Rural free delivery

“ It is unhealthy and undesirable for the cities to grow at the expense of the country; and rural free-delivery is not only a good thing in itself, but is good because it is one of the causes which check this unwholesome tendency toward the urban concentration of our population at the expense of the country districts. It is for the same reason that we sympathize with and approve of the policy of building good roads. ”

“ The rural free-delivery service has been steadily extended. The attention of the Congress is asked to the question of the compensation of the letter carriers and clerks engaged in the postal service, especially on the new rural free-delivery routes. More routes have been installed since the first of July last than in any like period in the Department’s history. While a due regard to economy must be kept in mind in the establishment of new routes, yet the extension of the rural free-delivery system must be continued, for reasons of sound public policy. ”

“ As it is, can we expect to make parcels post in this country a profitable scheme? With an average haul of 540 miles to a population of but 23 to the mile, is it possible to carry goods at less than 3c per pound at a profit, if it cannot be done in those thickly settled countries at a much higher rate?
If it cannot be done at a profit, why should the government undertake a scheme that will result in a loss? Rural free delivery is costing the country $28,000,000 more than it is getting for the service, and only about one half of the rural population is supplied with the service. ”

“ As we do not have many rural free-delivery routes in our sparsely settled intermountain country, I am of the opinion that a rural parcels post, if established, should also operate over the star routes which supply our country offices and our people in boxes en route, and therefore the bill which I introduced provides for such a service. ”

“ Our government reasons that if it is made more practicable for rural free delivery routes to become shipping lines between their own termini, everybody depending for income and outgo on such routes will profit by this enlarged service. On the contrary, the American League of Associations holds that everybody will eventually suffer. ”

“ With all these results clearly indicated by the experiment as thus far tried, rural free delivery is plainly here to stay. It cannot be abandoned where it has been established, and cannot be maintained without being extended. ”

“ The expense of free delivery for the current fiscal year will be more than $12,300,000, and under existing legislation this item of expenditure is subject to constant increase. The estimated cost of rural free delivery generally is so very large that it ought not to be considered in the present condition of affairs. ”

“ At a farmers' institute in Ohio, an enlightened farmer once remarked that the three things that had done most for the amelioration of the lot of the farmer's wife were, rural free delivery, rural telephones and Butterick patterns, and to that trilogy we add rural free delivery of books. ”

“ The social or community life of the country should be put by the farmer—for no one but himself can do it for him—on the same basis as social life in the city, through the country churches and societies, through better roads, country telephones, rural free delivery, parcels post, and whatever else will help. The problem is not merely to get better crops, not merely to dispose of crops better, but in the last analysis to have happier and richer lives of men and women on the farm. ”

“ Rural free-delivery, taken in connection with the telephone, the bicycle, and the trolley, accomplishes much toward lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more attractive. In the immediate past the lack of just such facilities as these has driven many of the more active and restless young men and women from the farms to the cities; for they rebelled at loneliness and lack of mental companionship. ”

“ The law expressly provides for ‘rural communities,’ and it seems to me where the general laws make such provision there is no hardship in taking a small amount from this appropriation, only $10,000, and appropriating it for experimental free delivery in absolutely rural communities, that is to say, in the country pure and simple, among the farmers, in those neighborhoods where they do not get their mail more than once in every two weeks, and where these deserving people have settled in communities one hundred years old and do not receive a newspaper that is not two weeks behind the times. ”

“ Reacting favorably, in broadening the mission of the co-operative farm-village, with its promise of permanent homes, and employment for the unemployed, and the homeless; the continuous construction of these free avenues of travel and transportation, will soon affect the status of all rural populations, by vastly increasing their wealth and power. For them, the vexed problem of transportation, will be solved. ”

“ The rural parcels post would certainly be not alone advantageous to the twelve or fifteen millions of people residing in agricultural districts, who are now served by more than 38,000 rural carriers, but would be of great value to the live merchants in the smaller towns who at a minimum of expense could utilize the rural service for the delivery of goods to their patrons in the country. ”

“ While such complete service is the logical conclusion of all rural delivery effort and may be expected to engage public attention in the near future, as it is the only means left by which the thousands of people now deprived of such benefits can be reached and accommodated, such a tremendous advance must be seriously considered before any definite steps can be taken, but rural delivery will never reach the point of greatest usefulness until this country-wide extension is an accomplished fact and people everywhere are permitted to equally enjoy the benefit which it confers. ”

“ Only ten per cent. Ninety per cent goes to the direct or indirect benefit of those living in our cities. Where does the government build its fine buildings, where does it spend its millions on rivers and harbors? How much does it expend to ease this burden of six hundred millions which lies so largely on the farmers of America? A few years ago a law was passed granting $50,000 to investigate a plan to deliver mail on rural delivery routes to our farmers and country residents. ”

“ If this market wagon can also serve to carry the daily mail for all the neighborhood, the problem of rural delivery would be almost solved with a trifling expense. Even where such a measure is not possible, neighboring farmers may approach such results by combining for market and mail days in a circle, each taking a different day of the week when he will do his neighbor's errands. ”

