The evening times., 1899-08-01
Pos.ibilitie. of the Automobile.

The automobile is moving around in
France quite as energetically as it is be-
ing advertised in America. Under the di-
rection of a Frenchman the modern re-
alization of Mother Shipton's prophecy
that carriages without horses shall rum"
has beaten an express train in race be-
tween Paris and St. Malo. The distance
was two hundred and twenty six miles.
The automobile covered il in seven hours
and thirty-five minutes, and the express
train came putting and numbering in thir-
teen minutes behind. This was speed of
about thirty miles an hour, or half mile
minute-a fair average of our
passenger trains. Undoubtedly the speed
reached even by this remarkable test, and
We see no reason why its running gear
should not be adjusted to an improved
machinery power which would equal, If it
did not exceed, the fastest record made by
the steam locomotive.
This, of course. presupposes favorable
roadbed conditions. Undoubtedly the track
on which the race was won in France must
have been much better suited to the auto
mobile than could be found over a like
distance in this country We cannot, there
fore, hope to attain such a speed in the
United States as that which won the victo-
ry for the automobile in fair trial in
France. Only on excellentiy- paved and
well-graded streets like those of Washing
ditions for test of its speed in America.
Possibly on some of the boulevards of New
York and Chicago there could be found
auspicious conditions, but the use of these
would be prohibited because of the general
necessities of travel and transportation.
When. however, the automobile becomes
as popular in measure as the bicycle, and
its price is correspondingly reduced we can
hope for great variety of national bene-
fits from its introduction. First and fore
most of these will be a vast improvement
of the country's entire system of roads 10
meet the requirements OF the new means
OF locomotion for its utilities will not be
confined TO pleasure or to mere travelling
about from place to place, but will also
embrace an increase in general transporta-
ton conveniences. With a rate of even
fifteen miles an hour the farmer could en-
ploy the automobile as a means OF relief
from the burdensome exactions of the rail-
road in getting TO the nearest market no
inconsiderable proportion of his crops.
The tax which he now pays TO the railroads
in the disguise of excessive freight rates
could be applied to a permanent improve
ment of the highways. with a certainty
that the cost Of repairs to keep them up
to the requirements of the automobile
would never equal the amount of which he
is mulcted every year through the despe-
ration of railway managers to keep the
earning capacity of their properties up to
the demands of bonded obligations and the
rapacious system of watered stocks.
1t requires no flight of fancy to see the
possibilities of enduring good in the sd-
vent Of the automobile. 1t will not be a
great while before it ceases to be a lux
ury and is absorbed as a necessity by the
omnivorous industrial civilization of
America. What with the trolley car. the
bicycle, the steam plow, and the auto
mobile, the horse will soon become a
luxury. If not a curiosity. in this swiftly
moving nation of ours.