Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1903 — FREE MAIL DELIVERY. [ARTICLE]

FREE MAIL DELIVERY.

POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT ISSUES OFFICIAL STATEMENT. Appropriation Not Sufficient for All, and Larger Routes Will He Established First-California Wants Negroes for Work in Orchards. The Postofflce Department has made public the following official statement: There seems to be a wide misunderstanding as to the present attitude of the department regarding rural free delivery. The statement has been published quite generally, particularly in the West, that rural routes that do not handle 3,000 pieces of mail per month and supply 100 families, are to be discontinued. It is not the purpose of the department to disturb routes already established unless they are manifestly unnecessary. There are now oh file in the department petitions for more routes that will supply more than 100 families than can be established with the present appropriation. This being the case, the department does not feel it wise, equitable or just to establish a route supplying less than 100 families, to the exclusion of routes that will supply more than 100 families, the great-, est good to the greatest number being the fundamental principle upon which rural free delivery is being established. As long as alt of the routes that are asked for cannot be established because of the lack of sufficient money, the routes that will supply the greater number of families should certainly have preference. CALIFORNIA WANTS NEGROES. Agent Visits Washington and Seeks 2,000 for Frnit Harvest. W, H, Murray of San Francisco is in Washington looking fqt 2,000 unskilled laborers, men, women and girls, to go to the Pacific coast to help harvest the thousands of car loads of fruit to be gathered, packed and shipped th® last part of this summer and in the fall. Mr. Murray represents the fruit growers of California, and as they are in dire need of laborers, he is making strenuous efforts to get his quota as soon as possible. It is said by the fruit growers that the government is directly responsible for the •carcity of unskilled labor, because of the enactment of the Chinese exclusion net. There are few negroes in California, and the fruit growers have to seek laborers in the East, and guarantee them good wages. The men are paid on an average of $2 per diem for picking fruit; the women and girls are paid $1 to $2.50 per day for cutting and drying the fruit, while the men and women who work in the packing houses receive sometimes as high as $3.50 a day. BOOT STUFFED WITH STRAW. Van Casses Remain, of Brother to Be Disinterred. The remains of Charles Stark, who died in the Albany hospital Dec. 29, were disinterred in the Polish Roman Catholic cemetery at Schenectady, N. Y., and it was discovered that the trunk had been stuffed with straw. A dissecting knife with blood stains on it was found in the straw inside the body. The mysterious case opened the discovery by George Stark, a brother of the decedent, of blood on the face of the dead man while the remains were at local undertaking rooms. The inquiry which followed was taken into the Albany courts, but the physicians at the hospital insisted that an autopsy had not been held. The matter accordingly was drop<ped by the Albany authorities. The case will be reopened legally now and an attempt made to ascertain the cause of Stark's death. BASE BALL SCORES. Standing of the Clnbs la Big League Games. The clubs in the National League are standing thus: W. L. W. L. Pittsburg .. .53 23 Brooklyn ... .37 35 New Y0rk...46 28Boston 30 34 Chicago 46 33 Ft. Louis 27 50 Cincinnati ...38 35 Philadelphia. .23 52 Following is the standing of the clubs In the American League: W. H W. L. Boston 49 27t»etroit 35 36 Philadelphia.. 44 31 Chicago 34 38 Cleveland ...39 33 St. Louis 30 38 New Y0rk...34 34 Washington.. .23 51 Want the Erie. A rumor which credits the Rockefeller Interest with a purpose to get ..control of the Erie Railroad, with the ultimate union of the interests of the Erie and Rock Island, has been discussed iu Chicago railroad circles. Bryan Arraigns Cleveland. W. J. Bryan, the principal speaker at the picnic of the Chicago Democratic Club, bitterly arraigned former President Cleveland for his policy while in the executive chair. Boy Kills o “Bad Man.” “Bill” Davis, known in the Indian Territory as a “bad man,” was shot and killed by Oal Blanch, 17 years old. who ■vacated an attempt to drag him from his boroe. Barn to Death In Asylnm. Four persons lost their lives in a fire early the other morning which destroyed Bonner Springs sanitarium at Bonner Bprings. Kan., seventeen miles west of Kansas City. Fire Loss Is SIOO,OOO. One-sixth of the business portion of San Luis Obiiq>o, Cal., has been burned out with s lors of over SIOO,OOO. . . , JSrOJ—KC Bills Many. States grand jury which bag been engaged in investigating peonage eases in Alabama made its final report Friday, r# urning ninety-nine true bill* ft*! 11 ** < i;fiteen persons. The prnc4e» of blacks in servitude was IMuted from the bench and the jury wai .rtlfttlf for “aKnding up for humanity.