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THE ATLANTA SEMT-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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The'Cost of Farm Marketing.
Kentucky’s State commissioner of agriculture,
Mr. J. W. Newman, recently made the interesting
estimate that the marketing of a farm product costs
more than its production. Of every dollar spent by
the consumer, he says, the producer receives only
thirty-five cents, the remainder being scattered
through a wasteful, inefficient system of distribution.
More direct and economical methods of exchange, he
shows, would reduce the price to the consumer at
least twenty-five per cent and at the same time in
crease the producer’s profit twenty-five per cent.
The basis of this contention is undoubtedly sound.
The high cost of distribution is a strong factor in
the high cost of food. A portion of this cost, to be
sure, is necessary and legitimate. There are in
stances aplenty where producers and consumers must
have some intermediary of exchange. The much
maligned middleman has a rightful and useful place
in economic affairs. But certainly there is no need
or excuse for the absorption of sixty-five per cent
of values in the process of carrying a commodity
from- the farm to the pantry.
As a remedy for this condition, Kentucky’s agri
cultural commissioner proposes a State marketing
bureau through which farmers will be kept con
stantly informed concerning the supply, the demand
and the prices at market centers and through which
truck growers and city buyers may be brought into
direct trade relations. His idea, which is parallel
to that of Senator Hoke Smith’s well known plan to
give farmers national aid of this character, has
aroused widespread interest. The New York Times
quotes his view that the parcel post has made it
possible to market, in an economical way, many farm
products from outlying districts. “Kentucky,” we
are told, "has large areas, ten, forty and even fifty
miles from a railroad, where butter, cheese, eggs,
poultry and entire hogs, when cut into hams, sides
of bacon, etc., could be marketed through parcel
post.” It seems necessary, however, that some'de
pendable, regular means of exchange first he pro
vided, so that the farmer may count upon customers
and the city buyers be sure of a supply. It is to
serve this need that the State market bureau is
proposed. /
This suggestion will undoubtedly bestir discussion
wherever the problem of food cost is studied, and, if
rightly applied, it should lead to wholesome results.
Judge Clements Reappointed.
It is a matter of keen satisfaction to the entire
country that the President has reappointed Hon.
Judson C. Clements a member of the Interstate Com
merce Commission. This important trust could not
have been more wisely or worthily bestowed. Native
ability, years of experience and sterling character
all combine to make Judge Clements an ideal man for
the office with which he is again honored. Originally
appointed to the Commission by President Cleveland
In 1893, he has served continuously for two decades.
During all that time he has shown vigilance for pub
lic interests and open-mindedness toward the issues
he has helped determine.
The respect in which he is held by informed men
of all political parties was interestingly evidenced a
few weeks ago when the House committee on inter
state commerce adopted a resolution, in which Repub
licans as well > Democrats concurred, asking that
Commissioner Clements be reappointed. The same
view is known to have prevailed on both sides of the
Senate. The President has acted at the instance of
popular sentiment and popular judgment as well as
on his own mature opinion.
It is especially fortunate that Judge Clements is
to be retained at the present juncture, when the
Commission Is deprived by death and resignation of
several of its experienced members and when It must
determine, in the near future, matters of extraor
dinary importance. There was never a time when the
Interstate Commerce Commission faced responsibili
ties as high as now, never a time when trained and
seasoned judgment in its deliberations will be of
greater value to the people.
The country as a whole has reason to be gratified
over Judge Clement’s reappointment, but nowhere,
perhaps, will the news be so heartily received as in
Georgia, his home State, among his hundreds of life
long friends.
The political prophet who seemed to think the
currency bill would not be passed before spring prob
ably referred to a spring-like Christmas.
A New Freedom and
A New Prosperity.
The light of reassurance which dawned upon the
business world, when it became evident a week ago
that the banking and currency bill would pass the
Senate, is now broadening into full day. The wolf
and raven are slinking to cover; all paths of
finance stretch shiningly futureward. The country
is awakening to a new freedom and a new prosperity.
