The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-01-18
Free Rural Delivery.
CONGRESSMAN Stokes Has Hit Upon
An Inexuensive Plan.

All inexpensive 1iah'
representative Stokes was evident
ly in a pleasant frame of mind this
morning when your correspondent
ran across him. He was coming
from a conference with the sub COM
mittee on his contested election case.
He had had a very satisfactory inter
view that was plain, though he did
not care to talk contested elections
lust then. He, however, was full OF
a bill which he will introduce today,
the text of which be showed your
correspondent, and talked freely
about it. The title of the bill is: "a
bill to extend free delivery OF mail
along Star Routes"
Under its terms all future contracts
for carrying mail on Star Routes will
include this increased service. The
Star Route contractor will have this
in mind when he puts in his bid
The additional service will be slight,
and the additional cost to the govern
ment correspondingly slight, but the
benefit to the people will be great,
very great. Carriers as a general
thing deliver mail now along the line
of their route by private contract for
one dollar or less per annum to each
family served. It is confidently ex-
.pected, however, that instead of such
a service as is provided in this bill
being a charge upon the government,
it would be a source of revenue, that
has been the history of all increases
of mail facilities in the past. The
increased cost of the service has in.
variably been offset by the increased
revenue incident to better facilities.
Mr.. Stokes referred to the we'll
known result of reducing letter post
age from 3 to 2 cents. Those who
had rot studied such matters care
fully confidently predicted an enor-
nous deficit. The event proved just
the reverse. The same state of facts
was found after the Inauguration OF
free delivery in cities the increased
revenue more than paid the increased
cost of the service. This bill of Mr..
Stokes provides that mail boxes shall
be placed along the Star Routes on
the roadside, and for convenience,
numbered consecutively from the I'M
tial point Of the route. Those desir-
ing their mail deposited in these
boxes, will leave with the nearest
postmaster on each side of them a
written request for the delivery OF
their mail to the carrier; thereuponit
becomes the duty of the carrier to
deposit said mail in the box without
charge to the addressee.
Thus every person living on or
near a Star Route would get his mail
every time the carrier passed without
expense or loss of time in going to
the post Office. It is easy to see that
by multiplication Of Star Routes.
radiatipg from the several railroad
Offices, a very cheap and effective
free delivery system could be real
lied, one that there is every reason to
expect would become at once self
sustaining.
For the present, the people who
get this service woulg have to fur
nish their own boxes, but the bill
contemplates that ultimately these
shall be furnished by the govern
ment, if the service justifies it. The
cost in large numbers would be small
to the government; but that is what
is being done in many of the city
districts, and I am in this asking
only that the country residents be
fed out CT the same spoon that the
government uses to dish cut benefits
to our city cousins.
Mr.. Stokes does not offer this bill
as a substitute for the Free Rural
delivery with which he has been
prominently identified in the past,
but as a supplemental proposition, a
sort of transition stage.
A general system Of Rural free de-
livery is bound to come in the evolu-
ticn of our postal system. 1t may
be in the form already ~inaugurated
here and there throughout the United
States, or it may be through some