The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-08-17
BURIAL FREE DELIVERY.
How This Republican Policy Was Hr-
tended.

Rural free delivery OF mail is the
offspring of the Mckinley administra-
ton of the postofice department. Its
development from the insignificant be-
ginning of A routes and an appropria-
ton of 100000 for the fiscal year when
closed in 1897 to its present magnificent
proportions, with the rural routes num-
bered by the thousands and an appro-
priation of s1,750.0O0 voted for its
further extension during the present
fiscal year, has all been brought about
by the Mckinley government.
A movement to broaden the free de-
livery of the mails was started by
Postmaster General Wanamaker, under
the Republican administration of Gen.
Harrison. 1t took the form of village
free delivery, and was more an extern
sion of city delivery to smaller COM
nunities than free delivery to farm
ers. But, limited as was its scope and
successful though it was in increasing
postal receipts and postal facilities, 1t
encountered Democratic opposition;
and when Mr.. Cleveland came in, his
postmaster general fearing its effect in
popularizing Republican principles and
disseminating Republican literature, Or
dered it dropped.
| 1t was a Republican administration
| that conceived and executed the idea of
Frightening the home Of the farmer
educating his children, increasing the
value of his land, compelling the i'm
| provement of the roads, and bringing
| him news of the markets and of the
weather, so as to secure him better
| price for his crops by delivering his
| daily mail to him on his farm. Every
Democratic house of representatives
since the idea was first preached OF
| carrying the mails to the rural dis,
tricts has declared against it. The
| Forty third Congress, with Democrat
from North Carolina as chairman OF
the committee on postoffices and post
roads, proclaimed the plan impossible
and turned it down. Postmaster Cen
eral Bissell, Postmaster General Will
son. and First Assistant Postmaster
General Jones, in the Cleveland admin
stration, all took up the cry of ex-
travagance and impossibility of execu-
ton. Consequently, little or nothing
was done to give the farmers access TO
the mails till Cleveland went out Of
office.
When First Assistant Postmaster
General Perry S. Heath took up the
rural service under the direction of
the president and the postmaster gem
eral, in March, 1897, it was languishingI
to the point of extinguishment and in
a few months more would have BEEN
starved to death, like Mr. Wanamaker's
village delivery. The Official reports of
the postofflce department record that
it was almost with surprise that Presi-
dent Mckinley and those to whom he
ntrusted the administration of postal
affairs learned that there was such a
thing as an experimental rural free-de-j
livery mail service in progress.
They at once grasped its possibilities.
and advocated it's immediate develop
ment, and Republican congress gen.,
erously seconded their efforts. Under
their vivifying touch it has grown I'M
| til there is now not state in the union
that has not felt the civilizing and edu-
cational influence of rural free mail
delivery, and not one that does not de-
sire further expansion of the service.
On the LIST of June, 1900, there were
| 200 rural services in actual operation
and 1000 applications for an extension
of the system in process of establish
ment by special agents detailed for that
purpose
The appropriations for the rural free
delivery service have been increased
from $4,000, in the fiscal year 1898,
to $3.50 900 in 1S9S99; then to $45O,000
in 1S99-19O0, and lastly to S1750,0O0 for
the present fiscal year, 19OO-19O1.
Three years experience has shown
that in well-selected rural districts the
mails can be distributed to the domi-
Giles of the addresses or in boxes
placed within reasonable distance of
the farmers home, at some cross-road
or other convenient spot, at a cost per
piece not exceeding that of the free
delivery in many of the cities of the
United States. In the vast majority OF
communities where it has been tested
the rural free delivery service has OBJ
tanned so strong a hold that public
sentiment would not permit its discon-
tinuance. 1t has been a revolution,
and revolutions do not move back
ward.
1t costs very little more than the old
colonial style of postal service which
it supersedes, and it invariably brings
a large and compensating increase in
the amount of postal receipts turned
into the treasury. But even if it does
cost more than the obsolete old plan.
are not the farmers entitled to some OF
4 the benefits of the government which
they help so literally to support by
their taxation? The country can we'll
afford to continue and extend a system