The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-01-25

Earth County rural delivery route is
from the Minneapolis Journal, of
Saturday evening.
CITY folks who have been accustom-
ed to receive daily visits from Uncle
Sans letter carriers as far back as
the oldest inhabitant can remember,
can scarcely appreciate the inestim-
able benefits accruing to Minnesota
farmers from the establishment of the
rural free delivery service in this state
during the closing year of the nine
teenth century.
That which is looked upon as a
matter of fact by the people of Min
neapolis or any other metropolitan
center in the state is perhaps the
greatest boon conferred upon the
agricultural class by beneficent gov
eminent during these progressive
times 1t has brought town and coun-
try into closer touch. In this wonder
working age, when railroads and
steamships, the telegraph and tele-
phone, and all of mans marvellous in
ventions for humiliation of times and
space make this old world seem small
affair. rural free mail service was
the one thing needed to completely
eliminate the isolation of rural life.
Farmers are now getting their daily
mail in thirty-nine states in the
union. In no co mmOnwealth has the
service been put into operation so ex-
tensively, with better equipment and
with better all-around results than in
Minnesota. Rural free delivery is
now permanently established and
constantly growing in nineteen coun-
ties in the state. Each county has
from one to five routes, and in the
more thickly populated districts there
is an ever increasing demand for
greater distributing facilities. Greatly
increased revenues from this great
branch of the postal service prove that
it is a good business proposition. That
is one reason why the pOstOffice de-
partment is straining every nerve to
meet the growing requirements in this
new field.
To fully appreciate this most strik-
ing sign of the times which marks the
advent of the twentieth century-a
movement which must necessarily
contribute to the higher civilization
of the new year-one must make per-
sonaI observation of the rural service.
A representative of The Journal
lately saw for himself-and inciden-
tally learned-iust what the service
amounts to in an inspection of the
pioneer route of the state. He found
convincing evidence that the daily de-
livery of mails in the country will do
more to popularize the rural districts,
to stimulate interest in agricultural
conditions and popularize farm life
than all other influences combined
now working toward that end.
Route No. /, which was es Established
last May, has it's headquarters at
Amboy, Blue Earth county, and ira
verses the two townships Of Shelby and
Pleasant Mound. Its length is 2715
miles and scattered along its winding
way are eighty-seven United States
mail boxes, administering to the daily
wants of many more families and a
total of nearly 500 people.
iol, SC
long, looks after the other half of Blue
Earth county, supplies the rest of
Shelby and all of Sterling township.
There are seventythree boxes on this
route and they accommodate about $40
people.
The amount of mail delivered and
collected in this way is growing so
rapidly, according to Postmaster D.
E. Cross of Amboy that the addition
of two more routes will soon be i'm
perative in Blue Earth county in order
to handle the wonderful increasing
volume of business at his Office.
The tendency of the new system is
to knock out the ''star' routes 1t
has so concentrated the work of thus
delivering the mails that there will
soon be no occasion for the existence
of branch county postoffices. The
central offices are able to handle all of
the new business through the free de-
livery. Incidentally this has meant a
big reduction in the cost of delivery,
the average annual cost of which per
family on the free routes is now about
so cents. The general expense item
has thus been reduced third.
Along the two routes in question
over 100 daily papers are now de-
liyered where few months ago there
wasn't one. In other respects, the
volume of mail has more than doubled
Five letters are now received by an
average family where only one was
looked for. Just as many are sent.
The following figures give an idea
of the amount of mail which finds
daily circulation over Route No. and
show the steady increase in the vol
ume of business