, 1923-02-04

T~wenty.six years ago the farmers
Of this country with their wives and
children led an existence OF almost
complete isolation. They dwellcd
upon widely-scattered farms. the soil
Of which they titled. some OF them
miles distant from each other. EX-
cept for n periodical trip to the near
est town in their locality every week
they had little or no communication
with their neighbors nor the outside
world. They received no mail except
that which they got. themselves. by
going to the cares post office at in
frequent intervals and they read
weekly farming journals Intermittent
~. They were detached. lonely and
SOLITARY.
Today the American farmer may
know everything that happens not
only in the immediate ne~ighborhood
of his farm. but he is in constant con
tact with the public affairs of the en-
etire nation as well as the other ma
tons Of the world. A mail carrier
passes his farm every day. He deliv-
ers at his front door, or within a few
hundred yards of his front door. his
f~avorite metropolitan daily newspaper
on the very date OF its publication. He
leaves also personal letters for the
farmer and the members of his fam
lily and business letters from the mer-
chant in the nearby town or from the
produce and grain dealers in the
city to whom he sells the products Of
his farm. The rural route carrier
brings parcel post packages. He sells
the farmer stamps and money orders.
collects mail and takes 1t to the post
office to be dispatched to its destin-
alton within the short space of a few
hours. He is the medium that has
transformed the isolated and seclud-
ed Inhabitants of the rura districts
of the United States into up-to-date
and cosmopolitan citizenI alive to the
current topics OF the day and equip
ped to play their proper role in the
destinies of n great republic.
The post office department made
its first experiment in rural delivery
service in 1896 on three routes sim
~ultaneously in West Virginia. Nine
months after the establishment of
these initial routes. the service was
broadened to So routes leading out of
40 post offices in % different states.
Immediately the amazing possibilities
were realized n the post Office de-
partment began at once the extension
of the service annually until now
there are 44,1S6 rural routes supply
ing mail to approximately 6,425.77O
families or 29,742, SAG individuals. Not
a single post office of Importance in
any state of the union is without its
rural routes running out in every di-
rection and serving the farmsrp ,th
their daily mail. In the year 1897,
the annual pay roll of rural route car
riers amounted to the Insignificant
sum of Sl4,S4O. Last year the post
office department paid It's rural route
carriers the huge total sum of SSH
3l5, 96I. The distance covered by
these routcs was 1.1SO.44S and the
carriers Travelled during the year the
distance of 357 ,254 1866 miles.
The present administration of the
postal service from its very inception
has left no step untaken in extend
ing the beneficences of rural mai de
livery to the farming population
throughout the country. During the
last year 434 new rural routes were
established. This resulted in the
delivery of mail daily to approximate
" G., $3.50 families or to more than
254, $50 individual residents OF the
farming districts. In addition, i'm
proved facilities were accorded to
some $500 families by the lengthing
and readjustment of 1896 existing
rural routes and about $3.50 families
were provided with additional service
on 1856 routes which were increased
from t~ri-woeklys to daily delivery.
These changes have had a direct eff
feet of giving every modern postal
convenience to nearly $50, 900 families
or TO more than 6S4. 900 persons living
in agricultural sections.
But the delivery OF mail daily to the
farmers that has resulted in this
miraculous change in their monoton-
Gus existence is not the only thing
the post office department has done
for them. In many sections OF the
country tho farming districts are
lacking in transportation and rail
road facilities and into this situation
the governments postal service has
stepped to supply these deficiencies.
Star routes have been inauguratcd
going into these territories with the
result that n daily service by horse.
drawn or motor.vehicle carries letters.
parcel post packages and daily news
papers to them regularly from the
outside world. Last year there were
1918 of these star mail routes in
volving ravel a%ggregating SO, 2OS $50
miles.