The measure of currency reform which was
pressed to enactment by the President’s unwavering
and stanchly supported leadership, has at length
been made a law by his signature. Though some
time must elapse before the new system is actually
in operation, its fortifying effect is already manifest.
Business knows that a guarantee against financial
panics has been provided, that the old regime of pri
vate, capricious control over the country’s monetary
resources has been supplanted by a new order, dedi
cated to the common interests and responsible to the
people as a whole; ail honest business is now assured
of safety and an unbroken right-of-way. Naturally,
there is an advance in markets and a general quick
ening of the financial pulse. "There was more happi
ness to the square inch on the New York stock ex
change in one minute than there had been to the whole
securities market in any one month earlier in the
year.” So a prominent financier expressed himself
Tuesday in an Associated Press interview; and his
statement was typical of business sentiment the
country over.
It is peculiarly pleasing to note that the national
banks of Atlanta have taken a lead in accepting the
provisions and requirements of the new law and in
subscribing their pro rata share of the capital stock
of a regional reserve hank. Their action is fore-
sighted, and admirable, It represents the best and
highest business purpose of the hour, a purpose to
stand squarely behind the Government and bring to
speedy fruition the benefits inherent in the new bank
ing and currency law.
1 i "
Causes of Railway Accidents.
One of the weightiest passages in the recent
annual report of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission is that dealing with the causes of railway
accidents. In the year ended June the thirtieth last,
the record shows, there was a marked increase in the
number of casualties incident to faulty equipment
and careless operation of trains. During that period
ten thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four persons
were killed and over two hundred thousand injured
as against ten thousand, five hundred and eighty-
five killed and a hundred and sixty-nine thousand,
five hundred and thirty-eight injured during the cor
responding months of 1912. These figures are evi
dence enough of the need of earnest study and vigor
ous action on the problem of railway safety.
Of seventy-six serious train accidents investigated
during the twelvemonth, more than fifty, the Commis
sion reports, were due directly to errors of operation.
“Disregard of fixed signals, improper flagging, failure
to obey train orders, improper checking of train reg
ister, misunderstanding of orders, occupying main
track on time of superior train, excessive speed,
open switches and failure to identify train that was
met,” are among the items of carelessness and in
efficiency the Commission specifies. In short, it is
“man failue” that is responsible very largely for the
deplorable record of injuries and deaths. In urging
the need of more regular and more searching supervi
sion in this regard, the Commission contrasts “the in
genious auditing and checking system adopted by the
roads for detecting dishonesty of employes with the
laxness of supervision over the operation of trains.
There i3, to be sure, a manifest desire on the part
of representative railroads to make travel more secure
and to reduce to a minimum the number of train
accidents. But when it is shown that the great ma
jority of serious wrecks in a year arose from the
violation or disregard of simple rules of safety, there
is evidently need of more thorough supervision to
see that these rules are observed.
The Commission recommends legislation that will
make operating rules standard and uniform. It also
asks authority to enforce the use of block signal
systems and to require, so far as practical conditions
warrant or will permit, the use of steel, or “steel
underframe” cars in passenger service. Progressive
railway systems undoubtedly realize the vital im
portance of safeguards and, in the event the slight in
crease in rates asked for is granted, as now seems
likely, many improvements of the kind will, perhaps,
be voluntarily made.
>
Significant and Cheering Words.
I gain the impression more and more from
week to week that the business men of the
country are sincerely desirous of conforming with
the law, and it is very gratifying indeed to have
occasion, as in this instance, to deal with them
in complete frankness and to be able to show
that all we desire is an opportunity to co-operate
with them. So long as we are dealt with in this
spirit we can help to build up the business of the
country upon sound and permanent lines.
These significant and cheering words are from the
President’s note to Attorney General McReynolds con
cerning the agreement of a great telephone and tele
graph company to dissolve their present combination
and to comply with the spirit as well as the letter of
the anti-trust law, volutarily without forcing the
Government to prosecution.
It is an admirable thing for leaders of big business
to assume this attitude toward the country’s laws;
it is to their Interest as well as to common interests
that they should do so.
