Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-12-13


postmaster generals report for the
{ fiscal year ending June 80, 1900, is of
unusual interest.
The financial operations of the de.
partment for the last fiscal year are
shown briefly in the following state
ment:
Revenues and Expenditures.
Ordinary postal reve-
nue.. ....... .$1oo,sss, 4sa. "A
Receipts from money
order business $3.50. 1,455, 14o. 85
Total receipts from
all sources. So. 02,354 ,579. 20
Total expenditures for
3 the year ....... go. 107,740,267 SO
Excess of expendi-
lures over receipts $685., 1888. 70
From this statement it will be OBJ
served that the revenues have now
passed the hundred million mark; al
SO, that while the expenditures were
over six millions greater than for the
previous fiscal year, the deficit for the
year 1899-1900 was but $5,385,6S8, be-
ing $1,225,08S less than that of ..le
previous year.
Rural Free Delivery.
The extraordinary extension of
rural free delivery during the past
two years has proved to be the most
salient, sifinificant and far-reaching
feature of postal development in re-
cent times. - Rural free de-
livery has now been sufficiently tried
to measure it's effects. The immedi-
ate and direct results are clearly APP
parent. 1t stimulates social and bust
ness correspondence and SO swells the
postal receipts It's introduction is
Invariably followed by large in
crease in the circulation of the press
and Of periodical literature. The farm
is thus brought into direct daily con-
tact with the currents and movements
of the business world. A more accu-
rate knowledge of ruling markets and
varying prices is diffused, and the
producer, with his quicker communf-
cation and wider information. is plac-
ed on surer footing. The value of
farms, as has been shown in many
cases is enhanced GOOD ROADS
BECOME INDISPENSABLE, AND
THEIR IMPROVEMENT IS THE ES-
SENTIAL CONDITION OF THE SER
VICE. The material and measurable
benefits are signal and unmistakable.
But the movement exercises wild
er and deeper influence. 1t becomes
a factor in the social and economic
tendencies of American life.
The disposition to leave the
farm for the town is familiar effect
of our past conditions. But this ten
dency is checked, and may be materi-
ally changed, by an advance which
conveys many of the advantages of
the town to the farm. Rural free de-
livery brings the farm within the daily
range of the intellectual and CONNER
cial activities of the world, and the
isolation and monotony which have
been the bane of agricultural life are
sensibly mitigated. 1t proves to be
one of the most effective and powerful
of educational agencies. Wherever it
is extended the schools improve, and
the civic spirit of the community feels
a new pulsation. The standard of in
telligence is raised, enlightened inter
est in public affairs is quickened and
better citizenship follows.
The benign influences of our free in
situations diffuse themselves widely
and impalpably, but the arm of the
government is directly felt at few
points. The mails attest the visible
presence and service of the govern
ment, and not least among the merits
of the rural free delivery is it's crea.
tion of the satisfying conviction in the
farmer that he shares with the towns
man the manifest advantages of which
the government is the direct minister.
He feels that the organized and help
full agency of his country comes to his
door, and the effect is to stir his con-
scious pride and stimulate his loyalty
and patriotism.
Is Here to Stay.
y With all these results clearly indi-
Gated by the experiment as thus far
tried, rural free delivery is plainly here
to stay. 1t can not be abandoned
where it has been established, and it
cannot be maintained without being
extended. 1t is service in which
there can be no backward step. Those
who enjoy it's advantages will not con-
sent to surrender them, and every
new route creates demand from con-
tiguous territory for the same privi-
leges. We are thus confronted with
the problem of gradually extending
the delivery service over the whole
area of the country where it is physi-
cally feasible or where the population
is not so sparse as to make it unrea-
sonable. A project of such compre-
hensive and colossal character may
seem formidable and deterrent, but
while its difficulties are not to be nm
derestimated, they are shown, when
examined in the light of practical tests
to be far from insurmountable,
We are now carrying the pcstoffice
to the door of 3l,00O,00O of people
massed in towns and cities. The task
before us is the more complicated
work of carrying the postoff1ce to the
door of about 21,000,000 scat
tered over 100000 square
miles of territory. It's magnitude
is not to be underestimated. England
France and Germany make rural free