“ Improved roads meant improved markets, and increased contact with outside communities but, along with the advent of the radio, they resulted in a homogenizing of city and country ways, and lured many away from the farm. Concern for rural welfare prompted all levels of government to design programs to aid the farmer—programs which indeed furthered agriculture, but at the price of well-meaning interference in a previously highly individual sphere. ”

“ Is it because of a paternal feeling our federal government has for the poor, benighted farmers of the country? I can scarcely believe it is. The farmers of this country are neither poor nor are they benighted. If they were, free carriage and distribution to them of these local sheets has not enriched them to any appreciable extent, however much such free carriage and delivery may have added [213] to the bank accounts of the publishers of such periodical literature. Besides, ninety-five in every hundred farmers whose names are on the publishers’ subscription books pay their subscriptions. ”

“ A large majority of the 25,000,000 persons served by the rural postal delivery are still without express service. There is still little opportunity for the direct transmission of foodstuffs from the producer to the consumer which at the present time presents the most hopeful method of attacking the soaring cost of food. ”

“ Taking his estimate of saving to each family along a route and allowing for six families for each mile, three on each side of the road, and there being 1,037,259 miles of rural delivery roads in the United States, it can be seen what an aggregate wonderful saving this has made, not counting the property, personal and educational value of such a service to the people.
It will be seen that by this showing that the saving to the patrons of 1 mile of rural delivery service ($1,350) will more than pay what it costs the Government for a 24-mile route at a rate of $1,200 per annum. ”

“ From the sowing of crops to the purchasing of food and fiber in urban supermarkets, a network of farmers, agribusiness industries, carriers and shippers, scientists, retail distributors, and consumers has cooperated to ensure that our food supply is safe, affordable, and nutritious. As we gather with family and friends during this special week, let us give thanks for the blessings of our lives, for America's agricultural richness, and for the collaboration among rural and urban communities that makes so much of this bounty possible. ”

“ And quite as important as these considerations is the effect which good or bad farming must have upon the cost of living to the whole population. Excessive middle profits between producer and consumer may largely account for the very serious rise in the price of staple articles of food. This is a fact of the utmost significance, but, as I shall show later, the remedy for too high a cost of production and distribution lies with the farmer, the improvement of whose business methods will be seen to be the chief factor in the reform which the Rural Life movement must attempt to introduce. ”

“ Without treading upon controversial ground or considering whether this trend has been increased by legislation hostile to the farm, it will be admitted that the government is in duty bound to guard jealously the interests of the rural population, and, as far as it can, make farm life inviting. In the employment of modern conveniences the city has considerably outstripped the country, and naturally so, for in a densely populated community the people can by coöperation supply themselves with water, light, and rapid transit at much smaller cost than they can in a sparsely settled country. ”

“ During this second period, another economic development produced upon the attitude of the urban mind towards the rural population an effect to which, I think, has not been given the consideration it deserves. Better and cheaper transportation, with the consequent establishment of what the economists call the world-market, completely changed the relationship between the townsman and the farmer. A sketch of their former mutual relations will make my meaning clear. Within the last century every town relied largely for its food supply on the produce of the fields around its walls. ”

“ The fact that these agencies must be located where they can serve the largest number of people, determines their location at the community centers and they are thus a large factor in unifying the community.
Modern transportation has abolished the isolation of the farm and new means of communication have freed the spirit of the farmer and brought the world to his doors. Together they make possible so many satisfactions heretofore only available to the cities, as to quite revolutionize the whole aspect of rural life. ”

“ The small farm unit, usually from five to twenty-five acres, brings neighbors close together, abolishing loneliness and most of the social ills of farm life in the East. Beautiful irrigated villages are springing up which rival in comfort and privilege most places on earth, and combine both city and country privileges, where rural and urban meet. The spirit of cooperation is strong in irrigated communities, enforced by the common dependence upon the common enterprise and water supply. ”

“ Low telephone rates and good interurban car lines will put the woman on the farm in close touch with her neighbors, and so will stimulate her interest in outside affairs. Healthy community life and rural amusements will keep the young people content at home and help prevent the drift toward the city. The farmer’s produce is handled by city shops and markets, and the manufactured articles of city factories go into the homes of every rural district. ”

“ They are not signs of poverty, but of a developing thrift, just as the abandoned country woolen mills tell the story of immense growth in the factory methods. While individuals seeking profit in sale or rent of their farms may suffer in any such shrinkage of local values, it must not be forgotten that the total of rural welfare is not necessarily diminished. Land values, aside from improvements, [pg 304] are everywhere evidence of limitations to welfare in some special direction. If human enterprise and invention and thrift lessen such limitations, the world is better off. ”

“ The public craze for land makes it easy for promoters to do their work. Many farmers, dominated by a spirit of consideration for their children, accept the “spiel” and assurance of the “dopster,” sell in agricultural regions and move onto nearly worthless land, believing that it will become about like the old home place in time, and that each child will then have a farm and home. May we not say that he who deceives a family in this way is a mean man? (Applause.) Can you think of a worse service to a community? Certain railroads are not free from blame in that they promote this traffic. ”

“ Our food supply depends upon the farmers who plant their crops and through hard work, faith, and patience, bring in a golden harvest. But it also depends on many people who live in towns and cities. It relies on those who provide farm equipment and production supplies for farmers, as well as on the processors who prepare the products for delivery throughout the Nation by a dependable network of transportation. ”