It is equally admirable that the leader of the peo
ple, that is to say the President of the United States,
should meet such an advance in a spirit of construc
tive co-operation. That is what might have been ex
pected of Mr. Wilson.
Legitimate business has never had anything to
fear from this Administration; on the contrary, It
has had everything to hope. The New York Times
aptly remarks that “the man of affairs who does not
see in present events and tendencies causes for pro
found satisfaction, for cheer and for confidence ought
without delay ask his family doctor to examine the
state of his digestion.
r,
SHAKESPEARE
BY DR. FRANK CRANP-.
(Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.)
Back to Shakespeare!
Study him in your youth, and in your old agre he
will come back to comfort you.
If you would, be a writer, learn from him how
grandeur of thought can flow in a limpid style, ana
how an exquisite judgment can choose the one word
wherein trembles the essence of conviction.
If you would speak in public, let him be your mas
ter in that combined conciseness and eloquence that
warms men’s hearts while it persuades their minds.
If you would know human nature and grasp the
art of living, make familiar friends of his characters,
high and low, mean and noble, and you shall come into
that universality of experience no man than he has
better set forth.
Of all Time’s figures he appears the most amazing.
The empires of Napoleon and Charlemagne have dis
solved. The books of poets, essayists, and novelists
who have been acclaimed by the people as Immortal
have stood awhile, and at last have fallen from their
pedestals, but Shakespeare remains, polished and per
fect, the admiration of present day intelligence as
much as when Ben Jonson sang his praise.
He has been attacked and derided, his flaws have
been pointed out. His very existence has been denied.
But all the Waves of criticism have beaten in vajm
upon the edifice of his fame. He remains today the
greatest master of the greatest language of history.
There is no other author where you can find Englisn
in its ideal perfection.
He is a true master of men. As has been said:
"What king has he not taught state? What maiden
has not found him finer than her delicacy? What
lover has he not outloved? What gentleman has h*
not instructed in the rudeness of his behavior?’'
Read your Shakespeare, young men and women*
If he bores you, it is for the same reason that the no
ble bores the low and narrow; read on, until you catch
step with that majeatical mind; read on, and find your
littleness falling from you and your soul growing
great!
And rest assured that it is a sad thing for us when
we cannot have a whole-souled admiration for those
real kings of men whom Time has tested and all man
kind has crowned.
Buy the small editions of his separate plays. Cairy
a little volume in your pocket. Pencil it. Read, mark,
learn, and inwardly digest. Read aloud his sounding
phrases to another or to yourself. , Commit to memory
those lines which find you.
The mind to whom Shakespeare is a constant com*'
panion cannot be entirely commonplace; for in Shake
speare is the soul of the English race at its best.
Increasing Farm Production
The boys in the Kentucky corn clubs this year made
an average of sixty bushels of corn to x the acre, as
compared with an average of twenty and a half bush
els for the state.
The 1913 corn crop In Kentucky was hard hit by
drouth, but twenty of the boys in the corn clubs raised
between ninety and one hundred bushels to the acre,
and a number of them raised more than 100 bushels.
Daviess county led the state, taking both first and sec
ond prizes. W. Arthur Cook, who Is the state cham
pion this year, grew 131 bushels and three pecks on
his acre of land. Homer Weatherbolt, winner of sec
ond prize, grew 130 bushels and* one peck, thus giving
the champion a close race.
The value of Intensive cultivation also was demon
strated by the tomato canning clubs. Bettle C. Davis,
a seventeen-year-old Henderson county girl, canned
1,059 quarts of tomatoes, put up thirteen gallons of
green tomato pickles, and sold twenty-six bushels of
the vegetables fresh off her tenth of an acre, realiz
ing a net profit of $118.75. Ruth Quick, of Jefferson
county, canned 1,301 quarts of tomatoes off Her tenth
of an acre, winning the $260 prize offered for the larg
est yield canned by a club member, regardless of the
net profit.
About 15,000 boys enrolled this year in the corn
clubs, as compared with some 5,000 in 1912. The toma
to clubs were not numerous, as the work was started
this year. Next year clubs are to be organized in ten
selected counties in eastern Kentucky to emphasize the
possibilities of tomato growing.
