Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1907 — WILL ASK AUTO MAIL CAR. [ARTICLE]

WILL ASK AUTO MAIL CAR.

Postal Lengne to Press Its Plan Before Congress. The next -Congress will be asked to provide for an experiment in automobile postottices for'rural delivery servieeT Tbis suggestion was made at a meeriiig of the Postal Progress League reeeruly by James L. Cowles, the secretary and treasurer of the league. Mr. Cowles estimated that the present loss to the government on rural delivery service amounted to $172 for each route. With the adoption of automobiles and a change in the postal regulations to permit a local rural parcels delivery with a weight limit of eleven pounds, Mr. Cowles declared rural delivery would became a profit instead of a loss to the government. Following out this suggestion, the league will ask Congress for an appropriation of $60,000 to test the plan. Mr. Cowles’ calculations were made for a Toute of" twelve-miles covered twice a day. He estimated that the cost of these trips, including the carrier’s salary, would amount to only $5 a day, which would be more than provided for if each of some 175 families along the route paid only 3 cents a day for parcels from tjie town. Frederick C. Beach, the president of the league, said that the National Grange, the association which obtained the passage of the free-alcohol hill, would back the Postal Progress League in this and its other postal reforms. President Beach was empowered by the meeting to appoint a committee to draw up petitions to be presented to Congress this coming winter.