The Rural Free Delivery with its millions of patrons, of which over 650,000 were added within the past three years, tells the story of administrative accomplishment. The great success of rural delivery is peculiarly the farmers triumph. He is now on a par with his neighbor in the cities in all that enterprising postal service can give. Taken both together, the widely admitted success of the Parcel Post as well as the rural delivery, a chapter of achievement has been written of which the Department is justly proud and against which criticism can find no ground for righteous complaint.
But this is not all that this administration has done for the man in the country. The energetic application of the experimental legislation appropriating $500,000 for participation in the construction of improved highways has brought forth an additional appropriation of $75,000,000, which will be expended by the Federal Government, in cooperation with the States, for the improvement of roads over which mail delivery is performed, or on which it may be located hereafter. The Rural Credit and Good Roads bills are subjects of profound interest which even partisan prejudice cannot minimize or obscure. The tremendous advantage which these two great measures afford the farmer will be readily admitted and recognized when seen in practical operation. The need of such beneficent help has long been felt and these two bills should make the lot of the farmers much easier. They have been getting reasonably good prices for their products and are generally prosperous, but the fact remains that but few hold their land free of incumbrance. Complete ownership will now be possible. With federal aid to road construction and this new rural credits law, it should not be long until the greatest prosperity the country sections have ever known should be an accomplished fact.
Expediting the Mail on Star Routes
Attention is called elsewhere to the benefit of motor vehicle service in rural delivery, and it is now proposed to introduce this advantage in the star-route service as well. Until a short while ago there was no authority for any particular form of conveyance to be used in this connection. With the advent of automobiles and other motor vehicles, it became evident that great opportunities presented themselves by which the transportation of mails on this class of routes could be measurably expedited and during the present administration the law was so amended that the mode of transportation could be specified.
The demand of the day is for the rapid conveyance of mails in every direction and people are no longer satisfied to put up with the practices and methods of other days. That mails have been conveyed in this service with “due celerity, certainty and security” was not enough. Money is paid for service and the best that can be given is required. So it was decided to expedite star-route service. While there are a number of routes on which automobiles are now used in view of the provision of law as covered by the order of the Postmaster General, August 14, 1916, amending section No. 1424 to correspond with the law as amended, steps are now being taken in connection with the award of contracts for the four-year term beginning July 1, 1917, which includes the contract section from Maine to West Virginia, to require the use of motor vehicles wherever the importance of the route seemed to warrant and weather conditions would permit the use of such conveyance. One hundred and forty advertisements are now pending for such service in this contract section.
This is going to be a great accommodation for all routes where such service can be employed and will give the people the best mail facilities that can be devised. It will hasten the receipt and dispatch of mails by means of rural carrier connections, be of great advantage to the business men along such routes, expedite newspaper delivery and in many cases save twenty-four hours over the present method. Every effort will be made to introduce this more rapid service as quickly and widely as the laws will permit. If it is found to work well in this first contract section where it is to be tried, it will be extended to others in regular succession until the star-route service everywhere has the benefit of this improved means of communication.
Abraham Lincoln Postmaster in 1837
So much has been said and written about Abraham Lincoln that it would seem as if nothing new could be mentioned. In fact his history and biography are as well known to the school children as that of George Washington, but it is probably not generally known to the postmasters of the country that he was at one time in the postal service as a postmaster, and in a book devoted entirely to postal affairs it may be of interest to state the fact that this additional incident in his life and public career may be added to what is already known.