Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-07-05

mately "complete."
Now that the department can be-
gin to look forward to the day when
the service will reach its growth,
temporarily at least--for it will, of
course, continue to expand slowly as
the newer sections of the country
are developed-it is possible to esti-
mate with some degree of accuracy
the cost of full.grown service. AS
suming that it will take 10000 car
riers to cover the country, the
fixed annual charge for salaries
of carriers alone at the present rate
of 1920 year would be $43, 200, 900.
The carriers are insisting on better
pay, and they will no doubt get it
sooner or later. Eight hundred dol
lars a year is the sum Congress has
in mind as the salary that will next
be agreed on, and when the pay is
fixed at that amount the annual fixed
charges for carriers would be $48,.
100000. This is but part of the
expense, although the greater part
obviously.
These are the rough estimates of
to-day. Time may change them.
Out of-the-way places are already
clamoring for the service. Three
years ago it was estimated that
10000 carriers would be able to
cover the available territory, and as
the salaries of carriers were 5000
each at that time, the departments
estimate for covering the country
was $24,OO0,000. That that esti-
mate was ridiculously out of the way
is shown by the appropriation for
salaries of rural carriers for the fiscal
year which will begin July 1. This
is already 1916, 100000 or more than
that estimate of three years ago for
the entire country; and we are still
far short of universal free delivery.
The cost of maintaining the ser.
vice outside the salaries of carriers
will necessarily be large, after the
country has been covered. 1t will
still be necessary to employ division
superintendent, of whom there are
six now; rural agents, of whom
there are 1856 at present; clerks at
division headquarters, etc. The pre-
vailing view in the postal establish
ment is that the cost of rural free
delivery will continue to grow until
it approaches $6O,OOO,Oo0 year.
The appropriation for the fiscal year
beginning July l, 1906, will have to
be $30,000,000 for salaries for car
riers alone. Under the appropria-
tion available July 1, this year
1876, 100000 for salaries-cxtension
will continue to be made at the rate
of 600 routes month. Such pro-
gress will bring close to 10000 car
riers in the service by July 1, 1907.
A fight between the friends of the
rural service and the partisans of the
city service has been brewing in
Congress for some time, and it will
no doubt take place at the coming
session. Ever since the cost of
the rural free delivery passed that of
city delivery, members of Congress
from the large centers of population
have inclined to oppose the further
extension of rural service unless
demands made by them for better
city service received some considera-
tion. The cost of rural service this
year is $3,000,000 greater than that
of city service. Practically every
city of any Importance is begging
for additional carriers and cannot
understand why it cannot get what
it needs while any country district
can, on petition, get first-class
rural service. But the men who
depend on country districts for their
political support control Congress
by large majority, and the rural
service is thus safe from the attacks
of the cities.
Any estimate Of the loss the postal
department sustains on account of