Bl6—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 3,1981
85 years of helping
(Continued from Page B 15)
To the children on the route, the
carrier is sometimes “Santa
Claus’’ when he gives them candy
along with the mail. And to all of
the patrons, the rural carrier
renders that legendary “Service
with a Smile.”
Although members of Congress
did not fully support Wanamaker’s
Rural Free Delivery idea, the
nation’s farmers did.
They felt discriminated against
and realized that home delivery
would save time, which meant
money. The farmers also felt that
they were being taxed so that city
people could enjoy home mail
delivery which had begun in 1863.
Postmaster General Bissell, who
succeeded John Wanamaker,
refused to institute a Rural Free
Delivery experiment with the
$20,000 appropriated by Congress.
He resigned in 1896 and Rural Free
Delivery began under the suc
ceeding Postmaster General
William L. Wilson. While Wilson,
too, was not enthusiastic about
Rural Free Delivery, he said that
since the people continued to
demand it, he would not stand in
the way; Congress only needed to
appropriate the money once more
and he would do his best to conduct
a successful experiment.
With $40,000 appropriated.
Postmaster General Wilson u\1856
chose his hometown of Charles
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Town and two other villages,
Halltown and Uvilla near the
foothills of the Blue Ridge
Mountains and the banks of the
Shenandoah River, as the first
sitos where Rural Free Delivery
would officially begin.
The five original carriers
traveled their 20-mile routes on
horseback, bicycle or horse and
buggy. Today’s rural earners
travel daily 2,309,313 miles in 4-
wheel dnve jeeps or right-hand
drive cars along one of the 36,102
rural routes throughout the
country.
As a result of Rural Free
Delivery, many roads were built
and improved in rural areas,
linking up communities. Sub
sequently, the home delivery of
weekly and daily newspapers was
possible.
The timely, home delivery of
such mail may be in jeopardy by
1984, however. The entire public
service appropriation (P.S.A.), to
the USPS is scheduled for com
plete elimination by 1984 under the
provisions of the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act which was
LF 10/3
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Average American consumes
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WASHINGTON D.C. - The
average American ate 1,402
passed this year. P.S.A. monies
have been an historical guarantee
for R.F.D. services; they have
been provided by Congress to help
defray the cost of financing un
profitable postal services like
comprehensive rural delivery.
With the elimination of such
funds and rising inflation costs, the
Postal Service could decide to
eliminate some services, such as
Saturday mail delivery, if postal
rates and productivity are not
increased. A bill, H.R. 1300,
sponsored by Congressman Tom
Corcoran (R-ill.l, would mandate
Congressional approval over any
Postal Service decision to reduce
services which would have a
nationwide impact.
Historically, the preservation of
rural free delivery services has
depended upon people writing
letters to Congress, as the farmers
did m 1895 for the need to ap
propriate funds. The tunes today
are no different.
! $
■i
pounds of food last year but paid
proportionately less for it than in
1960, according to a recent U.S.
Department of Agriculture study.
Consumer expenditures climbed
319 percent from 1960 to 1980 but,
proportionately, food gained less
than other items in the consumer's
budget. In 1960, about 20 cents of
each dollar of disposable income
went tor food. Last year, food took
about 16 cents ot the disposable
dollar, the survey showed.
In the last 20 years, shifts in
consumption patterns affected
many products. Consumption of
frozen orange juice, for example,
increased 98 percent, from 4.6
pounds per capita in 1960 to 9.1
pounds last year. Beef con
sumption per capita was up 21
percent, from 64.3 to 781 pounds.
Beef consumption has been
dropping each year since 1976
when it hit a record 95.7 pounds per
capita. ~
Chicken consumption also
gained dramatically going from
27.8 pounds per person in 1960 to
51.2 pounds in 1980 —an 84 percent
increase. The biggest gainer was
«f^£7C5W
■ Safe to feed to milking cows, dry
cows, pregnant cows and heifers
over 300 lbs.
cheese, going from 8.3 pounds per
capita to 17.9, an increase of lie
percent.
But some foods lost ground.
Potatoes dropped from 80.4 pounds
per person m 1960 to 44.4 in 1980, a
loss of 45 percent.' Egg con
sumption declined 17 percent, from
42.4 pounds per capita in 1960 to
35.4 twenty years later.
All fluid milk consumption
decreased from 290 pounds per
capita in 1960 to 243 per pound last
year. Other losers were sugar,
down 12 percent, and fresh
peaches, down 38 percent.