The National tribune., 1906-03-29
"certaiuty. Security and CeIerity."

early days of the Republic. nay. even
in the Colonial era, before the RepuD-
lie was dreamed of, the peoples malls
have been intrusted TO It's care. Aud.
indeed, at one ;i.nc it was the principal
agency Of transportation, although not
then bearing this special designation
A star route is 4 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 it was the practice of
the Department to prefer bidders who
proposed stage or coach service. Con-
gress in 1S45 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. celerity 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-
iEnate them on the route registers by
| three asterisks, or stars. They thus
became known as star bids" or star
routes" as they are known to-day.
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 op-
Grafton, and whether its installation
will mark the fall OF a post office or If
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 rivalries i'll the country-at-
large, 10 that irrepressible warfare be
tween the systems which causes many
ludicrous and some tragic postal cpl
sodes.
beginning cf Rural Free Delivery.
The star route, hoary with years and
/ in the complacent enjoyment of
splendid record, despite few sporadic
scandals, looked upon rural delivery as
an interloper, with some of the aspects
of discredited parvenu. The latter
was indeed an unwelcomcd progeny.
In 1891 Congress appropriated $4,000
for rural delivery in the United States.
| The next year it appropriated $1,000
more. and the third year Superintend-
ent Machen wrote some letters 10 the
Postmasters about it. He got q. few
replies. and one fell into the hands of
PoStmasterGene Bissell. He sent
for Machen, and said 10 him: Don't
write a letter on that subject to any
body again without word from me-
He said people in the United States
would rather go down TO the post Office
after their mail than have it brought
to theR.
But the rising tide could not be swept
back with Bissell's broom. A Repub
| lican Administration, with progressive
ideas, came in and quickly reversed his
! cfa hic
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-
ceiyed a brilliant plan for forestalling
| it. This consisted in encouraging the
old horse-mail and coachmail 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
! er was there any law against 1t. 1t
was put into effect by mutual consent.
| and grew into enormous magnitude, in
| the aggregate.
Merry War Innusurated.
| 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 a small addition
| TO the regular cost of transporting the
|
found that this would not meet the
| requirements of a general farm SER
| vice and, although it has been kept up
| in many regions not yet supplied with
genuine rural routes. it has not grown
| in magnitude to compare with that in
novation.
Nevertheless, the star-route jealousy
and antagonism has been charged with
! fomenting much of the discord and
| 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 backerS;
| 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 "spoils system is not entirely
| eradicated. In spite of Civil Service
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 Sunfiower
| Commonwealth recently wrote this to
| the Postmastcr-Ge General: 'In the mat
| ter of public service the noble Roose-
welt has excited in Kansas q 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 u young man who
seeks an humble share in the glory of
the Administration. He does not want
10 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
or the palm shades of the Isthmus. He
deems it better to carry the mail over
a rural route and more romantic to-
steal an 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"
Interesting Answers.
This is foWery and seductive. But