, 1900-08-09
RURAL FREE DELIVERY.
How n Republican Policy Was Ex-
tended.

ton of SAC. 900 for the fiscal year which
closed in 1897 to Its present magnificent
proportions. with the rural routes num-
bered by the thousands and an appro-
priation of s1.750.000 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 too the form of village
free delivery. and was more an extern
sion of city delivery to smaller com
munities than a free delivery to farm
ers. But, limited as was its scope and
successful though 1t was in increasing
postal receipts and postal facilities, it
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 1t 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
hin news of the markets and of the
weather, so as to secure him a 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 a Democrat
from North Carolina as chairman of
the committee on postoflces and post
roads. proclaimed the plan impossible
and turned 1t down. Postmaster Gen
eral Bissell, Postmaster General Will
son, and First Assistant Postmaster
General Jones, in the Cleveland admin-
istration, all took up the cry OF ex-
t~ravagance 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 ook up the
rural service under the direction of
the president and the postmaster gen.
eral. in March, 1897, it was languishing
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 postofice department record that
it was almost with surprise that Presi-
dent Mckinley and those to whom he
intrusted the administration of postal
affairs learned that there was such a
thing as an experimental rural free-de-
livery mail service in progress.
They at once grasped its possibilities
and advocated its immediate develop
ment, and a Republican congress gen
erously seconded their efforts. Under
their vivifying ouch it has grown un-
til there is now not a state in the union
that has not felt the civilizing n edu-
cational influence of rural free mail
delivery, and not one that does not de-
sire a further expansion of the service.
On the LIST of June, 1900, there were
1900 rural services in actual operation
and 1000 applications for an extension
OF the system in process of establish
ment by special agents detailed for lat
purpose.
The appropriations for the rural free
delivery service have been increased
from $50, 900, in the fiscal year 1S97-9S,
to $3.50, 900 in 1S9S-99; then to $4,000 0
in 1S99-19OO, and lastly to 81. $50, 900 for
the present fiscal year, 190o-19O1.
Three years experience has shown
that in well-selected rural districts the
mails can be distributed to the domi-
Giles of the addresses o. 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-
tlnuance. 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 1t invariably brings
a large and c~ompensating 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
the benefits of the government which
they help so literally to support by
their taxation? The country can well
afford to continue and extend a system
which makes better citizens and hap
, pier homes and contributes largely to
the mental. moral and material ad-
vancement of the plain people.
Rural free delivery of mail has come
=, 10 stay, and the Republican admins
ration, which brought it into being.
; will stay with it.