The Washington herald., 1909-08-15
GEORGIA IS PIONEER
First State in South to Get
Rural Free Delivery.
PEOPLE APPRECIATED BOON
Initial Route Established in Decem-
ber, IS96-Stnte Now Practically
Covered with 1884 Routes-service
Organized on New Basis In
ThIrty-two Counties.

Through inquiries made al the Post
Office Department respecting tho rural
delivery service in the State Of Georgia.
it was asce-tained that the first rural
route in that State was established out OF
the post-oHice at Quitman. December S,
1896. The salary OF the carrier being fixed
.at 500 per annum.
No other service was provided in the
State until the fiscal year 1S9S-99. 70 De-
cember .. 1901. about one and one-half
years. the number Of routes IN the State
increased 20 l43 and. IN October. 1892,
they had increased 20 80 routes. with
petitions pending for so additional routes.
being twice as many pending petitions,
with one exception, as from any other
Southern State.
Tn 1904 the number o. rural routes in
the State had grown 20 1ls4. and in 1895
90 1881. when the demand for the extern
sion Of the service began 10 decrease by
reason Of the fact that a large portion Of
the territory had been covered on
August Z. 1909. there were in operation in
Georgia 1884 rural routes forty-five of
which were tr.-weekiy. and there are
pending ffty-nine petitions for additional
service.
A recent adjustment OF rural delivery
IN a large county in Georgia enabled the
department 10 eliminate four routes. ef-
fecting an annual saving Of S3.222 and az
the same time extending service to go
additional families, thereby serving tia
entire rural population OF the county, a
total OF 1873 souls. and bringing the
routes 20 within one-Quarter OF a mile
or closer 10 the majority Of the patrons
While some Of the Southern States were
slow TO recognize the advantages Of
rural delivery, this cannot be said Of
Georgia. for IL is a matter Of record that
long before there were as many as half
a dozen applications for the service pre-
sented from some of the neighbOrinE
States, there were in operation n Georgia
several hundred routes and petitions
pending for as many more
When the people OF some Of the other
States awakened 70 the advantages Of
rural delivery which they seemed 10 do
all ar once. petitions for the service came
pouring in from them by the thousands
and they became clamorous and insist
ent that they be supplied with the serv-
ice Immediately going so far as 10 de-
clare they We're being Disseminated
against I'm favor of other States.
Petitions Investigated In Order.
In the early days of rural delivery it
was the policy OF the department to in
vestlgate petitions for the service in the
order Of their fling. and the reason that
so many routes were put into operation
| IN Georgia and other States was the fore
/ sight Of the people IN those States in
promptly presenting their petitions
Rural carriers in Georgia travel daily
except Sundays and holidays. nearly 0OCO
miles Of highway. and serve about 63n 000
rural residents. Since the establishment
Of the first route in the State extension
and maintenance Of the service in Geor-
gia has cost the government about Sc
| 100000. the present annual rate of cost
being a little more than S1.5o00C0.