Dr. Fred Mutchler, who is in charge of these Juve
nile activities, is quoted in a dispatch from Frankror*
as saying that the club work is "having a noticeable
effect in improving the character of cultivation In the
communities where it is carried on.” Therein is its
chief value, and there can be no question that It is to
day the most potent force in the state for increased
farm yield.
Another factor in this direction Is the farm demon
stration work of the county agents which has been only
fairly entered upon. The counties of Daviess, Metcalfe,
Jefferson, Henderson, Muhlenberg and Warren had
demonstration farms this year. The counties of Chris
tian, Madison, Mason, Barren, Hopkins, Mercer, Perry,
Todd, Woodford, Grayson, Pulaski, Lawrence and Lo
gan will have the benefit of this work in 1914, and
probably others will be added to the list.
Better methods of farming are an imperative need
In Kentucky, and it is encouraging to observe that
there is increasing interest in these educational move
ments among the masses of the farming population.—
Louisville Courier-Journal.
Partisan Panic Breeders
The New York World says of the Republican party
leaders who have tried to create a scare that they form
“a leadership as desperate as that of the slave holding
oligarchy which brought the Democracy to ruin in
1860.”
The World draws attention to the fact that foreign
stock markets are in a depressed condition that Is
more serious than that which exists in New York and
that consols in London reached the lowest price ever
recorded fo(- them last Wednesday. Financial disquiet
Is universal and the World asks, ‘‘Can a free nation
tolerate a political party that Is In open and shameful
alliance with the piratical speculative interests that
find profit in disasters which they engineer?” The
New York Commercial does not believe that the Repub
lican party as a whole is as bad as this, but Repre
sentative Mann and Joseph G. Cannon have certainly
laid themselves open to the charge. If they can have
their way, they will make the Republican party "a
party of panic.” Hunger for office has seldom gone to
such extremes as it did In Washington when the Na
tional Republican committee met there this week am.
when Sherman Granger, of Ohio, sounded the party
slogan, "Democratic legislation and the conditions we
now have in the country—these are your platform."
When men indulge In such extravagant language
they often defeat their own ends and it is to be hoped
that the people of the United States will show the sdme
cynical disregard for such vaporlngs as Wall street
did the day after they were uttered, when the stock
market rose and thus gave expression to the contempt
that professional operators felt for the calamity howl
ers who were poaching on their special preserves.—
New York Commercial.
Some of the these days old Mtenelik is going to
surprise them by actually dying.
Opportunity knocks oftener than once. Most of
us know that.
w: (ountry
IHome' tdpkS
v Commote*
WHY SPEND SO MUCH MONEY ON FIRECRACKERS?
I was never abroad and can only read of Christmas cele
brations in foreign countries, but I understand that we
in the United States are perhaps the only people on
the globe who feel obliged to celebrate Christ’s nativ
ity by exploding firecrackers and other noise-making
illuminations. I can see no connection between the
Christchild in Bethlehem and a hideous time of ear-
splitting fusillades, especially when grown-ups spend a
whole lot of money to provide themselves with cannon
crackers and roman candles to make what they call a
merry Christmas.
The Fourth of July is a military celebration, be
cause we entered upon a military experience after the
signers of independence declared open hostility to Brit
ish tyranny. I can see a connection between toy pis
tols, firecrackers and such like to celebrate the "Glo
rious Fourth," which has been a gala day for ambi
tious politicians as well as patriotic Americans ever
since I could remember, and we are painfully familiar
with newspaper reports of blown-off fingers and ruined
eyes as well as many useless conflagrations. Still
there Is, as before said, some connection between a war
time anniversary and cannon crackers.
But there is no harmony or symbolic representation
between Christ’s birthday and fireworks. It purports
to be the season above all others of good will and peace
to all mankind.
"Gentle Jesus, pieek and mild,
Always loves the little child," etc.
But parents of little children make haste to get to
the nearest firecracker store and load up with the most
pestiferous of all the fireworks’ variety.
