New-York tribune., 1900-12-13
pOsTOFFICE DEVELOPnENI.

1t is matter of common experience that
every new public facility creates its own pat
ronage. When the stage coach was the best
vehicle of travel the travelling public was linn
ited to stage coach capacity. With the means
of journeying largely developed by the rail
roads the habit of moving has marvellouSly
grown Every new means of rapid transit in
this city only stimulates more traffic, and every
great outlay by our traction companies brings
back income from sources which before were
not tributary to their system. The Postofice
Department has had similar experience. The
reduction of letter postage might have been ex-
pected TO result merely in a sacrifice of revenue
by one who did not take account of this ten
dency of the public to respond to every offer Of
a new convenience. 1t was a trifing thing,
saving one cent on a letter. But that saving
induced the writing of so many more letters
that before long the postal revenues were larger
than they would have been if three cent post
age had been continued
These facts should not be lost sight of in con-
sidering the feasibility of the wide extension of
the rural free delivery system proposed by the
POstmaster-G General 1t is doubtless true that
at present the daily free delivery of mail to
every house in the land would involve an ex-
pense largely exceeding any revenue to be de-
rived from rural business. The same thing
might have been said few years ago about the
establishment of a telephone station at almost
every four corners hamlet. But the telephones
begat a desire TO use telephones and the free
delivery would beget an appetite for letters and
papers and stimulate the habit of writing
Wherever rural free delivery has been tried it
has brought large increase of first class mail
and of that part of second class mail which is
altogether legitimate. The Postmaster General
estimates that the saving Of from S12.O0O0O0 to
S20000000 a year which could be effected by
the extirpation Of the abuses Of second class
privileges would meet the cost of extending
free rural delivery to every settled portion of
the country
If this waste could be cut of, then the benef-
cent work Of free rural delivery could proceed
without added expense TO the Government and
the new business stimulated would be clear
profit This in turn might make possible still
further development of the postal system The
special delivery business is still in its infancy
because in the cities the instruments for quick
mail transit have not been adapted to putting
the local letter in competition with the tele-
gram. When that is done the special deliveries
will so increase that the Government will derive
large revenue from them. whereas only a few
deliveries may cost as much as they bring in
With larger use Of the mails in all parts Of
the country a much more liberal parcels post
might be possible That can only be when the
Department has a satisfactory income and
enough people are using its facilities in country
as well as city to guarantee that the added cost
Of a new service will be met 20 a considerable
extent if not entirely by a paying volume Of
traffic in that Department. All these improve
ments will doubtless come in due season. The
extension of rural free delivery, accompanied
by the cutting off of expensive impositions on
the postal service. appears to be the next step
which should be taken In the evolution of the
postoffice service in harmony with the general
progress of the country