The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1902-05-02

Shall coJccHl IL do a. SItdJ ldVOT DIS Will
the people of that city. Believe me,
Yours very truly,
A. T. BLISS,
Governor.
Both these and letter from Gen. O.
L. Spaulding, were of no small assist
ance to Mr.. Fordney in his efforts
When it began to seem possible that
Owosso might be included in the ap-
preparation, Congressman Fordney ask
ed Postmaster Dewey to secure the
guarantee of site for him to use, and
the following gentlemen whose names
appear in the guarantee here repro
duced, were taken into the secret. 1t is
needless to say that they did not
hesitate an instant to assist in the Sc
curing of the appropriation in this way
and the people OF, the city will see to it
that their confidence in them has not
been misplaced. The guarantee is. as
follows:
We, l. H. Keller, President of the
Citizens Savings Bank, Chas. E. Rigley,
President of the Owosso Savings Bank,
and G. ID. Stewart, of the firm of Nj. l..
Stewart q Co., Bankers, on behalf of
the citizens of the city of Owosso, Mich
igan, hereby authorize you to state to
the committee on Public Buildings that
a suitable site for public building will
be provided free of any expense what
ever to the government, if an appropria-
tion of $25, 600 is made for the erection
of post Office building in this city
We, also personally guarantee the full
tillment of the above statement.
(Signed) |. H. KELLER,
CHAS. E. RIGLEY,
G. d. STEWART.
The securing of this appropriation for
Owosso is one Of the most brilliant
strokes which any congressman could
even dream of making and places him
in unique position in Shiawassee
county. Modest to degree in not wish
ing to make a pretense of doing or
promising great things of which he
could not be more than very doubtful
at best, he went at the matter, alone
and unaided, and fighting against all
the heavy odds got an appropriation for
it is said, the smallest city in the coun-
try to get any appropriation for a pub
lie building to be used only as post
Office.
To those in this county who have
watched Congressman Fordneys work
along other branches of the postal SER
vice his work and success in this matter
does not seem strange. 1t is safe
to say that there is not another county
in the state, if indeed in the United
States, except where the conditions
favored the establishment of the county
system rural free delivery, which has
Jared SO well from the department along
this line as has Shiawassee. With the
routes which are now III operation and
the others which are ordered into oper-
alton by the first of the coming July
there will be scarcely farm in the
county which does not have rural free
delivery within a short distance Of it
and the rest are on the list and will be
taken care of as soon as the newly
created machinery of the government
rural delivery service can be got around
to them. 1t is safe to say that there is
not another congressman who has kept
as close watch of his entire district and
urged the establishment of the routes
asked for with greater eaInestness
and success than has Congressman
Fordney. Every possible assistance has
been given by him to the postmasters of
his district in extending the service to
the farmers Of each of the four counties
and while considering the claims of
other congressman for routes in their
districts he was one of the first to grasp
the idea of the Importance of the new
service to the farmers Of the country
and as result had aided in the
establishment of many routes in his
own district before many of the other
congressman had awakened to the
privilege which they had of aiding their
farmer constituents.