Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1915 — SUDDEN STOP TO RURAL DELIVERY [ARTICLE]

SUDDEN STOP TO RURAL DELIVERY

No New Routes to Be Established and All Old Routes to Be Affected. The extension of the rural delivery mail service in Indiana and other states is about to come to a sudden stop. Not only will new routes not be established, even where the inspectors have reported favorably, but there is going on a reorganization of existing routes, on a new standard that will mean the elimination of many routes and a reduction in the frequency of service on others. “Unfavorable condition of the national finances” is the reason given for bringing the rural delivery extension movement to a stop with an unexpected jerk, as well as for the reorganization and curtailment of the service now going on. The prospective deficit in the postal branch of the service at the end of the present fiscal year, June 30, was estimated in a speech in the senate the other day by Senator Shafroth at from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000, and the judgment of experts is that it will be considerably in excess of the former figure. Coupled with a prospective deficit in the postal branch is the almost certainty of a large treasury deficit at the end of the fiscal year. Under these circumstances James I. Blakslee, fourth assistant postmaster general, whose bureau has charge of rural service, is sending to senators and representatives, who inquire why routes are not being established after being reported upon favorably, a letter which says: “I beg to advise you that, while a favorable report has been received, this case is being held in the department pending the more favorable conditions of the national finances. It is apparently advisable to withhold for a time all appropriations for additional postal facilities that involve increased expenditures, except in cases of urgent necessity, and I think you will agree with me that much can ,be accomplished in this line by deferring the establishment of additional rural routes.” Some of the senators and representatives are not taking kindly to the suggestion that the rurdl mail service should be made to bear a heavy brunt of the economy cut. They are calling on the postmaster general, or writing to him, and are making’their views plain and positive. They contend. that about all the farmer gets for the privilege of paying to help support the government is his rural mail service and that to deny it to him or to curtail it so as to put him to inconvenience, is not a square deal. The postmaster general is being told that it would be infinitely better to insert the pruning knife in other places, for instance, in the army and navy expenditures or in the large sums spent on river and harbor work.