It is worth your life perhaps to get out with a spir
ited horse on Christmas day, because it Is a perfect
bedlam. Happy the man or woman who is not af
flicted with anything more than the noise of incessant
cracker firing.
And the good money that is burned up for things
that absolutely count for nothing is beyond estimate-
There is nothing sane or sensible in this waste of
money or the riotous mirth of the populace. .But I
know I am blowing a feeble breath against the custom.
WONDERFUL HELEN KELLER.
I have been reading in Atlanta papers of Helen
Keller’s late visit to that city, and I regret my fail
ure to see her on this trip to the south.
Twenty years ago, during the Chicago exposition,
she came to the Woman’s building and gave us an ex
hibit of her acquirements and she had only then learned
to speak a few words after a fashion.
It was a sepulchral voice, unnatural as to tone and
Inexpressibly solemn. After Miss Sullivan told us of
the difficulties that had been overcome at that time,
she repeated some verses from Longfellow’s "Psalm of
Life" and it seemed like a voice from rhe tomb when
sh repeated: "Tell me not in mournful numbers," etc.
The "number^" were mournful beyond the limit.
She was said to be only thirteen years old at that
time, which would make her thirty-three at this era
of her life, but she has had a memorable career never
theless:
If Mrs. John Macey is the Miss Sullivan that was
her teacher twenty-odd years ago, then it is evident
that the teacher is almost as wonderful as the pupil.
Such persistence and loyalty to a single purpose is al
most without a parallel in history.
If Helen Keller should be bereaved at any time of
her most capable teacher, it is plainly evident that her
loss would be irreparable, and her hindrance much in
creased. When I saw this blind, deaf and dumb girl
in Chicago during the year 1893 she talked with Miss
Sullivan by placing her fingers lightly on the teacher's
lips. Her sense of touch was intensely acute; and
sometimes she could understand by placing her finger*
on Miss Sullivan’s throat.
To be deprived of speech is a fearful handicap, but
to be also deaf and blind is beyond human conception,
unless one had been afflicted like Helen. Keller. I re
call almost perfectly the face of that girl that excited
so much sympathy along witn so much wonder.
SENATOR FROM ALABAMA
By Savoyard
Lawyers and gamesters have one thing in common
*—they will take a chance on anything. There are
gamblers who, if you will give them "odds" enough,
will bet you there will be no ocean tide at Fundy to
morrow, and there are lawyers who are ready to dis
tort and kick to pieces the plainest proposition that
can be writ in our tongue. A very successful practi
tioner, Aaron B&rr, is credited with this definition:
"That is law which is clearly stated and plausibly
maintained.” That may be called the art of law, if
the judge on the bench happens to be unlearned in the
letter of the law, incapable in the interpretation of the
law, or deficient in a moral sense of justice.
There are lawyers—and these, like poets and gen
erals, are born—who are naturally versed in the prin
ciples of the law. They have an exquisite sense of
justice and do not have to go to the books to find out
whether one proposition is sound and another erroneus.
On the ther hand, there are lawyers who will hazard
no opinion on any proposition without a careful exam
ination of the precedents.
• • •
The late John G. Carlisle, then speajker o^ congress
and a very busy man, was employed in a very impor
tant case involving a large sum. He snatched time to
read the brief, and, his mind then the clearest herhaps
with which any American lawyer was gifted, decided
that the cause of his client was just and should pre
vail. A few days before the case was to be argued
in the supreme court be jotted down some notes of less
than a thousand words, called his son Logan, himself
a very able lawyer, and said: "Go into the supreme
court library and search the English and American de
cisions. If the principle here involved has been de
cided it surely has been this way,’’ and he read the
paper.
Logan worked two or three days on the case and
found the decisions to be precisely what the prescience
of his father had divined taem to be/ When he went
into court Mr. Carlisle spoke less than thirty minutes.
Opposed to him were some of the ablest lawyers in
the land who argued for more than two hours; but
Carlisle gained the case.
