Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-04-26
QUICK RURAL MAILS.
SPECIAL AGENTS LOOKING OVER NEW
ROUTES IN COUNTY.

Change in the Route and Additional Car
riers-Something About the History and
Extent of the Free Delivery system.
Col. f. II. Hathaway, special agent in
charge of the eastern division rural free
delivery service, with E. B. Boutelle of
Maine, an inspector for the service and
brother of Congressman Boutelle, have
been In the town and county for 10 days.
They have gone over the routes that start
from here, with Postmaster Skiff, and
have seen all the patrons of the present
routes and many persons who are anx-
ious TO have the service extended into
their neighborhoods. The inspectors
have heard the numerous complaints
against the service, and as far as possible
have made changes in the routes which
will make the work easier for the carriers
and the service acceptable to those who
live on the rural routes.
The routes from Middlebury to Corn
wall and Bridport were not laid out
properly at first. There was too much
territory for carrier to cover. Another
carrier will be added to the Cornwall
route and a part of the route cut off,
leaving some miles to be covered by
delivery from Whiting. With the
shorter route and an extra carrier, it is
intended to have both morning and
afternoon delivery to the patrons be-
tween here and Cornwall, thus doing
away with the objection that newspapers
were old when received.
Col Hathaway has been two years in
the service, which was first conducted by
Conquest Clarke, chief special agent,
with two clerks, in room six feet
square in the postoffice building and
with but five men in the field as inspect
ors and 100 routes in the whole country.
Now this branch of the mail. service has
200 clerks in Washington, and serves
mail to 3,O00,O 900 people over 1900 routes.
Rural free delivery began in England
% years ago, and now every householder
in that country has his mail brought to
his door. 1t was first proposed in this
country by A. W. Machen, who is now
in charge of the service. He first pro
posed the idea to MIR. Bissel and Mr..
Wilson, who were postmasters general,
but the idea was laughed at as being i'm
practicable in this country. Bissell fin
ally told Machen sharply that "when we
want rural free delivery, I'll send for
you" But congress was finally induced
to appropriate ST., 900 in 1896 to make a
trial of the service. The first routes
were laid out by postoflice inspectors
who had no instructions, but worked
each man as he thought best. Some of
the inspectors went to the postmas-
ters in towns and asked for maps. say
ing, "IIow many men do you want for
your delivery 2" The first route was
from Cairo, Mo. The whole scheme was
damned in Washington and finally al
most dropped. until Perry 5. Heath
came in as lirst-assstant postmaster
general. Mr.. Machen was holdover
from the Cleveland administration, and
had retained his enthusiasm for the
scheme. Finally an Ohio politician who
was i'm Washington discovered that the
Law was mandatory and asked why the
appropriation had not been used. This
led to looking up the routes in operation
and the sending out of special agents.
Free delivery was success in spite of
every obstacle.
1t is a purely business proposition and
comes nearer to paying its way than any
other branch of the nail service. The
service is extended upon petition to
the postmaster general through the rep
resentative of the people in congress
and special agents are sent to lay out
the routes. The government is willing
to do everything for the people, only
asking that good roads be maintained.
Without these the service will be with
drawn.
Col. Hathaway said he had seldom seen
rs poor roads as he passed over in this
county, and thought the fault was that
supervisors did not use new gravel and
dirt, but continually scraped worn out
dirt and manure into the cent of the
roads. This filling when wet is useles.
and makes vertable muck bed. II i.
also required that standard boxes bC
put up on the routes. The government
have accepted II varieties of these, rang
ing in price from one dollar to five dol
lars. \ list of these may be had frou
the postmaster and the boxes must bl
uniform on route; but different route
may select different styles of boxes.
There were received during the montl
of February 100 applications for routes
TO look over these will require from tw,
to three years steady work by the pres en-
folce of inspectors-40 men. The appro
prlation used for this service last year wa
l,750 900 and the coming year will hav
$500 600 at its disposal OF this 81 ,00C
+. 600 will be used in extending the servlc
and the balance for the maintenance @
: existing routes. After route has bee
4 in operation GO days, it is Inspected an
reported upon. Then there is a regula
inspection every three months. III
: inspectors in district number one are |
charge of W. r. c. Hazard, rooms 3O6.!
;, 1923 Broadway, New York, to whol
4 all complaints and inquiries should /
: addressed.