Arizona daily citizen., 1901-11-18
RURAL FREE DELIVERY.
ED. HALE.

The Baltimore Sun, one of the ablest
and fairest newspapers in the country
does not take kindly to the growing
practice of delivering mail to people
who do not reside in a city, but it is
a warm advocate of the extension of
what is called the parcels post. One
of the objections to the former is that
1t involves the abolition OF great
number of country post-offices where
men have been in the habit of gather
ing" The Sun declares that '1n the
country, and especially in the thickly
populated country, where the free-de-
livery wagons run and where the post
Offices were so close together. 1t has
never been considered hardship to go
to the postoffice for mail. 1t was di
version. and there has from time to
time been complaint when some of
these Offices were abolished"
OF course, there has been some COM
plaint, as there was bound to be, when
postoffices were abolished The change
has thrown many postmasters out of
Office. and although their salaries were
small, they valued the honor and pres
tige of their official position. Natural
ly they grumbled when the bosom OF
reform swept them out. And there
is another cause of disgruntlement
even more serious than that. Men
those Offices, generally located in
country stores, and that promoted
trade. Going there for their mails at
the close of the days work had become
fixed custom. 1t is easy to imagine
that some of them are not glad to be
deprived of an excuse for an evenings
outing, and who wonders that the
storekeeping postmasters feel a keen
sense of injury?
Nevertheless, the rural free delivery
Is popular wherever it has had fair
trial. The mothers and the young peo-
pie are united in praising it, and most
of the intelligent heads of families
have come to see that 1t is a good
thing. 1t relieves country life of much
of its duh monotony. 1t has greatly
increased the number OF letters mailed
and the circulation OF newspapers. In
fact, 1t Is Frightening the farmers
homes and becoming an educational
factor of real and increasing import
ance.
AS to the parcels post, the Sun sub
mits that the influence of the express
companies has been sufficient to de-
prive the American people of such
rates on parcels as are enjoyed in 9TH
er civilized countries. and we have the
ridiculous result that 1t costs about 25
per cent more to send a package of
merchandise by mail from Baltimore
to Towson or Ellicott City than 1t does
from Baltimore to New Zealand" And
the Sun proceeds to say:
More than that, a man in Chicago
can send a package weighing eleven
pounds through New York to Ger
many. to Costo Rica, or to New Zea-
land, but the government will not un-
dertake to transport such a package
to stop In New York at any price. The
reason of this Is that to transport a
package to Costa Rica will not take
any business from the express COM
panies. But several express lines op-
crate between Chicago and New York
Therefore anywhere within the United
States the limit of package to go by
mail is four pounds. and the rate Is 16
cents pound. But II the package Is
to go beyond the boundaries of the
United States IL will be carried to its
destinitation even II 1t weighs as much
as eleven pounds, and the charge is
IL cents pound"
The change which the Sun desires is
such stretch of paternalism as was
never dreamed of in Jefferson's, Jack
sons, or Cleveland's political philo-
sophy. Neither the father OF Demo-
cracy nor any of his consistent dis
sciples ever advocated the doing by the
government Of any work for the peo-
pie that the people could do quite as
well for themselves 1t may. be that
we have blundered in going as far as
we have In reciprocating the parcels
pest system Of foreign countries. At
any rate. It would be better to abolish
that and return, in foreign business,