The sun., 1903-12-18
The Little Pin With the Flag on It.

The Little Pin With the Flag on 1t.
Up to June 30, 1908. 1910 rural free
delivery routes had been established
The work goes on apaoe. People cry for
them. The rural carriers are crying for
more pay. The Hon. JOHN w. MADDOX,
Georgia Representative In Congress,
cries that political favoritism is shown In
the granting or shelving Of petitions for
new routes. As Mr.. MADDOX was born
in 1s4s, his apparent surprise that politics
should insert itself into this virtuous de-
tendency of the Post Office Department
can hardly be genuine. His speech Of last
Tuesday on the subject and the sparks
of interrogatory. dissent and explanation
thrown off by other members give the
materials for curious little study Of the
comparative political efficiency Of Con-
gressmen at the pie counter
Four States, Iowa, Indiana. Ohio, Illi-
nois, have 5000 Of the IS, ll9 routes. Add
Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, and seven
States-singularly enough, seven Repub-
lican States-have one-half Of all this
bucolic pie. The twelve Southern States
have fewer routes than Iowa and Indiana
together. According to Mr.. MADDOX, of
1910 petitions for routes from the South
ern States, 1,239 we're rejected; Of %,O8S
from Iowa and Indiana, 1922 we're rejected.
ais not that remarkable?' asks the
Georgian. Not bit remarkable. The
Southern roads are notoriously bad. It
is kindness to the misguided South
erners who want jobs as carriers to re-
ject many Southern petitions. But the
Hoosier pixies, the old Roman roads of
Iowa, invite travel Density Of popula-
tion has not been considered. Ease of
ntercommunication must have been the
| criterion.
Misled by his theory, Mr.. MADDOX
applied statistics to what are called
county routes"-that is, places where
the mail service is extended over the
whole county:
| Take these States. Iowa and Indiana. They have
eighteen OF these county routes. white the twelve
states have named have only fourteen; and OF
these fourteen located In district and
that happens to be Republican district. Laughter
| on the Democratic sde.l Eight OF those routes
are located in the State Of Tennessee and OF these
| seven are In one disthct-in tho district repre-.
sented by my distinguished friend from Tennessee
INF. BRowNIowI. have NO war TO make on my
| friend Mr.. BRowNLow, because believe that but
| for him and his assistance possibly would not
have obtained half the routes that have now for
l have called upon him to 60 around and help me
in this matter Yet the country Is supposed to be
run by the Congress OF the United States not by
men who crawl and grovel In the dust before some
oficial Of the Department"
A Congressman doesn't have to crawl
and grovel, but he has to hustle and
hump himself, as Mr.. BRowNLow does,
for instance. AS Mr.. MADDOX himself
does. He admitted that he had got
ninety-one routes in his district. The
Hon. JAMES A. HEMENwAY Of Boonville,
Ind, reminded him that "if the other
members Of Congress had been as sue
cessful as the gentleman from Georgia
there would be more than 34,944 of these
routes," or more than twice the actual
number. So Mr.. MADDOX had done twice
as we'll as he had any reason to expect.
Mr.. MADDOX said that, take out the
cities and you will find about seventy
five of the liveliest members of the House
in these seven States so aff1uent in routes.
Naturally the Indiana men are among
the livelest. OF Indiana's 1882 petit
tions, l,l13 we're granted. The theory
of Mr.. HEMENwAY Is that the people of
Iowa and Indiana and certain other
States were educated up to rural de-
livery Hd should have said that the
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