• • »
These reflections are called forth by the attitude of
numerous United States senators, eminent and learned
In the law, who hold that there is no authority for the
appointment by the governor of Alabama of a citizen
of that state, constitutionally eligible to the office, to
supply the vacancy in the senate occasioned by the
death of the late Joseph F. Johnston, who was chosen
to the term in that body from Alabama expiring March
3, 1915. According to these erudite gentlemen, and
their opinions challenge and command respect, the
seventeenth amendment to the federal constitution,
providing for the election of senators in congress by
popular vote, nullified the last clause of Article V of
the constitution which is as follows: "And no stat*.
without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suf
frage In the senate."
The last clause of the seventeenth amendment
reads: "This amendment shall not be so construed as
to affect the election or term of a senator chosen be
fore it becomes valid as part of the constitution.” Very
well. Had the seventeenth amendment failed, had it not
yet been ratified and proclaimed, nobody will deny that
Governor O’Neal would have the absolute right to ap
point Henry Clayton or Frank Glass to the vacancy
occasioned by the death of Mr. Johnston. Then if It
deprive the governor Alabama of that right to ap
point, this seventeenth! amendment does "affect" the
term for which Mr. Johnston was chosen, and thus
our legal and constitutional pundits drive a coach-and-
four through two articles of the fundamental law
when they deny Mr. Glass his seat—the fifth article
and the seventeenth amendment itself.
Washington, December 19,
THE POSTAL SERVICE
VIII.—Rural Free Delivery.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
No Improvement in the postal service of the United
States, save only the parcel post, was ever so thorough
ly discussed before its Inauguration as the rural free
delivery service. Many opposed it, most of them on
the ground that it would serve only to add to the
annual deficit of the postal service, without bringing
any commensurate benefit to the people. It is true
that if the service were expected to be self-supporting
on the basis of the postage collected on mail matter
originating on rural delivery routes, disappointment
has followed, as is shown by the fact that the postage
on such matter amounts to less than $8,000,000 a year,
while the cost of operating the rural free delivery
service amounts to nearly six times as much. But
that does not take into account the business of deliver
ing mail, and the records of the department indicate
that the average farmer and his family get more mail
than they send.
...
It is only about sixteen years since the rural free
delivery of mails was started in the United States in a
very small way, but in that short time it has expanded
so rapidly that one almost loses count in trying to keep
up with it. Now more than 42,000 carriers travel
through the rural districts of the country carrying the
farmers' mail to thefn, and taking their letters and
packages back to the postoffices. In the annual rounds
of their duties the rural carriers travel over 300,000,000
miles—two-thirds is far as all the mall carrying
trains of the country together. The average cost to
the government for every mile a rural carrier travels
throughout the year is a shade over 13 cents, and the
average route is a little over twenty-four miles long.
...
Nor is the work done by the rural delivery service
the only kind rendered the people of the rural districts.
There is a provision that wherever a farmer does not
live on a rural route, but on a star route, he may have
the star route carrier collect and deliver mall at his
box, just as a rural carrier does. And he gets a better
service in this way than the rural carrier can give him.
The rural earlier has his route laid out so that he
leaves the postoffice from which his route starts, and
keeps going over one road and another until he gets
back to the office—not passing twice over the same
piece of road at any time except the few Instances
where there are no other roads to taka The result Is
that he delivers his mail one day and the farmer can
not answer until the next day. In case of the star
route carrier, he ihakes a round trip over the same
road every day, and the farmer can get his mail In
the evening and dispatch it in the morning, or get It
in the morning and dispatch his replies in the evening,
where that is necessary. There are, also, some oases
where two star routes pass over the same road for a
portion of the distance, and in these cases the farmers
along those roads have a double dally delivery amf
collection service Of course, these latter instances
are exceptional, but they represent the very last word
in rural mail service.
There are also Instances where farmers can enjoy
service from two rural delivery routes. To illustrate:
Here is a farmer who lives on one road and a few hun
dred yards from another road. The two roads are oov-
ered by different carriers, starting at the same time
from the same postoffice. But the one has to travel
much further to get to this point on the one road than
the other has to travel to get to this point on the other
road. Consequently, It becomes possible for the farm
er to get his mall by the one route and to dispatch
his reply the same day, if necessary, by the other
route. The farmer who lives on such roads is the
beneficiary of fortuitous ciroumstanoee rather than
of any intention to discriminate on the part of the
men who lay out rural routes.
