The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-08-16
WRONG DONE
10 BR|SION
Rural Route Patrons Blame
Him UnjustIy.
KN0CKER VERY BUSY
Secret for Cause o. Alarm
Given Away.
KN0CKER VERY BUSY

The fear has been expressed in sections
where there is a rural free delivery that
as a result of the Investigations in the
postoffice department at Washington, ani
the stringent supervision Fourth Assist
ant Postmaster-General Bristow is giving
this great system, there may be loss
or impairment of the service.
This comes about largely by reason of
the misunderstanding of certain rules
| laid down by Mr.. Bristow recently. Mr..
rural service, when it was taken some
months ago from out the bureau Of the
first assistant postmaster-general This
was no reflection upon the first assistant,
who is a good official, and has been CO.
operating with Mr.. Bristow in the latter's
ferreting out of fraud in the department.
But 1t sometimes happens that the man
most capable, and most interested In a
great public good, like the rural service.
has proved to be, becomes open to criti-
cIsm. careless and indulging in question
able practices. So It came with August
w Machen, general superintendent of
assistant When Mr. Mschsn's wrong
doings began to be manifest. and frauds
and ill-practices began to be made public,
Mr.. Payne, the postmaster general, placed
the system under the fourth assistant,
Mr. Bristow. 1t has since remained there
II has been since the inception of the
service, the rule of the department that
no route was to be established which
was not within maximum limit as TO
length of twenty-six miles Yet very fire.
quentiy this has been disregarded. and
routes thirty miles in length often have
been established. Another rule equally
disregarded was that with respect TO
the number of patrons served. This was
supposed TO be 100 heads of families. per
route. Not infrequently-in fact oftener
than otherwise-were routes established
having only so to 80 heads of families
upon them So it is that newly-laid routes
since Mr. Bristow's supervision have cor
responded almost without a single ex-
ception TO the rules which Mr.. Bristow
did not make at all, and which have been
supposed to be part OF the practice Of the
department all along.
OF course in what are known as coun-
try-systerns these rules will likely not
be adhered to strictly. BY county sys-
tenn is meant where every head of a
family in a county may have his mail
served to him daily, but Sunday, II he
desires to accept 1t. An example of this
is the Summer county. Kansas, service.
Rice Sedgwick and Harvey almost have
this service. and will have II in the fu-
ture In such systems. tao rules will
probably not be followed in the future
any more than in the past, because where
it is the intention in the beginning to serve
every family. II matters not II perchance
some routes are longer than the supposed
limit of If some do not have the requisite
number of families upon them.
Another thing that was misunderstood
was the alleged rule that was claimed to
have been laid down by Mr. Bristow that
a certain thousand pieces Of mail must be
distributed from postoffiee supplying a
rural route. weekly. monthly, else the
route would be discontinued. This was
entirely erroneous. Such rule was not
made. nor likely WILL be.
The fact is that there is no occasion for
alarm on the part of rural patrons. The
system of rural free delivery is as fixed
in this country as the system Of city de-
livery is The system is boon to the
rural population, which appreciates and
desires it. and 1t shall not be the policy
of the government of congress, or OF
) officials in any wise to hamper. restrict
or annul such service. IL is here TO stay,
and very man who has seen its blessings
need feel no harm.
The secret of the cause for alarm. If