The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1902-01-29
NO. II

tion as the general appropriation for
this fiscal yea becomes available,
and, upless this bill gives the fuDds,
these routes will be put on in a
desultory way from now until July
l, when the new appropriation be-
comes available. The friends of
free rural delivery, the patrons along
these 1900 routes, who now have the
most limited mail facilities, and the
demands of business call for this ap-
preparation, 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 under the law, ard now that
there is some little chance that our
waiting has not been in vain We can
not submit to hope deferred. It is
estimated that it costs S12 so to
every 125 families to get their mail
under the old arrangement, and that
is very small estimate, in my judg-
ment. Each route of 1900 that goes
into effect at once will serve, it is
Judged, 125 families. The exact
saving in actual money is easily cal
culated from these figures, and who
more richly deserves this saving than
our American farmers, who for six
years has heard the whispers Of
"great prosperity" but has never
seen it. 1t is not my intention to
enter into any defense of the rural
free-delivery scheme. 1t needs no
defense save an acquaintance with
it's workings and it's Developments.
The mere statement of the fact that
only five years ago there was only
one route in this country, and that
now there are over 5000, serving
over 100000 farmers, and an esti-
mated increase by July to 5000
routes, serving over five and q half
million people, Is sufficient evidence
of it's popularity and intrinsic merit
without adding to this testimony the
action of the several Congresses past
increasing each year the appropria-
tions for this purpose and the un-
stinted endorsements OF the Post
Office Department and the enthu-
siastic recommendations of two Presi-
dents. It is the most popular branch
of the postal service to-day, and it
deserves to be. In it's marvellous de-
7elopment it has been equaled only
by the free-delivery service in cities
and large towns, and the time will
come when the farmers will receive
his mail once day, as he is entitled
to receive it, and an unjust and un-
reasonable discrimination against our
country folk will be swept away.
Ten years ago the service had teSs
friends, and the Post-OAice Depart
ment would take no part in trying to
give it fair experiment. How diff
ferent now: The Congress, the De-
partment, and the Pres. are On their
knees to it, ard there are EelR hsn-
d-ed men all over the country assert
ing their claims to its "daddyship."
I urge this appropriation in the
name of the 225,OC0 farmers who
are il need Of it and to whom it is
! due as matter of right and not as
a matter of favor, and in the name
of the thirty-odd million other farm
ers who, in the nature Of things and
as matter of common Justice, will
eventually get it. Right demands it.
The Government owes it, and the
time for payment is here. The
American farmer is slow to make de-
msnds, but when once he makes
them, believing in their justness, he
is not easily turned aside from them.
The revolution in the method of furn-
ishing mail to our country people
must go on until each home, each
day, is brought in touch with the
world. Not until then will the
farmer be satisfied !"