538 ANNUAL REPORT OF THK Off. Doc. 



it ou the highways ol: the entire couutiy may be belter uuderstood 

 and appreciated by coosideriug a few figures relative to the rural 

 free service as it exists to-day. 



The total number of carriers employed in the rural free delivery 

 service at present is about 5,700; total population served by them 

 daily, about 3,500,000; total number of miles traveled each day, about 

 140,000. 



When one considers that no two carriers (with few exceptions) 

 travel over the same roads, it becomes clear that if the Department 

 succeeds in its efforts for good roads on the routes now traveled by 

 the 5J00 carriers, there will be 140,000 miles of good roads in the 

 country districts now enjoying the benefits of rural delivery. At the 

 present rate of increase the rural service will be practically doubled 

 within the next twelve months, and as it is the distinct policy of the 

 Department to extend the service and keep pace with the demand for 

 it (which is constantly increasing), we may look forward to the time 

 when all sections of the country in which this service may be feasi- 

 bly maintained will be covered by a network of rural routes. 



Wherever there is a systematic extensioQ of the service through- 

 out a whole county it is found that fully nine-tenths of the public 

 highways are covered by rural free delivery. If, therefore, reliable 

 statistics were at hand showing the total number of miles of public 

 roads in rural districts of the United States, an interesting estimate 

 might be made showing the total number of miles of public highways 

 of the United States that will eventually be covered by rural free de- 

 livery service and consequently become good roads. All, I think, 

 will agree that the rural free delivery is proving a potent factor in 

 the construction of good highways and their proper maintenance. 

 It is obvious, too, that the people, by insisting upon a universal ex- 

 tension of the service, have in their hands the most effective means 

 possible for bringing about the general improvement of nine-tenths 

 of the public highways of this country. This has been the object 

 lor which good roads commissions and other kindred organizations 

 have been working for years, and a propaganda is still being vigor- 

 ously carried forward not only by these organizations, but by the 

 (lovernment itself, through the efficient management of the Office of 

 Public Roads Inquiries of the Department of Agriculture. 



While it is true that the good roads movement has received a great 

 impetus and made rapid strides during the past few years on account 

 of the very efficient support is has received from the Department of 

 Agriculture through the publication of literature on road building, 

 securing the coiistruction of object-lesson roads, etc., I think all will 

 concede that the Post-Office Department is not overstepping the 

 bounds of modesty when it claims that the solution of the whole 

 question lies largely in the rapid .iiid systematic extension of the 

 I'ural free deliverv service." 



