The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1904-04-27
l'De Lexington DlspatCn
Wednesday, April II, 1904.
Talking Out II Meeting.

Snarl6SCOn news anu OOuIIeI.
In his speech for fair treatment to
the rural free mail carriers Repre-
sentative Lever of South Caroline,
noted the results of an investigation
of the service made by him which
was sufficient to convince any fair
minded man that the ''rankest in
justice has been done my section
snd State in the distribution of rural
routes" There were 21,600 routes
in operation on February Is, this
year, and of these routes only 2,S99
had been established in the ten
Southern States with population of
16,2O0;000, or one route for every
5000 population. 10 the two States
of Iowa and Indiana, with CON-
bined population of 4,7o0,00O there
are 227 rural free delivery routes,
or one route for every 1,40U popula-
tion. MIR. Lever said:
Assuming that under the present
rules each carrier gets 5000 per an
mum and multiplying this. by 1927
the number of routes in operation in
lows and Indiana, we find that these
two States are drawing from the to-
tai rural free delivery appropriation
the sum of Sl,936 200, nearly one
sixth of the entire fuDd, as against
81, ,630,4O0 for the ten Southern and
Democratic States"
In Iowa and Indiana 322,600 fam
lilies are receiving the benefits of the
rural mail service, while in the ten
Southern States, with population
four times as large as the population
of Iowa and Indiana, 280 900 fami-
lies receive any direct benefit from
the service.
Mr. Lever further noted the fact
that IS per cent. of the petitions
from the Southern States filed with
the post Office department asking for
the establishment of rural free de-
livery routes have been turned down
by the department, while only 25 per
cent. of the petitions from the States
of Iowa and Indiana have been re-
garded as without merit.
Mr.. Lever noted other incidents in
the administration of the law which
clearly showed how the sectional
spirit is manifested in the admins
tration of the law, but we are not
surprised at the facts brought Out by
the South Carolina congressman in
his address. The government at
Washington is sectional government
for sectional purposes and admins
tered in sectional interests. Not only
is the South shared out of its proper
influence in the government, as Sen
ator Bacon pointed out, and in the
administration of the free rural de-
livery system, as Mr.. Lever showed,
but it is shared out in many other
ways, and in no way more clearly
than in the compensation made to
mail carriers in the Southern cities
for their services. In Charleston, for
instance, the pay of the mail carriers
is $3.50 year. In New York, and
Philadelphia, and Boston, and other
large Northern towns it is 81 600 q
year. In only two of the Southern
towns, we are informed Atlanta and
New Orleans, do the letter carriers
receive the same compensation that
they receive in the larger cities of
the North. Tue carriers in Charles
ton are an intelligent, faithful, de-
serving lot. They have as heavy
loads to bear, and as much territory
to cover in their respective districts
IS the carriers have in New York. or
Philadelphia, or New Orleans, or At
lanta, or any other town, yet they are
paid less wages for doing the same
work.
It may be that the inequalities in
the service will be adjusted, and that
the South will at some indefinite
time in the future be permitted to
exercise it's proper Influence in the
....~t l,,k tbo conditions aro