Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-06-11

tween these two influences, one going
the other always treating suspicion
as a certainty, the public were at
loss what 10 think
The truth lies unquestionably in the
middle of this stretch. The depart
ment is not honeyoombed with cor
rupt conspiracies, as some of the hos
tile journals have proclaimed under
big headlines; neither is it free from
wrongdoing. Its personnel contains
about an average lot of human beings.
The same proportion of incorru) tible
and straightforward men and women
obtains there as in any community of
as many thousand souls. So does
, like proportion of self-seekers and
bribe-takers, and brethren whose chief
sin is weakness. Here and there the
punishment someone who has enriched
himself by taking advantage of his
position to compel a contractor to
make terms with him, or who has
promoted one clerk and ignored all
other from interested motives; but
most of the officers and the rank and
file of the employees will undoubted-
ly come out of the ordeal unscathed.
Mr.. Machen's Good Record.
Mr.. Machen, upon whom the cal
cium light has been turned most COLI
stantly of late, came to Washington
under the second Cleveland admins
tration, directly from the Toledo post
office. Postmaster General Bissel had
been locking for some time for a new
superintendent Of free delivery-the
free delivery system being then con-
fined to cities of certain size and i'm
portance. Machen had been a super
intendent of carriers in Toledo, under
stood the good and bad points of this
class of subordinates, knew how to
handle them, had the statutes by heart,
and possessed rare executive faculty.
With all his faults. he has been a
most efficient administrative officer.
nonpartisan fairness soon won him
general favor.
In those days the rural free delivery
system was unknown, except as a
pretty dream. Postmaster General
Wanamaker had thought that some
thing might be done with it, and a
few members of congress had taken it
up as a fad, putting it upon about the
same footing with the postal savings
bank idea. But report which lies
before the writer as he pens these
lines shows what Machen thought of
the scheme in 1894, when he was first
safeguarding the public interests in a
| federal Office.
The time and attention of the Of
ficers of this bureau were so engrossed
in reducing the expenditures on &C.
count of the free delivery service al
ready established that no consider
alton could be given the question of
rural free delivery.
This was in response to an appropri-
alton of $4,000 for experimental pur-
poses; and the paragraph ended with
| the suggestion that two per cent. of
the money the rural system would cost
when established could be expended
on reasonable and economical lines in
organized" with more benefit to the
people at large" In 1895 the expert
mental fund had been increased to
| $4,000, but still it was unexpended.
Rural free delivery may be useful
after a WHILE" said the report of the
year, Gin the more densely populated
states, but even then the benefits
derived under most favorable cond1-
tons would not be proportionate to
/ the immense amount Of money re-
quired to maintain the service" The
| fact was, the democratic administra-
| ton did not favor the experiment, and
Machen's opinions were what were ex-
| pected from his as a subordinate
The Entrance Of Mr.. Heath.
! So matters went on til the McKn-
| ley administration came in Perry S.
| Heath, it's first assistant postmaster
general with the instinct of born adj
vertiser, cast about him for something
which should make his term of office
memorable The idea of free delivery
of mail at farmhouses in remote re-
gions appealed to his fancy. He
tackled it with great energy. The far
mers had not taken to the idea at first
with especial warmth, as it threatened
to interfere with their immemorial
custom of going to the crossroads
store for their letters and chatting
there with their friends. But Heath
was bound that they should Ike it;
and Machen, ever ready to fall in be-
hind the chief of the moment, became
his most enthusiastic bush-beater.
The departmental report for 1899 con-
tanned fifty-four pages of printed
text and a dozen or more half-tone en-
cravings and maps entirely devoted to
this subject, and the appropriations
were already advancing by leaps and
bounds. They have kept up this gait
! For the service which started then
with $4,000 the postmaster generals
estimates now call for $4,000, 900, and
i L