The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1907-07-18
RURAL MAIL DELIVERY
Some Interesting Statistics Re.
Iatiye to Mail Service in
Country Districts

A newspaper correspondent at Wash
ington, who recently had an interview
with Supt. Spillman OF the rural free
delivery division, writes an interesting
letter. He states that the department
has decided to do away with the use
> of automobiles by rural carriers as the
service is too irregular
'"If the machines could be depended
upon in all sorts of weather and on all
kinds of roads there would be no OBJ
lection to their use," Supt. Spillman
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 in a couple OF hours if he
meets with no accident, and then again
he may not get back until the next
day. Autos are not yet reliable enough
for tie rural carrier service.
"Among perhaps 81 900 rural carriers
of the country perhaps fifty use autos.
The complaints that come from
patrons of these fifty routes have done
much to queer the auto with the de-
partment. Farmers complain that
they receive their mail irregularly
and that the machines scare their
horses. The government 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 time each day. Those
who use automobiles have been
notified that irregularity in the time
of delivery must cease and if neces-
sary the autos must be abandoned
and horses and wagons substituted.
lone of the things that popularizes
the rural SERVICE" Mr.. Spillman said,
sis the regularity of the collection and
delivery of mail. The farmer knows
the exact minute almost when the car
rier will reach his place and he can
handle his correspondence accord
ingly. On hundreds OF routes, so
regular are the carriers that the farm
ers set their watches by them. But it
is the faithful 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
in some localities. In certain places
settled by foreigners there is no en-
thusiasm over the benefits of the rural
service. In TACT the people there don't
care whether or not the carrier comes.
AS strange as it may seem there is
absolutely hostility to the service in
many places in Pennsylvania. 1t is
mot confined to the foreign element,
either, but to the Quakers and the
Dutch, whose ancestors came to that
state with William Penn. The people
there do not want to destroy the tradi.
ton 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 white and
settle national political problems with
the dry goods box loafers. So they
doggedly decline to use the rural SER
vice.
When the rural service first was es-
tablished the department took it for
granted that everybody on a route
would use it, and no promises were
exacted. But later it was found that
many did not use it, so the policy was
adopted of requiring people to make
promise in writing that they would use
the service before route was estab-
lished. Unless enough promises are
secured on projected route to justify
the establishment OF route it is not
established. During the last few
months inspectors 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.
"We are anxious for everybody on
our routes to use them," Mr.. Spillman
said, shut when we find the people
indifferent or even hostile we discon-
tinue 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 we're 76,945 postoffices in this
country. Now there are only 65,621.