The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1902-01-29
Congressman Levers Maiden Speech.
He Makes a Strong Appeal for
the Extension of Rural Free
Delivery.

The following report Of Congressman
Levers speech in advocacy of the ex-
tension of the rural free delivery sys-
tenn is taken from the Congressional
Record of the 22nd inst The speech
was made during the debate over the
appropriation bill:
Mr.. Chairman, there is one item in
this bill which must appeal very
strongly to every member of this
House representing a rural consti-
tuency. That portion of the bill pur-
porting to furnish the means for put
ting into immediate operation 1,S00
rural routes, already having the IA
vorable consideration of the Depart
ment and only awaiting the passage of
this bill to 60 into effect, must chal-
lenge the active support Of those mem
bers whose people are now suffering
from the lack of sufficient mail facil-
ties to meet the ordinary demands of
enlarged business and advanced civil
ization. Members, many of whose
constituents must go from one to
eight miles for their mails, will be
pardoned when they appear over anx-
ious to see this item remain in the
bill.
They know what country life means,
and they know that nothing contri-
butes so much to any monotony Incl
dent to that life as our inability to get
daily mail as our friends in the
towns and cities.
It can hardly be possible that ma
jority of the members of this House
can appreciate the true situation as
it exists in our Southern States, where
the population is sparse, railroads not
over-numerous, and roads bad. It is
not strange that members representing
city districts, where the mail is de-
livered from three to nine times per
day, can hardly realize or believe the
assertion that many of our people,
doing large business and employing
much labor, must send from three and
as much as eight miles each day for
their mail, furnishing boy and con-
veyance, or else do without it, trust
ing to luck to give them good mar
ket when they haul their produce into
town. Yet this statement is true, as
every Southern member will testify.
To these people, situated thus, a
daily mail means something. It is a
blessing. 1t means the introduction
of the world to the farmer, the intro
duction of the farmer to the world.
It means each will better know the
other, more thoroughly understand
the mutually dependent relation that
each bears the other, and more cor
rectly comprehend their rights and
relative duties. It means the farmer,
for once in his life, will be brought in
direct touch with some of the benefits
of the Government, and we fell safe in
assuring his deepest appreciation, for
there is no class more grateful for a
benefit, even if it does come as mat
ter of right and justice, than the
American farmer. It means the
broadening of his vision, the sharpen
ing of his intellect by contact with
other intellects, and his conception
of new ideas and new resolves. This,
and much more, it means to the farm
er to have a mail at his door each day
in the week save Sunday. If our
Southern farms are becoming depopu-
lated and our farmers becoming towns
pople, the causes are not hard to find.
Bad roads, low prices, and no postal
facilities will drive man almost any
where. The tide of population in those
sections which have come under my
observation has been downward. Nice
farm cottages have been given up,
and the former occupants are now
operatives in some nearby cotton mill,
where their earnings exceed in the
total by far their earnings on the
farm, and in addition to this, they
are not troubled with miserable roads
or the equally miserable. insufficient
mail accommodations. In town he
finds better wages, better roads, and
more mail, and so to town he turns
his steps, and valuable farming lands
are left to groan and perish under the
Joint laziness and mismanagement of
the OF and negro. Without discussing
the dangers and evils arising out Of
concentrated populations-these being
known to everyone-it is the duty of
this Congress to remove, as far as
possible, every influence conducting to
that condition.
When we have fully understood the
situation as it is, the necessity for the
appropriation in this bill for rural-de-
livery purposes becomes apparent.
There is no deficiency in the general
appropriation for rural free delivery,
and the reason this amount is urged
by this bill grows out of the fact that
the full appropriation for this fiscal
year can not be reached in time to
put on the 1,800 routes now waiting
to go into operation as the general ap-
pcopriation for this year becomes
available, and, unless this bill gives
the funds, these routes will be put on
in a desultory way from now until
July /, when the new appropriation
becomes available. The friends of free
rural delivery, the patrons along these
1900 routes. who now have the most
limited mail facilities, and the de-
mands of business call for this appro-
priation, and without delay. We want
the routes, and want them at once.
We have been waiting all our lives
for some recognition Of our rights un-
der the law, and now that there is
some little chance that our waiting
boc not baan in vain wo oar not Su h.