The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-22
RURAL FREE DELIVERY
RAPID GROWTH OF THE SYSTEM
FROM MODEST BEGINNING.
Service Now Costs 12,OOO,0 900 q Year
with a Good Outlook for Dou-
bling This Figure.

Washingsh Letter in New York 1Sst.
Since some of the most sensational de-
velopments in the postal scandals have CEN
tered around the rural free delivery serv-
ice, some interest attaches to the origin
of that system. In a report of the first
assistant postmaster general for the fiscal
year. 1889. Mr.. Perry Heath. who had ac-
Quired his business training as g writer
of imaginative literature for newspapers.
undertook TO show that wherever the sys-
TEN had been '.judiciously inaugurated,
with sincere purpose to make it a sue
cess" it had been followed by these benef-
cial results:
Il. Increased postal receipts. More let
tiers are written and received. More news
papers and magazines are subscribed for.
So marked is this advancement that quite
a number of rural routes already pay for
themselves by the additional business they
are doing.
80. Enhancement of the value of farm
lands reached by rural free delivery. This
increase OF value has been estimated at
| as high as s. per acre in some States A
moderate estimate Is from " 10 IS per acre.
''3. A general improvement OF the con-
| dition Of the roads traversed by the rural
carrier. In the Western States especially
the construction of good roals has been
prerequisite to the establishment OF rural
Tree delivery service. In one county In In
diana a special agent reports that me
farmers incurred an expense OF over $500
| TO grade and gravel road in order 10 OBJ
| tain rural free delivery.
"A. Better prices obtained for farm prod
| ucts, the producers being brought in daily
touch with the state OF the markets, and
thus being enabled to take advantage or
information heretofore unattainable.
To has a ar q m a q
added the educational benefit conferred by
relieving the monotony of farm life through
ready access to wholesome literature, and
the keeping OF all rural residents. the
| young people as well as their elders, fully
informed as to the stirring events OF the
day. The moral value Of these civiiizing
| influences cannot be too highly rated"
| 1t is hard to say whether this catalogue
| of advantages the more resembles a weekly
newspaper prospectus or one or Mr.. AUS
| tins buoyant commentaries on the con-
tinued increase OF prosperity in the United
States regardless OF whether trade is COM
| ing our way or going the other. But it
| Heath If he had offered to pay 81 FOR every
| one of these statements that could be
proved a general truth.
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT.
| The first experiment actually made In
| rural free delivery was the work Of Post
| master General Wilson. Mr.. Heath insin-
| yates that Mr.. Wilson did not wish the sys-
| tenn to be a success, and that the postofice
| inspectors detached from other duties to
| install the experimental service were SO
stationed and so instructed as to leave lit
tie chance for their making a favorable re-
| port. AT Allensville, TODD county, Ken
lucky, for instance, nobody wanted the
| service" although three carriers were as
signed to it. Many of the leading farmers
on their routes had business which took
| them daily to town, and some were in tele-
| phonic communication with civilization.
| The rest of the population consisted chiefly
| OF negroes, large part of them unable to
read or write. The first years mail car
ried through this district cost the govern
| ment a little less than cents for every
piece handled.
On a route laid out from Hartsville Bar
tholomew county,. Indiana, the inspector
wrote of the people:
| find that they are not demanding free
delivery of their mail; their correspondence
| is largely social in its nature, and ques-
| ton or a day or two in the delivery cuts
no figure with them While a majority of
| the farmers take weekly papers, and some
| take magazines, but few take daily papers,
and only those residing near postoffices.
| 1t will, therefore, be seen that the quality,
| nature and Importance Of the average farm
| er's mail is not such as to make rural
free delivery an essential
| After it had been running month, 1t
| was discovered that the carrier on this
| route travelled twenty-four miles a day to
serve thirty-eight persons, and that the
| cost was l-3 cents for every piece Of mail
| handled.
When the rural system had fairly got
started, one Of the first difficulties with
which the government had to contend was
inducing the farmers to install servicable
boxes to receive their letters. Tomato cans,
| cigar boxes, drainage pipes set up on end,
soap boxes and even sections Of discarded
and often installed in hedgerows or other
inconvenient spots out Of reach Of the car
rier. The department met this problem
at first by notifying all those patrons who
were reported by their carriers as having
run into some folly on the box question.
that they must put up secure and respecta-
be-lOoking boxes within a reasonable time
or the delivery would be withdrawn from
them. Mr.. Heath supplemented this with
q free advertisement on an Indiana product,
box made Of galvanized iron, and proper
ly painted in letters and in every way
suitable, which would be furnished. de
livered at the cars for so cents" 1t was
also proposed that the government furnish
but this arosed storm Of opposition.
PoSTMAsTERS OBJECT.
The way the postmasters in villages
fought off tho new system was interesting.
Some of. them pesieged the department
with letters. protesting against having
their business taken away from them.
Here are few extracts:
To take the office away takes part Of my
living twn :h aWay from me- have wife and
kind kline of an appointment you am SI @os
'choicy"-any place in the mail service.
The next Office west of here has estab-
lished rural mail delivery, and the car
riers come within two and a half miles of
this office on one side and within five
and three-quarter miles east of Ii, taking
in some thirteen or fourteen families that
used to get their mail here. What
can be done to give this office justice?
There has been established rural free
delivery . route within one mile of
my office on the south and west By doing
this they have taken from me over fifty
persons who formerly rented boxes in my
office. Therefore it is a Discrimination
against this office Us there any remedy
for the aforementioned encroachment?
One postmaster collected signatures TO "A
petition OF supposed patrons of a local
delivery route, asking for the re-establish-
ment of his discontinued office. An inspec-
tor who scrutinized the signatures name
by name discovered that all except three
were those of persons living outside of the
delivery route. and that the three excep-
tions were those Of lads belonging 10 the
village band. Of which the postmaster was
leader.
The star route contractors were another
set Of functionaries who opposed the ex-
tension of free delivery in the country
This opposition did not amount to a great
deal, however, and largely disappeared after
the adoption of the practice of letting the
star route men conduct. small rural free
delivery along the route they had to travel
under their contract.
Mr. Heath sprinkied his report with pic