The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-14
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER
."1Bv oulr stan correspondent.) 5


 Washing ngton. May 13-Repr esentativs Warren Worth Bailey of PennsyIvania has introduced a bill providing for the extension of the free delivery mali service to all towns in the United States with population exceeding 1,O60 which are not entitled under existing laws to such delivery The bill carries with it an appropriation of ten millions of dollars, to become7 immed lately available On the passage of the act.
 Mir Bailey takes the ground that the present postal service is anomalous. in that while residents Of the cities ana |of the rural districts are given free delivery service, residents of some thing over 5000 communities with an average population of 5000 are celn-3 pelIed to visit the post offices to de- posit or to receive mall He believes that this is an injustice to the resi- dents Of towns and villages and he proposes by his bill to cure this.
 City delivery service is now in op- eratior in 17O9 towns and cities, serv- ling approximately a population of forty-severa millions at a cost of thir-s weight millions. Experimental sv1I- lage delivery is in operation in 14 Communities at g cost of ninety thous-i and. Officials of the post office de- partrne ent estimate that there are . GOA communities with ah average pop ulation Of 2,000, where there is no car- rier delivery service. Estimating that 1t would require an average of two carriers at $500 per ann un to serve each of these communities, should de livery service be established, the cost would be $7, 924. 800 per annum.
 2..I do not mind admitting that have a double motive in proposing this bill,'' said MT. Bailey. Prin1artily, of course, | want to equalize the benefits of the mail service. believe that. patrons of the post offices in town and. kv11lages are as fully entitled to the best facilities which tn service can afford as patrons of the post offices in the cities and the rural districts. There is no function of the government more important to the welfare of the people than that of the post offce, facilitat- ing communication and making for freedom of exchange. This Is the first consideration, but there Is sec ond consid eration, hardly less lmpor- tant. If ten millions of the available revenue be appropriated for bringing the postal service closer to some mill lions of our people, that amount will not be available for wastefl expen- allure on warships and Notifications, |on big guns and nilitaristic exploita- tion I have called frequent attention to the pledge Of economy which the. Democrats made in their Baltimore platform and I am not forgetting that. pled ge now am not an advocate  pairing, as far as Hhe next from wish ing to pair any of the seryiceable activities of the government. except as they may trench upon the rights and duties of the states. am there. fore quite consistent in the proposf- ton to increase the efficiency of the. postal service, especially as believe that this increased efficfency will result ultimately, if not at once, in cor responding increase in the postal rev enue. Certainly the extension of free delivery to the country districts has greatly augmented the postal revenue from those districts: and no one will question that free delivery service has enormously stimulated the use of the mails by the residents of our cities. That, the same facilities extended to the towns and villages of the country will have a like effect is hardly to be doubted
 It is the intention of MT. Bailey to make every effort to have this bill favorably reported and he believes that the residents of towns and vil- lages all over the United States will take an interest in his proposition and lend him their. support