The National tribune., 1906-03-29

| lie was dreamed OF, the peoples malls
| have been intrusted to its care. And.
indeed, at one time 1t was the principal
agency Of transportation, although not
| then bearing this special designation.
A star route Is post route on which
| the mails are carried under q contract
| awarded to the lowest bidder rendering
| sufficient guarantees of performing his
| duties faithfully. No other reference
| is made to the manner in which the
| mails should be carried under this con-
| tract than that they shall be carried
with certainty. celebrity and security"
! Prior to 1S45 1t was the practice of
| the Department to prefer bidders who
| proposed stage or coach service. Con-
| gress in 1916 abolished this, and pro-
| vided that 1t should be the duty OF the
Postmaster-General to provide for the
carrying OF the mails by these routes
with certainty. celebrity and security"
They may be transported by coach or
| horseback or otherwise, at the con-
| tractors option.
Bids for such service were thereafter
| classified as Certainty, celebrity and Sc
| curity' bids, from the Distinguishing
words of the statute. and the clerks Of
the Contract Division, presumably to
avoid writing out the words on the
| books of the Office, soon began to des-
| iGnate them on the route registers by
| three asterisks, or stars. They thus
became known as star bids" or 'star
IOulSS. DIS tHeS dFc hllOWn lO.CaS.
| People who have not the slightest
idea what the phrase means speak with
| glibness of star routes" and wonder
| where the next one will be put in OPP
Grafton, and whether its installation
Will mark the fall of post office Or IL
rural free delivery will soon super
| sede both. II Is the fear of the latter
contingency which has led. through
| jealousies inside the Department and
| business rivairies in the country-at-
| large, TO that irrepressible warfare be-
| tween the systems which causes many
| ludicrous and some tragic postal cpl
sodes.
Beginning Of Rural Free Delivery.
| The star route, hoary with years and
| in the complacent enjoyment of q
| splendid record despite a few sporadic
scandals, looked upon rural delivery as
an interloper. with some Of the aspects
| of a discredited parvcnu. The latter
was indeed all unWelcOmed progeny.
| In 1891 Congress appropriated $4,000
for rural delivery in the United States.
| The next year 1t appropriated $4,000
| more. and the third year Superintend-
ent Machen wrote some letters to the
| Postmasters about it. He got few
| replies, and one fell into the hands of
Postmaster-General Bissell. He sent
| for Machen, and said TO him: Don't
! write letter on that subject to any
| He said people in the United States
would rather go down to the post Office
after their mail than have it brought
| to thera.
But the rising tide could not be swept
back with Bisselrs broom. A Repub-
| lican Administration, with progressive
| ideas, came in and quickly reversed his
| policy. Machen, notwithstanding his
subsequent undoing, will always be
| credited with the marvellous develop
| ment OF the rural delivery system, since
| he retained Office under Mckinley and
| vigorously pushed the work.
When the new service began to be
popular the star-route contractors and
| their friends In the Department con-
| ceived brilliant plan for forestalling
| 1t. This consisted in encouraging the
| old horse-mail and coach-mail con-
| tractors to carry separate punches OF
! letters and papers, outside the locked
| pouches. from the post Offices to such
| farmers en- route as would provide re-
| ceptaclcs therefor. There was no law
authorizing this accommodation; neith-
| err was there any law against it. 1t
was put into effect by mutual consent.
and grew into enormous magnitude, in
| the aggregate.
A Merry War Inaugurated.
Merry war was thus inaugurated be-
| tween two rival Bureaus in the Post
Office Department in Washington: the
one exploiting rural free delivery with
zeal and energy; the other expanding
| the ancient mail service in directions
| never before dreamed OF The star
| route delivery was reasonably efficient,
and was far less expensive than the
| new system, since only small addition
| to the regular cost of transporting the
| mails was involved. But 1t was soon
found that this would not meet the
requirements of general farm SER
md 11f Ioc
in many regions not yet supplied with
genuine rural routes. 1t has not grown
in magnitude to compare with that in
novatiOn.
Nevertheless. the star-route jealousy
and antagonism has been charged with
suggesting many Of the objections
| which rural free delivery has encoun-
tered from various sources-some of
them wholly unexpected, if not imag-
mary. Among those who have BEEN
inspired to register vOcifeTous COM
plants are defeated candidates for car
rier and their Congressional hackers:
the Postmasters whose offices are wiped
out country merchants who lose trade
to the mail-order houses, and farmers
not directly on the rural routes.
The "spoiis system" is not entirely
tencts, Congressman still occasionally
press for the appointment of constitu-
ents on the carrier force. They are
| angry when they fail. and their de-
feated candidates are still more angry.
A Representative from the Sunf1ower
Commonwealth recently wrote this to
The Postmaster General: I'm the mat
| ter OF public service the noble Roose-
welt has excited in Kansas a desire for
emulation that battles the man behind
the typewriter for words to describe
The fever for serving the Government
flowing eastward from Kansas will
prove dangerous unless it meets a wave
OF opportunity flowing westward from
Washington. Jack is a young man who
seeks an humble share in the glory OF
the Administration. He does not want
to go to ST James. nor to the Philip
pines, nor to Panama to pull his weight
of the burden of National service. He
is too good a kansan for that. Topeka
and Wichita have more attractions for
him than the ivy-mantled towers of
London, the cathedral domes of Manila
OF the palm shades of the Isthmus. He
deems it better to carry the mail over
a rural route and more romantic to
steal ali occasional kiss from one OF.
the rustic, corn-fed maids Of bleeding
Kansas than to find glory in swimming
the Bag Bag and dying by the yellow
fever route for his country"