The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1900-08-10
RURAL FREE DELIVERY.
How This Republican Policy Was Ex-
tended.

ton of the postottice department. It's
development from the Insignificant be-
ginning Of "A routes and an appropria-
ton of $4,000 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 It's
further extension during the present
fiscal year, has all been brought about
by the Mckinley government.
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
munities than free delivery to farm
ers. But, limited as was it's scope and
successful though it was in increasing
postal receipts and postal facilities, it
encountered Democratic opposition;
and when Mr.. Cleveland came in, his
postmaster general, fearing it's 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 n 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 postofIlces 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
istration, 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 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. Wanamakers
village delivery. The official reports of
the postoffice 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 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 1st Of June, 1900, there were
200 rural services in actual operation
and 1000 applications for an extension
of the system in process of establish
mont 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 1S97-9S,
to $4,000 in 1S9s-99; then to $45OOO0
in 1899-1S00 and lastly to S1,750, 600 for
the present fiscal year, 19OO-19Oi.
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 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
the benefits of the government which
they help so literally to support by
their taxation? The country can well
afford to continue and extend system
which makes better citizens and hap
pier homes and contributes largely to
the mental. moral and material adj
vancement of the plain people.
Rural free delivery of mail has come