River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-10-20
Rural Free Delivery Service of IncaIcu able Ben
eft to Farming Communities.
DEMOCRATS WORKED HARD AGAINST IT
FIatIy Refused to Obey the Mandate of Con-
gress to Establish Routes, but Are
Now Claiming Honor-Rec-
ords Compared,
population should share in the improvement
Of this service

population should share In the improvement
Of this service.
Rooseve1t's Recomm mend alton.
In his last annual message President
Roosevelt again called attention to the
Importance of tie rural free delivery
service, saying:
The rural free-deIivery service has been
steadily extended. The attention Of Con-
greSS is asked to the question of the com
pensation Of the letter carriers and clerks
engaged i'll the postal service, especially on
the new rural free-delivery routes. More
routes have been installed since the list OF
July last than in any like period in the
departments history. While a due regard
to economy must be kept i'll MIND in the
establishment Of new routes, yet the ex-
tension Of the rural free-delivery system
must be continued for reasons of sound
public policy. No governmental movement
Of recent years has resulted in greater i'm
mediate benefit to the people of the coun-
try districts. Rural frec-deivery, taken In
connection with the telephone. the bicycle,
and the trolley, accomplishes much toward
lessening the Isolation of farm life and
making it brighter, and more attractive.
In the immediate past the lack OF just such
facilities as these has driven many Of the
more active and restless young men and
women from the farms to the Cities for
they rebelled at loneliness and lack of
mental colnpanionship. 1t Is unhealthy and
undesirable for the cities to grow at the
expense of the country and rural free de-
livery is not only a good thing in itself,
but is good because it is one of the causes
which check this unwholesome tendency
toward the urban concentration OF our
population at the expense of the country
districts.
The foregoing quotations are sufficient
to show that Republican executives real
lied the Importance of the rural delivery
system to the farming communities and
did everything in their power to extend
it. During President McKinley's first
term establishment of routes had been
given such an impetus that by 1900 the
service had passed far beyond the expert
mental stage and Congress had approp-
rated $450,000 for maintenance Of the
routes then in operation. These routes
numbered 1 1916 at the close of McI<in-
lcy's first term, but many others had
been surveyed and were ready to be
established. The service became so pop
ular that farmers flooded the postoffice
department with petitions for new routes
Corps Of inspectors were appointed, divi-
siops were created, superintendent plac-
ed III charge and the service was put on
a merhodical business basis.
Routes Now in Operation.
The system has been so rapidly ex-
tended under President Roosevelt that
Congress this year appropriated $21 ,000,-
600 for the service, which now en-
braces approximately 27,5O0 routes,
either in operation or about to be estab-
llshed. These routes are scattered over
all the States and territories, as will
lie seen by the following table, which
gives the total number of petitions re-
ferred for examina ton and investigations
the routes in operation on September
Is, 1904 and the number of petitions
pending on the same date: