The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-09-06
$3S5.34
 $512.S4

Average team expense $3S5. 34 Average salary per carrier S512.2 BIfty-dve carriers use no
 horses and two motorcycles
 Average miles travelled 9 2-10 Average time on route 6 hours Average time routing mail 5-10 hours Average time in care of
 teams 2 1-10 hours Average time occupied g 6-10 hours Average cancellation of mail $3S7. .00 Average rate of stamps $340 co Average years of service 3-4
 MT. Woodruff said that May, the month in which the government takes a record of the business done by the rural carriers. is the lightest month Of the year, and his statement was con- cured in by other members. James IL. Cowles asked why this was so. Mr. Woodruff explained that in April the farmers do considerable writing and In May they are busy with the farm work and he said that the rush of peo- pie to the country towns in the sum- mer, makes business for the rural car riers
 President O'Keefe thought that the average expense given in the statis- ticad information for the care of a team was too low. He believed that a man could not give proper attention to his team at such a low expense Mr. Cowles asked if the association had any record as to the amount of merchandise that the carriers han dled. It was said that there was such a report given at the last meet Ing, but the figures were not at hand yesterday.
 MT. Cowles then wanted to know if the carriers could give him any i'm Formation as to the amount they could carry in weight. if they were paid for it. without particularly in- terfering with the service He said that the returns to the post office de tpartment showed-athat the average weight the carriers had to handle was twenty-five pounds. Mr. Cowles said that he maintained that the govern ment could get O,OOO, 900 more annu- ally out of the postal service than it now gets.
 Harlan P. Rugg of Bridgeport thought that 500 pounds, a weight to be carried as suggested by MT. Cowles, was too much. If the parcels post, which had been suggested by Mir. Cowles, was adopted, he thought the maximum weight should be limited to from 100 to 200 pounds and that the carriers could handle it without any special disadvantage. James H. Mur- phy of Danbury told of the rigs which some of the carriers have. If they had to carry merchandise that weigh ed 800 pounds, it would be necessary for many of them to get new wagons and heavier horses. Mr. Cowles didn't disagree but held that the car riers could afford to get new wag- ons and heavier horses, if they were paid more than they now receive
 Edward P. Lyman of Columbia said that 1t would ruin the service to load the wagons with packages weighing 100 pounds or more, but, if the pack age were limited in weight to ten or twelve pounds he thought the carriers could manage. c. W. Barber of New Britain had no doubt that the car riers could handle the parcels post satisfactorily, if the same limitations were placed on the work as are plac- ed on the work of the carriers in the cities
 MT. Cowles was then called on to ad- dress the meeting. He told how he became interested in the matter of public transportation and ltransmis- sion twenty-eight years ago, and of his activities along those lines since He spoke of postal enactments in Eng land, of what had been done in this country, and of what it had been attempted to do. Mr. Cowles gave his idea of what he thought the gov ernment should do through the post office department in the rural service He said that, since the beginning of the world, no men have been engag- ed in grander, more beautiful, or more uplifting service than the rural mail carriers
 Congressman Reilly expressed the pleasure which it gave him to attend the meeting and to accept the invita- ton of the president of the associa- ton to be present. He said that many were of the opinion that the plan which MT. Cowles had outlined was vtriOnary, but the congressman said