The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1903-02-06

the people were prompt to take ad-
vantage of improved mail facilities
brought to them by rural free delivery
when it was first established, but also
conclusive evidence that the use of
these facilities increases rapidly as their
benefits become more generally felt by
the residents of rural districts. When
the first experiments of rural delivery
were installed the phenomenal increase
in the volume of rural mail was attribu-
ted generally to the newness and novelty
of the service, and its opponents con-
fdently predicted that these wonder
full increases would disappear as the
service became settled. After two or
three years, however, it is found that
the initial ratio of increase has not only
been maintained, but in many instances
raised. This leads to the conviction
that with the completion of universal
rural service the volume of mail will
have reached such proportions as to in
sure sufficient additional revenue to
support the service
THE aggregate number of pieces of
mail collected throughout one county in
Maryland, which has complete rural de-
livery, affords fair idea of the great
advantages of the services. In this
county-Carroll-the number collected
was 725, 703, as against sos, 1856 in 1901,
or an increase of about 20 per cent.
This is about equal to the rate of increase
in the number of pieces of mail deliver
ed during the same period. 1t is most
gratifying to note that such healthy
increase has been maintained in the vol
ume of mail collected. This record is
further proof that the great augmenta-
ton of mail caused by the introduction
of rural delivery is in those classes from
which the postal service derives the
great bulk of it's revenues. Ninety-fve
per cent of the mail dispatched by the
farmers of this county is first-class mat
ter-letters and postal cards. The farm
er is the steady and constant user of the
2-cent stamp. If he mails newspaper,
it is not at 1 cent pound, the rate en-
joyed by newspaper publishers, but he
must pay cent apiece on the ordinary
size newspaper or on package of pa
pers at the rate of cents pound. The
merchant, too, is profitable
customer of the rural free delivery SER
vice, for the circular, or third-class mat
ter, which he sends out land which in
Carroll county increased 157 per cent
last year. is at the rate of cent for each
piece, which is profitable rate of post
age
ut has been shown that the effect of
the rural free delivery service upon the
postal revenues is two-fold First, it
causes a healthy and steady increase in
the gross receipts of the postoffices in
the locality or county in which free de-
livery is general, and, second, it is re-
sponsible for portion of the increased
revenues of the large offices accruing
from the stimulated use of the mails by
merchants and others who are able to
reach patrons of rural delivery through
put the country.
lone of the distinguishing features of
the rural free delivery service is the
great scope of its utility. With the es-
of rural route every other
postal facility becomes co-extensive and
By providing for the reg
gistration of letters by carriers enroute,
the acceptance of money by them for
the purchase of money orders, and the
sale of postage stamps, postal cards, and
envelopes, the department
effectually places at the gate of each
family all the conyeniences supplied by
a city postoffice, with the exception of
the direct issue and payment of money
orders by carriers, and it is now propos-
ed to add one or possibly both of these
features also"
"a hereditary religion is almost as