The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-02
P. o. DEPARTMENT.
Increase of Revenues an Indication
of Growing Prosperity.

The striking increase in the revenues of
the postoffice department shows clearly
the prosperity of our people and the
increasing activity of the business of the
The receipts of the postoffice department
for the fiscal year ending June 80 last
amounted to $121, S4S.047 26, an increase of
largest increase known in the history OF
the postal service The magnitude of TINS
increase will best appear from the fact
that the entire postal receipts Tor the year
1860 amounted to but $S.5lS,06
Rural free delivery service is no longer
in the experimental stage; it has become
a fixed policy The results following its
introduction have fully justified the con-
eress N the large appropriations made for
its establishment and extension. The aver
age yearly Increase in postoffice receipts
in the rural districts of the country is
actual results, to show that where rural
free delivery service has been established
to such an extent as to enable us to make
comparisons the yearly increase mas oeen
upward of 10 per cent.
On November / 1902 II. $50 rural free de-
livery routes had been established and
were in operation covering about one-tt,rd
of the territory of the United States avail
able for rural free delivery service There
are now awaiting the action of the depart
ment petitions and applications for the es-
tablishment of 0748 additional routes This
shows conclusively the want which the eS-
Enlistment of the service has met and
the need of further extending Il as rapidly
as possible 1t is justified beth by the
finarcial results and by the practical benc-
fits to our rural population; it brings the
men who live on the soil into close rela
tions with the active business world, Il
keeps the farmer in daily touch with the
markets.; it is potential educational
force; it enhances the value of farm prop
erty makes farm life far pleasanter AMI
less isolated and will do much to check
the undesirable current from country TO
city.
1t is to be hored that the congress will
make liberal appropriations for the con-
tinuance of the service already established
and for its further extension
TMPORTANC OF TRRTC ATJON
Few subjects of more Importance have
been taken up by the congress IN recent
years than the Inaugural ton of the system
of nationally irrigation for the arid
regions of the far west. good beginning
therein has been made Now that this pol
icy Of national irrigation has Deen ADOPTED
the need of thorough and scientific forest
protection will grow more rapldly thah
ever throughout the pubic-land states
I,egislation should be provided for the
protection of the game, and the wild crea-
lures generally on the forest reserves The
judicious protect1on pc permanently pre-
served the national reserves for the
once. It is. for instance. a serious Count
against our national good sense to permit
the present practice Of butcherins off such
a stately and beautiful creature as the Elk
for it's antlers or tusls.
So far as they are available for agricul-
ture and to whatever extent they may be
reclaimed under the national irrigation
held rieidlv for the home builder the se--
else In their actual use the desert-laI
law the timber and stone law, and the
communication clause of the homestead law
have been so perverted from the intention
with which they were enacted As to permit
the acquisition of large areas Of the public
domain for other than actual settlers end
the consequent prevention of settlement.
Moreover the approaching exhaustion Of
the public ranges has of lare ed to much
discussion as to the best manner of using
these public lands in the west which are
suitable chiefly only for grazing. The
sound and steady DEVELOPMENT of the west
depends upon the building up of homes
therein Much of our prosperity ma
ton has been due to the operation of the
homestead law On the other hand we
should recognize the fact that in the graz
ing region the man who corresponds to
the honesteader may be unable to settle
permanently if only allowed to use the
same amount of pasture land that his
brother the homesteader. is allowed to use
of arabic land. One hundred and sixty
acres of fairly rich and well Watered SOIL
or much smaller amount of irrigated
land may keep a family in plenty where
as no one could get a living from 16e acres
of dry pasture land capable Of supporting
at the outside only one head Of cattle to
every ten acres In the past great tracts
of the public domain have been fenced in
by persons having no title thereto. in direct
defiance of the law forbidding the malnte-
nance of construction of any such unlaw-
full Enclosure of public lands. For various
reasons there has been little interference
with such Enclosures in the past, but ample