The rural carrier has now been placed on a Par
with other employes of the postal service, being made
eligible to transfer to any other class of positions,
such as those in the letter carrier service* the postof
fice clerk service, and the railway mail service. This,
encourages more people to take the examinations, and
the standard of the examinations consequently' could
be raised to that for postoffice clerks and letter car
riers.
In the early years of the servioe it was customary
to deduct from the carriers’ pay a pro rata amount for
every trip or part of a trip they were unable to make
because of high waters, drifted snow or Impassable
roads. That has now been done away with, and where
the postmaster certifies' that the failure to cover the
route was due, to conditions of the weather and the
roads, the carrier gets his pay as usual. It formerly
was customary, when a carrier committed a breach of
discipline, to suspend him without pay for a while.
This system of administering discipline was found not
to work well, and in its stead a system of deductions
from their pay takes the place of the suspension or
ders.
There are now nearly 1,000 counties in the United
States having a full rural delivery service, which de
livers mail to the entire rural population. Where there
are so many routes in a county that all but a compara
tively few people are served, a postoffice inspector is
sent out and he revises the layout of the routes so
that everybody will be reached. About twenty-five coun
ties a year are being added to the number of those
which have full rural service, reaching all the people,
just as a city delivery service does.
There has been much dispute as to whom was the
father of rural free delivery. In 1890 congress passed
a Joint resolution authorizing a test of free delivery at
small postoffices, and these tests vere continued until
1894, when Postmaster General Blssell recommended
that the service be discontinued, or else extended to
all of the postofflces of the country. Congress took
the former alternative. Before this, in 1891, Post
master General John Wanamaker had reported in favor-
of a rural free delivery service, saying that he could
not commend anything to the favorable attention of
congress with more confidence than this, because its
extension would be so easy, its benefits so widespread,
and the considerations favoring its establishment so
patriotic. /
The first rural tree delivery route was established’
in 1896, and from that time forward the establishment
of rural routes has been going forward, until now the
rural carriers deliver mall to more than 20,000,000
Americans. The plans that are on foot with respect to
the utilization of the parcel post system will make the
rural mail service of unexpected advantage to the
whole population, both rural and urban. Heretofore the
rural carrier has been working to only a third of his
capacity. He can carry three times as much mail with
only a negligible addition to his expenses, and all of
this surplus capacity has been going to waste. Now it
Is proposed that he shall become the principal link In
the chain of agencies in bringing the minor products of
the farm to the city housekeeper, thus eliminating the
ever-widening margin between the price the farmer
gets and the price the consumer pays. Such a course,
it is believed, will ultimately tend to reduce the cost
of living In two different ways—first, by cheapening
produce to the consumer, and, second, by tending to
check the exodus to the city and to promote the ‘‘back-
to-the-farm” movement. By cheapening the cost to the
consumer the middlemen certainly will be measurably
eliminated, and the profits they make will no longer
bring people from the farm to swell their ranks; while
with a chance to get a reasonable price for his prod
ucts, the farmer can remain in the country. Take milk,
for instance; Here is a farmer with two dozen cows.
He needs a hundred-acre farm to keep them on, and
he must pay $100 an acre for that. Then he must
spend $1,500 for his cows and as much more for his
dairy bam. He must keep two or three hired hands.
With an investment of $13,000, representing an inter
est charge of $650 a year, and expenses amounting to
$1,000 a year besides, he gets a little over 3 cents a
quart for his milk. If he comes to the city he can,
with an investment of $3,000 or $4,000, handle five
times as much milk, perhaps ten or fifteen times as
much as he could produce as a farmer, and he gets
9 cents a quart more for carrying it from the rail
road station to the kitchen door than the farmer gets
for his lands and his cows and his labor in producing
it. That is why the farmer seeks to be distributor
rather than producer, and why he comes to the city.
And that is the situation the parcel post is intended
to remedy with the aid of the rural free delivery can
give it