Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-24
RURAL FREE DELIVERY VIRTUES.
Editorial Comments That Have Reach
ed Mr.. De Graw,

1t Is pretty we'll established that the
friends of rural free delivery have at one
time another claimed almost every virtue
under the sun for that particular system
of mail distribution but rural free delivery
as a cure for melancholia and insanity and
as preventive of suicide Is a new and
strange claim, even to the most enthusiastic
deliverite In the postal service. Mr.. De
Graw fourth assistant postmaster general.
is an optimistic and enthusiastic advocate
of the system. and consequently when the
other day he found among his clippings an
editorial from a western paper, attributing
the aforementioned virtues to rural free
delivery, he was pretty nearly dckled to
death. The editorial, which Is worth read
ing, follows In part:
"What could more completely Illustrate
the growing demand for rural free delivery
service than the statement issued by the
Postmaster General on information given
him by Fourth Assistant De Graw. At the
present rate of increase 1t will be but few
years before every rural community In this
country will be supplied with this modern
system for the distribution OF mail. When
the plan was first put into operation it nat
urally found many who objected. and chief
among these We're rural Storekeepers In the
small towns where rural post offices were
located. These merchants argued that the
establishment of rural mall routes would
prevent farmers from coming to town as
frequently as they had done heretofore,
anu therefore Cney would reel a reUuCtlOn
in trade. The argument seemed based upon
good reason but statistics gathered show
the opposite has been true, and that instead
of decreasing trade In such places 1t had in
the majority of instances been Of benefit.
The farmers themselves. who are
the chief beneficiaries of rural free delivery.
are Its warmeSt supporters. 1t has relieved
the WEAKNESS and monotony of life in the
country to a wonderful and surprising de-
gree. 1t Is shown by figures that the per-
centage of suicides among people living out
side of cities has fallen off since the system
was put in operation. This is not strange
when it is considered how the daily paper
and the daily letter can be left at the farm
er's door every day, where before such a
thing was impossible. 1t has put families
In the country, and especially those in iso-
lated places, in touch with the outside
world to a degree which was never before
possible. Moreover. the service is rapidly
becoming seif-Supportng. and it will be but
a few years before it will bear the cost of
maintenance"
The last statement gave Mr.. De Graw
somewhat of jolt. inasmuch as the rural
service is costing the government an in
creasing number of millions a year but on
the whole the editorial was considered a
gem of pureSt ray serene, and with due GER
emOny was pasted in the official dapart-
ment scrap book.
The same mail brought an editorial from
another western paper of lesser prominence
and greater freedom of expression. This is
an extract showing the service from an
Other. ana somewhat narrower, point OF
view:
The rural free delivery service is great
thing. Before Hezektah Bunch got his job
as a rural mail carrier he had never seen
more than dollar and a quarter all at one
time. But a month after Mr.. Bunch crawled
under the protecting wing of the service he
was on the road to prosperity and wealth
and at the time the department interviewed
and prohibited rural carriers from acting as
statesmen or agents Hezekiah had a fine
mail order trade in boots and shoes, wind
mills. underwear wire fencing collars and
ours. horse lniment. agricultural imple-
ments, chocolate caramels and tar roofing"
Editorials, as we'll as everything else al
ways run in threes. 1t seems and the third
editorial that reached the department on
the day in question was also a gem-of its
kind 1t was from southern paper in a
section where rural free delivery Is not vet
a name to conjure by. and it read as fol-
lows:
we observe that learned contemporary
has soemnly suggested the extension of
rural Tree delivery a cure for melancho-
Ia and insanity and as preventive of
suicide. We have only one route in this
part of the country. but even at that we
are obseryant, and beg to suggest that as
| a remedy for indigestion. river chills. house
maid knee. poison ivy. ia lling hair or deaf
ness rural free delivery. regularly taken,
has no equal