The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-18
Given the Throw-down On Free
Rural Delivery.
AN INSUFFICIENT PULL
POSTMASTER MEIGHAN ORIGIN
ATED RURAL DELIVERY.
Induced the Department to Send Out
Special Agent, and Salt Lake
County Reaped the Benefit
Meighan Waited For the Man
Who Never Came.
(special CONSEQUENCES


Ogden, Sept. 17.-Apropos of the rura
! delivery system and the experiment
with it being tried in Salt Lake county
there are few little stories which have
gone the rounds amongst the followers
of Hanna in Salt Lake and Weber
/ When Weber people tell the stories
! they dwell more on the way the rural
/ delivery system was not tried in their
county.
The story is accompanied with COM
ments not loud but vigorous, and has
( to do with the following facts
Charley Meighan, when appointed
postmaster of Ogden went in vigor-
ously for the Improvement of the ser
vice. One thing that impressed him
I thoroughly was that Of all places in
Utah, if not in the United States, We
Der county was the ideal place for a
test of the rural free delivery system
of mails. His grounds for this belief
were in the topography and geography
of the county. Ogden City, located
practically in the center of the coun-
ty, could be the distributing center and
the mails could be handled at the Og-
den Office. To the northwest of the city
are a number of little towns, North
Ogden, Harrisville, Pleasant View,
Plain City, West Weber, Statewide
and others. The mail for these locali-
ties is now carried by a man who trav-
els in a circle, leaving a pouch in each
place and taking up the outgoing mail
as he travels.
If any other locality in the county
were selected, the carrier could still
travel in a circle and pass through
towns all the time, covering a maxi
mum amount of territory with the
minimum amount of travel and ex-
pense.
Meighan was full of the subject and
talked it up to postoffice inspectors and
other officials until finally his reason
ing impressed them and in due course
of time reports were forwarded to
Washington embodying his views-or
part of them.
This was followed in due course of
time by The appointment of w. E. An
min as special postoffice agent to look
into the question. Some of the more
discerning politicians, it is said, be-
came alarmed and told forth that as
Amin had supported Bryan in 1896 his
appointment must be due to influences
over which the Weber county admins
tration men had no control. However,
Amin came to Utah and Meighan sat
ready with maps, reports and eloquence
to show him the ideal place for the es-
adjustment of the experiment.
The local papers took the matter up,
as did the correspondents of the outside
papers and the prospects for the intro
duction of the system seemed bright
indeed.
But meanwhile Amin never came He
never once asked the advice of Mel
CHAN, the originator of the plan for
Utah. Days went by and the special
agent took a carriage trip to Murray
But all the representations made to him
failed to interest him in Ogden and he
departed, after establishing a route in
Salt Lake county and never coming
near the Ogden office to see if there
were any merit in the original plan.
In seeking an explanation of this
down, Ogden people have dis
covered that Mr.. Amin was in Colonel |
Lannan's employ for many years and |
that Colonel Lannan is the political /
sponsor for the Salt Lake postmaster.