600 Presidential Addresses 



$3,923,727 in 1901. Among recent postal advances 

 the success of rural free delivery wherever estab- 

 lished has been so marked, and actual experience has 

 made its benefits so plain, that the demand for its 

 extension is general and urgent. 



It is just that the great agricultural population 

 should share in the improvement of the service. The 

 number of rural routes now in operation is 6,009, 

 practically all established within three years, and 

 there are 6,000 applications awaiting action. It is 

 expected that the number in operation at the close 

 of the current fiscal year will reach 8,600. The mail 

 will then be daily carried to the doors of 5,700,000 

 of 'our people who have heretofore been dependent 

 upon distant offices, and one-third of all that portion 

 of the country which is adapted to it will be covered 

 by this kind of service. 



The full measure of postal progress which might 

 be realized has long been hampered and obstructed 

 by the heavy burden imposed on the Government 

 through the intrenched and well-understood abuses 

 which have grown up in connection with second-class 

 mail matter. The extent of this burden appears when 

 it is stated that while the second-class matter makes 

 nearly three-fifths of the weight of all the mail, it 

 paid for the last fiscal year only $4,294,445 of the 

 aggregate postal revenue of $111,631,193. If the 

 pound rate of postage, which produces the large loss 

 thus entailed, and which was fixed by the Congress 

 with the purpose of encouraging the dissemination 

 of public information, were limited to the legitimate 



