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


/ their claims to salary by their schol-
arship.
Another candidate. evidently of for
eign birth and unsteady as TO his
idioms. being required to write a brief
essay Oh his co-laborer. the horse
achieved the following: The horse Is
very ancient and noble quadruped:
but when he is angry he will not do
so. He is ridden on the spinal cord by
the bride and sadly. He has q long
| mouth. and his head is attached TO the
trunk by long proJuberance called a
neck. lie 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 ut 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 q rural carrier In In
diana that her husband had left her
| four years previously, asked that he
him. especially the concluding appeal
| to his love and vanity: You would
| shed tears II you onley could sec wat
| smart peart little boy you have hear
what sham 1t Is to think that A
| sensible man should leave 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 I have ever seen
| In any ones head he has and eye like
| q hawk"
! A man sent by the carrier to store
! h. 1t
| der: Deer ST. Please send me pare no.
s sheers and some gloves like on page
rs catlog Send rite away for I need
| them. They Amt no stores here and
make the gloves small for lady hand
black will be rite. James Tussaday."
The chagrin and disappointment Of
the unsuccessful candidates are mild
| in comparison with the woes OF other
DIRECTORS. Country storekeepers have
| q dual grievance. III the first place, the
! rural carriers are too often competi-
| tors for the trade OF the farmers. In
for correspondence inure to the benefit
| OF city department stores.
Competition With Country stores.
One storekeeper in Iowa, where the
rural routes are SO thick that a map
OF them makes the State look like a
! 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, containing
! everything that would likely be needed
| in q farm house on short notice. Some
| times he even forgets to take the mail
bag along, he's SO busy" the storekeep-
| er complained. land I am thinking
a AntJ fr,4o
getting a 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: 'In some
parts of the country the rural carriers
are making quite howl on account Of
| the small pay.
I'm other parts of the country the
| carriers are using automobiles instead
| OF horse and buggy.
There is niger in the woodpile,
| and the debauchery 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 a huge
joke. 1t is conceived by the mail order
| people. enacted into existence Cts no
law by these people. and the whole
| Postal Department is now run in their
interests where at all feasible.
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 1t 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 muc!:
mistaken. l was raised in small
town and in country store. My father
was 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 %
| miles away, that 1t was running their
trade. 1 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
oilities 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. l 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
ty with little store doing a business of
only few thousand dollars a year,
and that community is brought by inn
proved roads or transportation facili-
ties in touch with great city it will
educate the people Of the smaller COM
munity to a 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
III It's 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 it's advertised merits was
that 1T would save great part OF its
cost by superseding star routes and un-
necessary post offices. 1t has not as yet
succeeded in doing either Of these things
to the expected extent. But it has re-
duced the emoluInents 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 q quadruped from a
reptile is probably found in the trans
formation of the alligator into a
1r<.t .a.t~r 4 H. - -