The National tribune., 1906-03-29
WARS OF The RIVALS RURAL MAIL.
)rgin OF the "Sar Routes-The Struggles Between Them and
the Rural Free Delivery.


eign birth and unsteady as 10 his
idions. being required to write a brief
essay on his co-iaborer. the horse,
achieved the following: THE horse isl
u very ancient and noble quadruped:
but when he is angry he will not do
50. He is ridden on the spinal cord by
the bride and sadly. He has long
mouth. and his head Is attached to the
trunk by long protuberance called a
neck. He has four legs, two on the
front side and two afterwards. These
are the weapons on which he runs.
He has not tail out 50 long as The COW
and other such similar animals. His
folding is generally grasses and grain.
He is also useful to take on his back
man or woman and some cargo. He
has power to run as fast as he could.
He has got no sleep at the night time
and always stands awaken
Appealed to His Love and Vanity.
Candidates and carriers do not mo-
nOpoiiZe the illiteracy--a fair portion
is left for their constituency. A woman
in Ohio wrote to rural carrier In In
diana that her husband had left herl
four years previously. asked that he
be hunted up. and her letter read toI
him. especially the concluding appeal
to his love and vanity: You would
shed tears II you onley could see wat
a smart peart little boy you have hear
what n sham 1t Is to think that a
sensible man should leave q wife and
q child that Is got as much sense as]
he has-and the people say he Is as
much like you as he can be he has got
the pretty black eyes 1 have ever seen
In any ones head he has and eye like
a hawk
A man sent by the carrier to a store
at the end of his route this unique or
der: Deer ST.. Please send me pare no.
s shecrs and some gloves like on page
70 Yit
them. They aint no stores here and
make the gloves small for lady hand
| black will be rite. James TusSaday."
The chasrin and disappointment of
the unsuccessful candidates are mild
in comparison with the woes OF other
objcctors. Country storekeepers have
q dual grievance. In the first place, the
rural carriers are too often competi-
tors for the trade OF the farmers. In
the second place, the added facilities
for correspondence inure to the benefit
OF city department stores.
Competition with Country stores.
One storeliecper in iowa, where the
rural routes are so thick that a map
OF them makes the State look like 4
hinge SPIDERS web, wrote to inform the
Postmaster-General that The rural car
rier in his neighborhood had made him
close up because he could not compete
with "a general store on wheels and
moving in three sections
According to his letter. the carrier in
question went out on his route, fol-
lowed by three wagons, tanning
everything that would likely be needed
in a farm house on short notice. Some
times he even forgets to take the mail
bag along, he's so busy the storekeep-
cr complained. "and I am thinking
about moving into another County and
getting route myself so as to make a
| living"
Congress cut off this alleged abuse
by prohibiting the rural carriers from
! doing an express business.
A representative organ of the retail
dealers of the country makes this en-
ergetic protest against the growth OF
the mail delivery service: ''hI some
parts of the country the rural carriers
are making quite howl on account Of
| the small pay.
'Iu other parts of the country the
carriers are using automobiles instead
| OF horse and buggy.
There is a nigger in the woodpile,
and the de6auchery OF the rural deliy
cry service will come to light some day.
and with it some of the questionable
methods Of the mail-order gang.
''The rural delivery service is huge
! joke. 1t is conceived by the maii-order
| people. enacted into existence Cts no
law) by these people. and the whole
Postal Department is now run in their
IiiitECStS lltic DIT All ledSlDie.
I'm the rural delivery service the
/ Government is spending eight cents to
/ sell one two-cent stamp. Very unbusi-
nesslike, to say the least"
| Fears of Country Merchants BaSeless.
On the other hand it is urged that
| the village store Will. in the end. be
benefited by the rural delivery system.
| In q speech in Congress one member
said: ''Those who fear injury to the
store in the small town are very muck
! mistaken. 1 was raised in a small
! town and in country store. My father
was a country merchant for about Is
| years, and l heard the people of thai
| town complain when the railroad re
duced its rates to the city, about 25i
| miles away, that 1t was running their
| trade. [ heard them complain when
| the macadam road was built from many
smaller towns in the County to the city
| that everybody would drive to the city
if they wanted to only purchase a spool
of thread. But l have seen year after
year, every time you added to the IA
Cilities of communication between the
great city and the small towns. the
small towns growing, and the stores
growing, and the business OF the COM
munity growing. / want to say that
! the question of the business of a small
town is the education of the people,
and if you have a backwoods commune
~ Nllu a lilllc SlolE uOlut, d DuSlDcSS tl
only q few thousand dollars a year,
and that community is brought by i'm
proved roads or transportation facili-
ties in touch with a great city it Will
educate the people of the smaller COM
munity to 4 higher standard of living,
their wants will increase as the educa-
ton in that line goes on, and you will
find that same little store meeting the
city competition. growing continually
in its business, carrying two or three
times as much stock, and earning two
or three times as much profit"
! When rural delivery was first pro-
jected. one of its advertised merits was
that it would save 4 great part of its
Ecost by superseding star routes and un-
necessary post offices. It has not as ye.
succeeded in doing either of these things
to the expected extent. But il has re-
duced the emolumentS of some unfor-
tunate PoStmaSterS not connected with
its operations, and it has frightened
others into condition of wrath and
apprehension, which finds inadequate
but grateful expression in emphatic
anathema. The only authentic case OF
the evolution of n quadruped from a
reptile is probably found in the trans
formation of the alligator into al
dachshund. One reliable instance of a
dismantled Postmaster being trans
formed into a rural delivery enthusiast
remains to be reported.
Other Grievances.
A Postmaster who has been omitted
in the location of routes writes: Great
Scott! Are we to have Postmasters'