Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1937-12-02

The unpretentious mail box on its
post by the side of the road symbo-
Lies the romance of letter writing.
Ever since frontier days letters have
been wings of American civilization
and the voice of it's progress. Letters
have helped build good citizenship.
They have stimulated national good
will. They have experienced every
method of travel from pony express
and stage coach to streamlined train
and plane. Ever since the first white
settlements were established on the
shores of the New World, letters have
been dependent on roads to carry
them to their destinations.
The roadside mail box is likewise
a symbol of the unselfish service of
900 rural letter carriers who daily
travel, rain or shine, over 100000
miles of the highways and byways of
rural America, serving $780, 900 fam
lilies and carrying the mail to more
than 25,000,OO0 expectant individuals.
had the happy privilege of adj
dressing the recent 34th annual con-
vention of the National Rural Letter
Carriers Association in New Orleans.
The emblem of this splendid organiza-
ton Incorporates the horse and buggy
and indicates the necessity of roads to
the job of carrying the mail. The enc
blem does not, however, Indicate the
willingness of the letter carriers Of
today to put up with the horse-and-
buggy roads of yesterday. Horse-and-
buggy roads are things of the past in
America and the 15-mile-an-hour high
way of few years ago has been OUT
NODDED. The delivery of rural mail to-
day is mechanical and speedier SER
vice. A familiar trail was sufficient to
the needs of the pony express rider
of pioneer days, but the rural letter
carrier today drives motor vehicle
and all-weather roads, therefore, be-
come necessary to the proper delivery
of mail in any kind of weather. There
can be no excuse for conditions that
existed during the past few winters.
Rural carriers were compelled in
many places to go back to the horse
and buggy, to the use of sledges and
sometimes had to go on foot to get
the mail delivered.
The members of the National Rural
Letter Carriers Association are in
tensely interested in the improvement
of the roads on which they spend the
best part of their lives. They adopted
a resolution at their New Orleans
meeting favoring the earmarking of
at least rs per cent of all federal
highway money for the construction
and maintenance of rural route roads
that are not part of existing main or
secondary highways. These letter
carriers and the rural population
they daily serve are looking forward
to and should be granted the improve
ment of farm-to-market roads. While
these people know that some scattered
improvements have been made in
rural road conditions, they realize
that rural communities have received
fewer good-road benefits than any
other subdivision of our population.
News from the political, Industrial
and educational centers Of our civil
lvo%;ov, - ousaV,<ial - kho v,roo~aec ~
rural America. The farmer, the cross
roads merchant, the village teacher,
the small town preacher, lawyer and
doctor, all are vitality concerned with
city, state and national legislation;
with current questions of national and
international Importance. The rural
community inhabitant has keen de-
sire to keep in touch with the "out-
side" world. He has come to depend on
the rural free delivery and good roads
to bring him the information contain
ed within letters and the pages of his
community newspaper to keep him
posted on the progress of our great
country. Prices, too, are as vital to
him as to the broker in Wall Street.
The marketability and sales value OF
his produce determine his future pros
perity. Good roads are an absolute
necessity to the expansion Of daily
mail service to the rural communities
Good roads bring encouraging news
and rightful share of the nations
progress to even the most isolated
back-country spots. Our highways
have often been called the arteries Of
America. I Ike to think Of the rural