The Washington times., 1915-01-22
.DEFY|NG CONGRESS,
MAKES R. F. D. CUT
Burleson Decides to Save ST..
100000 Whether Permit.
ted to or Not. y
Continued from First Page.)


partment. All right give him 4 chance.
end that, and rHake a handsome profit
All he asked was the privilege OF
SPENDING less money.
80 he asked for SIS 10000 Tor the rural
The. House Committee on Postofficcs
and Postroads considered his recommen-
dation. solemnly and In detaif, thought
over the political pull Of the carriers.
and various 6ther things.
And then. instead OF reducing the
sIi,onnt VITO ss5.oooooo. Increased It to
|. Disgust? The stratum of It that over
spread the' department administrators
w VA pIi, thicker than lava over the remains
Congress couldn't and wouldn't per-
NIT q saving of $4,000. 900 at a time
when deficit Is appearing In every bud
get
Carriers "Hsd Too Much Pull"
The rural carriers had too much pull.
That Is the explanation frankly ad-
vanced at Capitol Hill, Just as frankly
understood and accepted everywhere
else.
So the House committee reported the
bill. and it Is now before the Senate
committee providing for $54, 7OO, 900 where
5000 900 was all the department asked.
Thus the matter stood when. on jan
uary the department issued an or
der Affecting the Postal Service" 1t
was printed In solid nonpariel, on a 1T
tie leaflet Nobody would read II unless
under sentence Of court: for how
could 1t possibly be interesting?
Well. 1t WAS. none the less!
For when it was investigated In de-
tall. 1t turned out to be an administra-
tive order which goes the full limit of
departmental authority. in the effort to
limit the constantly increasing expanse
OF the rural delivery service.
Route Must Be Ten Miles Long.
1t provides that hereafter no rural
route less than ten miles in length will
be considered, unless at least six fam
lilies to the mile are served.
Which practically means. no mors
short routes.
Also. 1t provides that people within q
| mile Of existing routes must use the
existing route rather than become pa.
tfons osnt;.ni OF a new one: except In very * ex
would be greatly to increase the diff
Guilty OF getting new routes.
| Again. 1t provides that a new route
must not be started until the entire
condition. This leaves u wide leewa,
for administrative discrimination.
! Next. 1t forbids, in effect, establish
ment of new routes with more thar
| tuIce SeIlSCeS u week.
Asnd. finally, among other onerou
regulations. 1t says that ROUTES oil
which for six consecutive months tn
mail collected and delivered has aver
aged less than seventy-five pieces pc
month per mile shall not be continued
unless they can be rearranged to com
! within these requirements.
Which means that, with this regula
ton strictly enforced, a lot Of route
now being served would be discon
| Nnh0dN, oln ~ a,
how many; but the rural carriers ar
considering the matter, and there i
alarm among them. and among a goo,
many Of their Congressional friends.
Economical Whether Or No.
Attention has only within few
days been attracted to the sweepinj
character of this new order. 1t seem
to represent the purpose Of the de
partment to be just as economical A
it can be. whether Congress will gran
permission or not!
IT is understood that this regulation
will lop off a considerable part of tn
expense of the rural delivery service
but 1t will do so by dint OF reducin
the service in the least populated dis
tricts. The department wanted to ef
rect the economy in another way, whic
Congress would not permit: so the ef
fort Is being made. apparently. to ef
rect 1t In such ways as are available
Some eople think 1t is pretty nearl
a dehnance by the department of tn
authority of Congress. The department
doesn't say a word.
| People who want to reduce the Gov
ernment deficit insist that II seventeel
million dollars could be saved and Con
gress refuses to let 1t be saved. ther
| is a screw loose.
The department is trying to save a
much as 1t can. whether Congress like
IT or not. And there is promise of som
| little row over its efforts.