Sunday Washington globe., 1902-02-09

In the debate on the item of Rural Free
Delivery in the House on the 23d of last
month, Mr.. Loud, chairman of the com
mittee on post-offices and post-roads said:
'Let me call to your attention again the
grand army of possibly one hundred
thousand men in all our districts who in the
near future are to come demanding an in
crease of salary. They are but human
They would not be satisfied with six hun
dred, nor seven hundred nor eight hundred,
nNr nine hundred, nor with thousand, nor
eleven hundred, nor with twelve hundred.
The city carriers will get S., 200, and you
will see in ten years your Rural Free De-
livery service costing instead of SIS, co.,
600 estimated by the Postmaster General
at least SI25, 600, ,ooo."
In the GLOBE last Sunday we quoted Mr..
A. w. Machen's opinion on the cost of
Rural Free Delivery promulgated in the
Postmaster Generals report for 1905. He
then thought i; would cost $40, ooo, 900
year There appears to be a wide differ
ence in the figures presented by these two
gentlemen-ORe hUHdTed and fVe million
dollars. In 1895 the Superintendent of
Free Delivery had no intention whatever
of embarkiug in the project Of Rural Free
Delivery. He was then engaged in
scheming to reform the letter carrier ser
vice of the big cities. improvising and Gre
ating fund, through the suspension and
removal of carriers to provide places for
his relatives, and the relatives of other
officials in the POst-Office Department He
had no time to devote 70 such trivial mat
ters then, and his opinion on the subject
was as brief as a cricket's hop on a hot stove
In the last three years, however, he has de-
voted all his time and energy, mentally and
physically to the development of this great
scheme.
Newspapers and magazines have teemed
with his labored productions on the subject,
and his name has been spelled and mispro-
nOunced in many agricultural communities
of the land.
In the establishment and extension of the
rural service he had an eye open always to
the main chance. The fourteen letter-box
manufactures have kept even pace with the
extension. Farmers can now get their
little four-quart boxes on short notice.
They must purchase these boxes or have
their mail stopped
The mail box put up by you is NOT
SECURE, NOT wEATHERPRooF Within thirty
days from this date you must supply one of
the improved boxes enumerated on the re-
verse side Of this card or your service will
be withdrawn $50 said A. w. Machen in a
card issued by order Of the First Assistant
Postmaster General, which in all human
probability the latter never saw until il was
printed in this paper.
The item of Rural Free Delivery in the
urgent deficiency bill asst passed the House
amounted to $49I o4o. The Senate COM
mttee cut it down S273,74o and recon-
mended S2I7. 800 for the rural deficiency. In
the event that this latter amount is not suf-
6cient to overcome the deficiency, the
GLOBE would suggest to the APPROPRIATIONS
committees that they draw on Mr.. Machen's
$500, 600 saved by the discontinuance of
fourth. class post-ofices." IL is not required
TO swell the ever-inCreasing surplus in the
Treasury The amount cut down by the
Senate committee being less, however,
than Mr.. Machen's saving, the difference
may be utilized in payment for the Starts
accommodation Inasmuch as the differ
ence is $40, 400, and the rent 1850 per year,
why not pay it in advance if the ruFaifree-
delivery is to continue indefinitely The
Star won't object This sum would pay
the rent in advance 6ve years, ten months,
Eve days. six hours, nine minutes and seven
seconds. The .Sfarbaber is also human.
It will take everything in sight, and yawp
for more. It is unquesionably a mercenary
newspaper, and the citizens of the National
Capital have found that out years ago.
If the chairman of the Senate committee
on post-ofices and post roads who is known
to be enthusiastically in favor of ruralfree-
delivery, with neither a carrier nor rural
route in his home bailiwick, should desire
this urgent deficiency restored in the con-
ference between the two houses, we want
60 suggest to him that Mr.. Machen's lump
sum of 100000 more than covers the
amount eliminated by the general appro-
priations committee. There is no good
reason why this prodigious amount of re-
trenchment, or saving, in ruralfre edelivery
should be piled up in the Treasury, where
il will do nobody any good. A great sur
plus is great temptation to extravaganza,
and is often more inimical to the general
welfare and prosperity of the Nation than
a deficiency. This 5000, 600, we submit in
all candor, ought not 10 remain in the
Treasury-ifu is i1s it-but might be ju-
diciously expended on public highways in
the rural districts and thus provide mount
for Mr. Machen's hobby-horse-" good
roads"
We simply throw this out as a suggestion,
not that we have the least expectation Of
its consideration or adoption, for there are
very serious doubts among some we'll in
formed postal experts as to the precise
amount Of this wonderful saving. Our own
private opinion, publicly expressed, about
the matter is decidedly the reverse. We
firmly believe that ruralfreedelivery is an
additional burden upon the postal revenues,
not warranted by actual facts and figures,
and without any perceptible increase or
compensation. The balance is heavily
on the debit side of the ledger, and the dis
continuance of small post-offces will not
reduce that balance at all.
TheoreucaF calculation demonstrates posi-.
lively nothing-facts is what the people
want. Let us suppose a case. and there are
doubtless hundreds like it. Take an old
agricultural county having twelve full
townships To provide all the people in
such a county with good service il Will re-
- IL. L fH.