Existing comment:
American farmers were not the only advocates for free rural mail service. Newspaper publishers envisioned a newspaper a day in every farm mailbox. Another supporter or rural delivery was John Wanamaker, postmaster general from 1889 to 1893 and founder of one of the nation's first department stores. Wanamaker ordered the department to test the service in 1891.
Some members of Congress thought Wanamaker might be trying to use the Post Office Department to build a vast customer base for a mail-order service in his department store. Others feared that Rural Free Delivery would be so popular that it would be hard to discontinue if it proved unprofitable. |