Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-08-21
RURAL FREE MAILS.
Its Establishment and Growth in the
Post Office Department.
The system 50 Recently Introduoss
Has Proven to BE Successful
Has Been . Great Help to
Country Roads.

!, As recently Is 1893 the postmaste,
general reported to congress that tn,
Introduction Of any system of rura
free delivery of letters and paper,
would be impracticable as involving ar
expenditure of $4,000, 600 a wear with.
Out any commensurate revenue. In his
annual report for 1894 Postmaster Gen.
eral Bissell declined to spend the ap-
preparation of $4,000 made by con.
gress to test the feasibility of rural
free delivery. When congress in
creased the appropriation for a test to
$4,000 in 1898, Postmaster General Will
0 adopted the opinion of his prede-
cessor and OF the house committee on
the post Office anu post roads that the
plan of establishing rural free delivery
was wholly impracticable. He added
that he had assumed control of the de-
partment too late in the fiscal year to
take any action under the appropria-
ton, but should congress see fit to
make it available for the current year
ne would carry put the experiment or
dered by the best methods he could de-
wise.
Congress made $4,000 available for
the purpose, and in 1896 Postmaster
General Wilson put the idea to it's first
TEST. The experiment was entirely sue
cessfui, and since then the system of
rural free delivery has been SO general
~ extended that it now includes 1888
distributing points in Al of the As
states, the exceptions being Idaho,
Montana, Mississippi and Wyoming.
BY degrees the appropriation has been
increased from $780, 0 to $3.50, 900, and
1t Is $500, 900 for this year.
At the head Of the states served by
rural tree delivery is Ohio, the most
favored state, with 40 routes, Indiana
having A and Iowa 20. The develop
ment OF the system, however, has for
typographical reasons been very irreg-
ular. Thus, in Texas there are only
two rural free delivery routes, while in |
South Carolina there are 81. In Wash |
ington there is one only, while i'm Cali |
fornla there are IA, and in Louisiana. |
Alabama and Florida there are three |
routes only, while in Maine there are
seven.
In the opinion Of the post Office au.
thorities, however, the present system
is only in its incipiency and among the
plans in view for its further extension
u one for rural free delivery of mail by
electric cars. Some farmers and other
residents of the northeastern part of
Massachusetts, and the adjoining New
Hampshire territory have taken steps
in this matter, the idea having occurred
to them d few weeks ago, when they
first received an electric a service
in place OF the stage coach which form
erly ran between Exeter and Ames-
bury.
The free delivery of letters in cities
was inaugurated by the post office de-
partment in 1868, when the whole num-
Der of letter carriers in the United
States, now $4,000, was less than 700.
IT did not increase materially until
1880, when the number of cities and
towns having free delivery Of letters
had risen to 104. Ten years later, in
1890, there were $40, and the number
is now 745. There were by the last fed
eral census 713 cities or towns in the
United States having a population in j
excess of 5000, and practically all these
places and a few Others besides have ,
now free delivery OF letters by carriers.
One remarkable and salutary effect
of the extension Of the rural free deliv-
Try system has been the great improve
1t. has brought about in country
'oads. The extension of the system be- 7
ng optional with the government, the :
'lan has been adoptedioff avoring those
in which the roads are best,
md as a consequence there has been a
improvement in the condition
i roads traversed by rural carriers. r
This has been especially the case in II
n the west, and it accounts for the ap- t
,arent preference accorded to Ohio 4,
nd Indiana, in which states the conf
truction Of good roads has been
prerequisite to the establishment of a
free delivery service. In one
ounty Of Indiana the farmers incurred d
n expense of $4,000 to grade and i'm q
a road in order to obtain free de-
very. ,s'
The traditional policy Of the post Of !"
ce department is constantly to ex. nj
End it's operation, taking, irrespective :
{ the volume OF revenue derived, no
teps backward, and it has been found
.enerally that as the expenses increase
he revenues increase correspondingly. es
hus, where rural free delivery has W
cen established, the number of let m
IT'S written and the number of letters tn
have increased and in some D
Asses to an extent sufficiently large to hi
lake up for the additional outlay ii
fused by the delivery. A Pennsylvania A
'rmer made recently a computation al
hich other farmers have approved, fo
the post Office department has st
fought worthy of publication, to the tt,
feet that, on an average, every farmer to
ot served by rural free delivery goes he
! least once or twice a week to the ne
.arest post Office for his mail, and Fl
one-third Of q working day Isl
the trip. Putting the value of the te
me thus lost in the busy farming sea- Pl
at SO cents q head, the total loss
ould u up to many million dollars.
has been found generally that while
ngress is reluctant to authorize some he
'stal expenditures, the popularity of m
raj free delivery among farmers is %
oh as to make probable a further In "a
ease in the appropriation next year.
Rough. r,
Her Mother-Don't you find Jack -,
heller rather rough. Priscilla? 80