The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-18

VI bi idEdA 0SiANVAJ kS 8Oou IOdoss ' v establish and build good roads through the agricultural districts or this country
 will increase the value of our lands and make our farmers more progressive. more e0ntenIed, and more happy.
 We must encourage our people to live on their farms by making farm life more tneii' nomes. The newspaper ts perhaps comfortable by placing daily papers in
 the most potent factor in popular educa-
 ton today. It moids pubic sentiment; 1t inspires higher ideas and nobler pur-
 poses. and creates in the breast of the country boy an ambition to move out on broader lines. Send the papers, daily and weekly, to .ne homes of our people; en- courage them to read and to keep in touch with our Government in it's progress and you will increase the wealth of the
 nation. The .'ecords show that Congress has dealt out Its appropriations with a atins to induce them to carry the mails quickly between the great cities. The last Congress appropriated $175,0oO to one railroad for carrying the mails a New orleans. No thought Of economy was suggested by any member here then. But now the people In the country are tc have some benefits, and we hear the cry Economy. economy" can not give | Fly support 10 any treasure tending to destroy. impair. or impede this present rucal-delivery system. 1 hope soon to be able to get it established all over my dis trict ana to send the mail to the door of every farmer in 1t each day. Then will the prophetic words be realized: To. the winter ts past; the rain iS over and SC ne; the flowers appear or the earth: the time ot the singing of birds
 has conn. and the voice of the turtle Is heard in our land.
 tApplause.)
 The rural carriers have been . part and a parcel of the communities they have served. men known personally to oI hA fo oVvHti hAta spected and trusted by them all. They have been appointed in the same way and on tho same footing as other em- ployes in the mail service, the same as postomce clerks They nave been se- lectei on their merits. and have served on their merits. The people whom they serve so well have come 10 regard them with affection as personal friends. Many instances have been reported where the farmers have voluntarily shown their ap- preciation by befriepding and assisting the carriers in various ways, by giving them coffee and food and feeding their horses; by giving them shelter and Ing the roads ahead of them in suOw- storms. etc. Fancy them doing such things for a contractor. especially when the contractor is represented by stupid hired menial.
 Now. without any complaints againss these carriers. without any popular wish or demand for . change. without any good reason whatever for it; W. are a,, sud, which has been 50 satisfactory and ben eficial to our rural communities, and to substitute for it the old, discredited. cor rupt, star-route contract system, letting out these rural mail routes to the lowest bidder on contract. Tor Heavens sake, why? Will the contractors do the work better? They can not possibly do so. They will probably not do 1t as well. l> tH ~la can not be done any cheaper. if done well, than 1t is done now. If there should be now and then bids for contracts much lower than the salaries now paid, that would simply be presumptive evidence that the bid was not in good faith, or that 1t meant inferior service.
 It is true that the bill professes to pre- vent collision. straw bids. subletting. and other well-known scandals of the contract system: but the scandals would creep in all the same. They always do. They did in the old star-route times. as we all know. They do today. There Is any quantity of subletting in star route 10 ignorant illiterate. irresponsible persons In our Southern States right now. and l have no doubt 1t is the same way up North and out West. The farmers have no love or sympathy for the star-route contract system. They want the present system continued, and 1t ought to be continued It Is successful, universally liked. and will soon pay for itself. as the similar system now pays for itself in the cities.
 The more this supposed extension of the contract system is contemplated the more repuIsive 1t appears The records snow that it has always been a failure as be- tween the Government and individuals. IL has uniformly led to inferior work. popular dlssatisfaction, dishonesty and scandal. The Government has no right no moral right, at least-to rely on the contract system for executing the plDlic work. except in cases where no other is possible-as. for example, in the carrying of immense quantities of mail for all distances by rail and on sea or in barren sections of the country and wildernesses of vast extent where scarce ly anybody resides. If the Government should put the rural delivery under the contract system, why should 1t not put the postmasters and the postoffice clerks a Id the War Department and the Mint ard the Bureau of Engraving and Print ing under the contract system? Very likely 1t could find persons willing to bid very low for the privilege of coining the Governments gold and silver and print ing it's currency.
 The whole atmosphere surrounding the contract system is one of duplicity, jeal- ousy and dishonesty, There is a great tendency in 1t even to the awarding or contracts as we'll as in the execution separable from 1t. Inferior and dishon- est work is its natural and inevitable offspring.
 On the contrary. the whole tendency of the present system is toward better and better public service and steady progress upward morally and socially and intel lectually in the whole community. To upset this system just as 1t has got well started, and to substitute for it the mal- odorous contract system, which the farm CTS distrust and do not want. would be. to put it in the mildest possible term, an inequitable folly.
 By all means, defeat this proposition Let well enough alone. (Applause.)