The Saint Paul globe., 1902-01-20
A BOON TO FARMERS
RURAL FREE DELIVERY SYSTEM
COMMENDED BY RURAL
FOLK
GET THEIR MAIL EVERY DAY

with an appropriation of $4,000 it was ex-
panded to such an extent that for the
current year S3,5C0OG0 were required to
support it, and Postmaster General Smith
has decided to ask congress for $6,250,9G0
for the service during the ensuing fiscal
year.
If this appropriation is granted il will
mean that the cost, and, consequently,
the worth, of the rural free delivery has
multiplied over three hundred times in
the short period of six years. 1t IS
doubtful if this record was ever equaled
i'll any branch Of the government. In
county after county in the Western and
Southern states, where formerly mail
was only secured after long rides from
the interior to the town postoftices, let
ters are now delivered at the farms ard
cottages every day. In addition to regular
daily deliveries, residents at isolated
homes have all the advantages of the
registry and money order systems. They
can register a letter, or buy money
order at their door, twenty miles rom
postof1ce, and purchase stamps and
other supplies just thought they were
in the best equipped city postoffice.
All this is the outgrowth of an expert
ment which Postmaster General Bissel
refused to make because he thought it
General Wilson undertook with many
misgivings.
The first appropriation for rural free
delivery was made in 1894, $4,000 being al
lCtted for the trial test Postmaster Gen
eral Bissell declined to eXpend the money,
declaring that if the system were to be
adopted it would cost about $20,OO0OO 900
for the first year. In the following year
congress added another $4,000, and with
gaDl lDl Ia ~ol LOpC
ter General Wilson still thought it would
be unwise to take up SO unpr0m:sing an
experiment
In the following year the apprOprla-
tion was increased to $4,000, whereupOn
Postmaster General Wilson got his cOur-
age up to the point Of putting the sys-
tenn to the test. The results al first were
not brilliant, but gradually the people
awoke to the advantages of the scheme
and there was a universal demand for it.
New routes were established, extra men
employed, and the small mail carts Of
the rural carriers penetrated further and
further into the sparsely settled districts.
Congress backed up the efforts of the
postof1ce department, and the appropria-
tions went up by leaps and bounds. In
1898 congress gave $4,000; this was in
creased to $125.0O0 in the following year.
and to $45OOO0 in 1900. Three and half
million dollars were given for the cur
rent year, and this is to be almost dOu-
bed next year. All the arguments that
were advanced six or seven years ago
that the expense of rural free delivery.
would swamp the postal revenue have
been disproyed. and it is now counted
one Of the most-success and benef1-
cial experiments the department ever
undertook.
At the present time there are almost
5000 routesE and this total is being add
ed to at the rate of 300 a month. Each
route covers an average of twenty-five
square miles of territory, and it is esti-
mated that 3SO0,OOO people are served
with daily-deliveries who, without it,
would be required to travel great dis
tances to get their letters at the local
postoff1ce. The various branches of the
system have all worked UP from very
modest beginnings until now the pay of
the carriers, their tenure of Office and
the other features of the service are on
a permanent basis.
tt is a simple matter for a community
to get the department to assign carrier
to deliver mail at the doors of residents
A petition is circulated, asking for the
service for n certain district, which Is
indicated by given boundaries. A gen
eral statement is included in the petition,
about the number and avocatiCns of the
people to be served. After being signed
by the applicants, the petition is forward
cd to the member of congress represent
ing that section, and is by him indorscd
and sent to the postofice department.
A special agent is sent out to insne2t
the territory, and if it is found that at
least 100 families are within the outlin-
ed section, and that other requirements
are complied with, an order is issued for
the establishment Of the service Tie
postmaster at the adjoining town is
given charge Of the route and Of the
carrier to it.
Under ordinary conditions z fun route
is considered to be twenty-five miles.
There are exceptional cases, where the
roads are level and smoothly macadamiz-
ed IN which the carriers make thirty
to thirty-1ve miles a day There are
other exceptional cases where the routes
lead over rugged hills and cross rocky
creeks, in which seventeen miles is cor
sidered a good days journey.
The carriers are selected and appointed
by the local member Of congress- Thev
are required to buy their own shoes ana
clothes, provide their own rigs" ana
horses, pay their own doctors bills and
vote as they please. The pay when the
service was first started was $50 4 years
1T was afterwards increased to $500. then
to $400 and again to $500 until now it is
looked upon as very desirable position
hen the pay WAS increased to $500 a
} carriers
make their deliveries and collections
either in person or by bonded substitutes
every day Of the year, Sundays excepted.
- In case Of absence or disability on the
part of the regular carrier, where a sub
sttute performs duty in his stead, he
receives. from the carrier, pay at the rate
received by the latter.
OF course, it would be impracticabie for
carriers to drive NJ to the door Of ev-
cry farm house in order to collect and
deliver letters. Accordingly, what might
be termed open-air postofices are estab-
nShed at suitable points along each
route. They are usually located at
crossroads. school houses and places of
general resort where the different fani-
lies erect their private mail boxes Each
is furnished with a key, so that every
family will feel secure of the safety
Of its contents. At such points there is
also placed a regular United States
collection mail box. into which letters
Tor mailing are dropped and gathered ;;p
by the carrier
Special facilities have been added TO the
service from time to time. In April of
last year an important step was taken
toward increasing the efficiency Of the
service by the issuance of regulations
giving rural carriers the same power to
receive and register letters, as well as
to deliver registered letters, as is eXer-
cised by the carriers Of free delivery
cities. AS the law requires registered
letters to be delivered personally to the
addresses rural carriers in such cases
deWate from their usual custom and de-
liver letters at the houses instead Of
dropping them into roadside boxes At
present rural carriers are only author
lied TO receipt for applications for money
orders, and no authority is vested in them
70 issue money orders except in the pos
tai wagon county service 1T is ex-
pected to extend the scope of this work
soon.
All the boxes along the routes are Of
2alVanlzed iron. of uniform size, painted,
ana closely resembling in appearance the