Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-12-17
READING KABIT AND ROUTES.

READING KAEiT AND EQUITIES.
The presence of special agent i
Marshall county to drive again rura
free delivery routes that he has drive
before and reported upon favorably cai
admit of but one explanation. Tn
agent himself is under orders TO sa.
nothing but, since he has been or
dered TO give another inspection L
routes that he has once approved, it i
apparent that the 1O0-box Requirement
of the department. is being given ser
ious attention.
1t has become evident 10 newspape
men and others who drive rural routes
that farmer living one mile ava.
from the road over which the rura
carrier drives, will seldom put up :
box. He figures that six trips weet
for him one mile to his box and one
! mile back again makes miles of trav-
cling for him. He reasons that ne
! IIIuSl SO 10 lONI outG VI tNlte IL cen
anyway and one extra trip would b.
/ less travelling than to go after his
mail at route box a mile distant. II
lis universally true that the farmer liv-
| ing that far from a route will sell
dom put up box or take daily news
paper.
| Because of this condition 1t is IF
questionable practicability to attempt
to enforce the 1o0-boX rule The Gus
section line road thus giving route
only mile apart and leaving no FAM
lily over half mile from the service.
Under this system the average % mila
route passes by 10 houses and about
40 families put up boxes. To reorgan-
lie the routes 1t would be necessary to
| lay them on every second section line
road or two miles apart On the pre-
sumption that the families on the in
up boxes on either one or the other
roads mile away, the 100 box require
ment might be met, but 1t is altogether
probable that they would simply not
be served and the new route would
be no nearer the 100-box mark than
under the old system.
Rural free delivery Is a growth. 1t
has been in the past and will continue
to be. /, Is within the experience IF
returned Them practically no subscriE
ton bu1mess at all the first year of
their operation are now furnishing
big lists of subscribers. 1t is not an
uncommon thing at all on routes three
years old or more to find farmers taxi
ing three and four dailies. The appe-
tite for newspapers grows by cultiva-
ton and so Will the use of the mails
in letter correspondence at first class
rates
There are routes in Iowa that will
eventually be discontinued because of
lack OF appreciation. Wherever a pop
ulation is generally foreign or densely
ignorant 1t will be good business policy
TO merge the best portions of the route
with the good part of another and serve
those who really want daily mail with
fewer carriers.
There Is no one reform In govern
mental practice next to the public
school that will return to people
indirectly, In economic benefits such
enormous dividends. Combined with
the rural telephone it will check the
drift of population from the farm to
the town The old man will build him
a cottage on the home place instead
OF moving to town. Jim will move in
to the big house and run the farm.
There will thus arise two boxes on that
route where once there was but one.
Jim will be content to remain on the
farm instead of hieing himself away
to the city and the old man can hoe
potatoes and fix fences on the home
place until the end of his days. The
ter and the community Will bef the
gainer. On some 1,400 rural routes in
Iowa the government is already collect
ing annually 100000 in postal revenue
at cost OF 100000 operating expense.
A gain OF so per cent in the letter
writing and reading habit, on the av-
erage 10 box route, within the next
ten years will make the service self
sustaining. taking no account of the
Increase in number of families on the
route. Newspaper men have witnessed
an evolution on rural routes far greater
than this in the past three years, alone.
The 1oo-box rule Is certain to work |
a hardship to western farmers. 1t IS I
the east with It's small farms and con-
gested population and fails to fit thu
broad acres and more widely distri.
buted farmhouses of Iowa and the mid.
die west. Harper's special correspon..
dent is authority, after investigation,
that the farmers of the middle ives.
subscribe to and read more high class
literature proportionately than those Of
any other section. These states which |
the 100-box rule affects most adj
versely are the ones where most of