Omaha daily bee., 1893-11-19

AZ Y, - ~
The villages and small towns of the
west which for two years past have been
enjoying the advantage of a free mail
delivery are likely to be deprived of this
service in the near future. Among the
economies to be instituted by the pres
emit administration this will be one. In
the annual report of the postmaster
general for the fiscal year ending June
80. 1892, the country was informed that
the experiment of village free delivery
had been both popular and profitable.
The report said: 1.-THE experiments
have mainly related to villages,
to be sure, buG it has been u
daily service and it has cleared a
profit. 1t is easy enough, therefore, to
say that the free delivery can be mex
pensivcly extended further and further,
and it ought to be done, whether it pays
a profit to the department or not The
then postmaster general also said: u
hardly see how the service can justly be
discontinued. On h contrary 1T would
he wise to increase the number of u
try free delivery Offices by at least 1000
each year for the neXt. ten years. With
the added privilege would come a new
impetus, and ali of the. cities, which are
all so much dependent upon the country
neighborhoods, as we'll as the towns and
the farming districts, would be supplied
the sooner with a simple, business-like,
almost necessary postal facility" The
present administration of the Postoffice
department does not concur in this view.
That portion Of the annual report of the
first assistant postmaster general which
refers to the experiment of free delivery
in towns and villages says, in effect,
that it has been u failure and advises
that it be suspended at the close of the
current year. 1t is admitted that at
first the service mot only seemed to
prove of real benefit to the patrons of
the local postoffices, but resulted in an
apparent increase in the postal receipts"
but it is said that as soon as the novelty
wore off 1.-The resident of h village
again found it more convenient to call
at the village postoffice to 'get his mail.
The intelligent reader of the report will
be very likely to pause at this point and
ask himself whether it is probable that
a person receiving mail would find it
more convenient to travel to the post
Office in all kinds of weather, with the
chance of not getting anything when he
called. than to have his mail delivered
at his home by a carrier. Is not such a
statement a self-evident absurdity? 1t
will certainly be so regarded by city
people who have been long used to
free delivery. The report urges that
village free delivery should not be @
tended merely because the free de-
livery in cities is maintained at the eX-
pense of the general public" to which
the advocates of village free de.
livery will reply with reason
that the urban populations have
no better right to the best con
veniences and advantages of the postal
service than have the rural populations.
the design of that service being to give
all the people, as nearly as practicable,
equal benefits. The complaint has peer
made for years that in the improvement
of postal facilities the cities secured
pretty much all the advantages, and Tx
complaint has been well founded. Tie
last administration undertook to remedy
this, not by reducing the facilities i,
the cities, but by improving and extend
ing those in the country. The present
administration proposes to abandon thil
reform and return to the old condition
of things, and it is not to be doubted
that this will be done. OF course rura
delivery will be out of the question.
There are only forty-six towns an
villages, ranging in population from S0
to 4, 900, in which the free delivery ex
pertinent has beer tried, so that depriv
ing them of this service Will not be
hardship to u great number of people
but the abandonment OF this movcmen
, for extending better postal facilities t
the country populations will postpcn
, indefinitely the improvement in this di
rection which hundreds of small com
munities have been looking for, and i
this respect would be unfortunate.
: the government cannot p%rudently at thi
{ time make any further advance in thi
, matter it should at any rate maintai,
1 what progress has been made.
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