail, and
save the hundred q daily unnecessary
tramp, collecting at the same time from the
letter boxes located at the street corners,
the mail to be forwarded. A newspaper
brough every day to the door Of the farmer
or workman who has no one to go TO the
postoffice for it would find thankful sub
scriber and light new lamp in the house
hold.
True enough, the village or crossroads
inhabitants, 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 locali-
ties to refuse postal service equal to that
provided for the cities? Is it not reflection
on the intelligence and aspirations of the
farmer and the artisan to ignore his need of
the conveniences Of correspondence and of
supplies of newspapers and magazines? Does
it not retard the settlement of country dis
tricts to neglect to provide, in some form or
other, means for at least daily intercourse
with the rest Of the wOrld?"