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4 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. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months 750 Six months 4 ® c Three months 2Bo The Semi-Weekly Journal Is published on Tuesday and Friday, and Is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. / It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires Into our office. It has a stats of distinguished contributors, with strong departments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Wfite R. R BRAD- LET. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan, B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim brough, W: W. Blackburn and J. W. Brooks. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling representatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you Insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route numDer. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta Ga. 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