The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-07-19
Machine Unreliable For the
Rural Mail Route
GROWTH OF THE SERVICE
More Than Ten Thousand Fourth Class
POstOffices Abolished Since 1t
Was Established.

Washington, July l6.-Automobiles
are tabooed by the postoffice depart,
ment as vehicles for carrying mail on
rural routes.
IF the machines could be depended
upon in all sorts of weather and on all
kinds of roads there would be no objec-
ton to their USE" Superintendent Spill
man of the rural delivery bureau said,
"but they can't When a carrier starts
out in an auto he doesn't know when he
will get back. He may make the route
i'm couple of hours if he meets with no
accident. and then again he may not get
back until the next day. Autos are not
vet reliable enough for the rural carrier
service"
Among the $4,000 rural carriers of
the country perhaps fifty use autos. The
complaints that come from patrons OF
those fifty routes have done much to
queer the auto with the department
Farmers complain that they receive
their mail irregularly and that the ma
chimes scare their horses. The govern
ment is great stickler for regularity
in the delivery and collection of rural
mail. 1t wants the carriers to reach a
certain point about the same hour each
day. Those who use automobiles have
been notified that irregularity in the
time of delivery must cease and if nee
essary the autos must be abandoned
and horses and wagons substituted.
Zone of the things that popularizes
the rural service" Mr.. Spillman said, lis
the regularity of the collection and de-
livery of mail. The farmer knows the
exact minute almost when the carrier
will reach his place and he can handle
his correspondence accordingly. On
hundreds of routes, SO regular are. the
carriers. that the farmers set their
watches by them. But it is the faith
full horse and not the autos that are
used on those routes"
No matter how hard the rural deliv-
cry officials study to please, they find
it impossible to popularize the service
i'm some localities. In certain places set
tied by foreigners there is no enthusi-
asm over the benefits of the rural serv-
ice. In fact the people there don't care
whether or not the carrier comes. As
strange as it may seem there is abso-
lutelv hostility to the service in many
places in Pennsylvania. 1t is not con-
fined to the foreign element, either, but
to the Quakers and the Dutch, whose
ancestors came to that state with Will
lam Penn. The people there do not want
to destroy the tradition of going to the
postoffice in the little village every
Saturday. Many of them still want an
excuse to get into town once a week
and whittle and settle national pOlitf
cak problems with the dry goods box
loafers. SO they doggedly decline to use
the rural service.
When the rural service first was tes-
tablshed the department took it for
granted that everybody on route
would use it, and no promises were ex-
acted. But later it was found that
many did not use it, so the policy was
adopted of requiring people to make a
promise in writing that they would use
the service before route was establish
ed. Unless enough promises are secured
OH IL pIOJtCtSu IoutC ~ JuSoiiN ehS "
Establishment of route it is not estab-
lished During the last few months in
spectors have been going over the old
routes established before the promise
was exacted. Where enough people do
not make promises on these original
routes the routes are abolished.
sWe are anxious for everybody on
our routes to use them," Mr.. Spillman
said, 'but when we find the people
different or even hostile we discontinue
the routes. We do not wish to push the
service on unwilling people"
More than 10000 fourth-class post
offices have been abolished since the
rural service was established. In 1901
there were 1886 postoffices in this
country. Now there are only 65,62l.