The record-union., 1898-03-20

The first is, of course, the most import
ant condition of any that can possibly
be involved in the matter. Without
good roads there can be no extension
of this convenience outside Of cities
and large towns.
The report of the special agent to
whom the inquiry was committed says
that one good man can make the dellV-
cry in a rural district by covering from
twenty-five to thirty miles day on
smooth permanent roads, while but ten
or twelve miles a day can be made on
the ordinary country road in the best
season of the year That is to say, what
one man can do in one day in mail de-
livery on permanent good roads it will
require three men one day to accom-
plish on poor or ordinary roads. To
engage in the work on the latter, there
fore, would be uneconomic, and it is
reported against.
New Jersey through her organized
road leagues is pressing the Postal De-
10 GSldpIlSH III A1IO NAS
livery in that State, generally because
the belief is entertained that that State
has sufficient good road mileage to
justify such a step. But the New Jer-
sey people express their willingness, II
the system is set up there. to have it
withdrawn from any district where the
roads are found to be inadequate, and
where the people fail to maintain the
roads in good order at all seasons of
the year.
The State Of Pennsylvania has filed
her petition. also, for limited sys-
tenn of rural free delivery, the sug-
gested routes being in the vicinity of
Bristol, Hulmeville, Salem, North
Hampton and Middleton, covering the
richest and most thickly settled agri-
cultural districts in the country. Penn
sylvania insists that nowhere else can
the experiment be so well tested as in
Bucks County. That State proposes, if
the offer is accepted, to make ali the
letter carriers deputy Road Inspectors,
with power to report any defects in, or
want Of care of, any road or section of
road, and to report damages done by
storms, and require their immediate
repair; and If the repairs are not made
that the delivery shall cease This is
certainly a very sincere offer, and testi-
fies to the good faith Of the Pennsyl-
vanians.
Applications are now on file in the
several departments from large num-
ber of other sections, and farmers gem
orally are writing asking how they
can secure free delivery in their neigh
borhoods These letters will be respond
perfectly clear to rural residents what
the prerequisite is, and this, We take it,
will lead to a general stirring up of the
people throughout the country on the
| good-roads question, and we may en-
tertain the hope, therefore, that good
will result very speedily
This whole matter of rural free deliv-
cry is old to good-roads enthusiasts.
| They have used it in their arguments
for the last ten years. But the diff
Guilty has been that the people looked
upon the suggestion as visionary, hay-
ing no idea whatever that the Federal
Government would ever seriously take
hold of it. Now that it has done so,
and by experiment had has demon
strated its ability and readiness to put
on the carriers wherever the road con-
ditions and the number of the rural
population justify, it is logical to con-
clude that there will be shaking up
Clara County, in this State, is enjoying
the benefits of the system in it's central
township, and, naturally enough, other
California counties are asking them
selves why the farming sections of
| those subdivisions cannot be similarly
benefited by this new, almost invalu-
able, convenience.
Directly related to the whole subject
is that of Postal savings, banks, for
both the Agricultural and Postal de-
partments are advocating these banks.
The latter holds that the deposits
should find investment in the bonds of
districts and counties that will use the
funds for the construction of perma-
nent good highways, thus returning the
money deposited Immediately to circu-
lation among the people while making
a good investment for the depositors,
and at the same time enabling free de-
livery to be set up in agricultural dis
tricts, to say nothing of all the other
benefits, so often recited and so sound
in reason, that must flow to a people
whose means of travel and transporta-
ton are highly improved.
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