The San Francisco call., 1906-05-07
AUTOS ELICIT
WARM PRAISE
Army Men BeStOW
Approval on
Machines.
Brigadier General
Funston Is a
Convert.

automobiles practical worth.
Prior to the great calamity the
horseless carriage was popularly re-
garded as a luxurious plaything that
would be useless if subjected to siren
uous and sustained use. That erro-
neous impression has been removed.
Men who tolerated the "honk- -honk'
machine as a passing fad are now the
most enthusiastic exponents or Its per-
manency.
Among the men of the army is
especial admiration TO be found for
the erstwhile despised auto. Even the
cavalry and artillery officers dgura-
lively doh their hats to it While
they are not yet quite ready to place
it on a plane OF endurance and relia-
bility with their Quadrupedal means
Of transportation, they acknowledge
that it has displayed those qualities
In a measure that surprised them
Brigadier General Funston Is one
Of the converts to auto mania II viii
acknowledge" he said yesterday to
Call representative, that before the
disastrous shake-up I was rather
prejudiced against the automobile as
a practical vehicle. Now its utility
holds my esteem. During the busy
days Immediately following the catas-
trophe 1 found it OF almost invaluable
service as a means Of rapid transit.
I win go even farther than that and
say that it was nightly instrumental
in the efficiency Of our work. When
both telegraphic and telephonio serv-
Ice were crippled 1t transported our
officers and our orders from place to
place with a speed that no horse could
have eQualed- And as for its re-
liability It seldom failed u.s. In the
matter Of endurance horse1esh was
feeble in comparison. During the fire
we used the autos as dynamite wag-
ons because OF their speed and COM
parative freedom from sharp jolting.
and IN that line of work they did In
! calculable service"
While the city was ablaze General
/ Funston hired twenty autos for army
J use and paid for them according to
their worth, the hire ranging from $50
TO 500 q day, and for sixty oonsecu-
tive hours they were almost con-
stantly In operation At the end Of
the week, when the conditions war
.
~. S" was reduced to ten, and those
that had received IN hire a sum
equivalent to their value became Gov
! ernment property. Half a score of
them are still employed by the army,
/ but they bring no more money to
their owners than If civilians were
using them Emergency prices van
ished with the big confagration-
1t is unofhcially estimated that the
hire of autos for army use alone will
foot up to a total Of $4,000 But the
money could not have been more
I righteously spent To pay the chauf-
feurs General Funston drew upon the
$4,000 sent to him personally by the
/ Guggenheims OF New York as their
contribution to the relief fund, and
when he had expended about $4,000
! Of the moneI he turned the remainder
over to the citizens finance commit
tee, that body assuming all the unpaid
obligations incurred by the general
And the hospital service Of the army
is even more ardent in it's expressions
Of praise for the auto than are the
soldiers Of the line.
"The automobile did wonderful work
two or three days succeeding the
earthquake" said Chief Clerk @. R..
Greenleaf Of the medical department
at the Preside. at enabled patients
to be brought here with safety and dis
patch to receive immediate treatment,
and it was the means of saving many
life that would have been lost
through delay. Over the toughest
roads and UP and down the steepest
hills it came with undiminished speed
and almost entire freedom from Jar
Then 1t helped Colonel Torney, the
chief sanitary officer. to hasten from
place to place and get his department
In quick operation, and it is still a
peerless means Of enhancing sanitary
inspection. I firmly believe that as
an outcome of what the auto has
shown itself capable of in emergen-
cies we shall have a motor ambulance
attached to this hospital We need
also motor drays. and I think they
will come IN time"
In no instance was the autos utility
better shown than in it's quick re-
moval Of the patients from the Me-
chanics' Pavilion after the fate of that
improViSed hoSpital was sealed by the
rapidly advancing flames. General
Funston spoke glowingly of what the
horseless carriage did In that emer-
gency.
Mayor Schmitz, Chief of Police Di-
nan and every member Of the COM
mittee Of fifty also pay hearty tribute
to the service rendered by the auto
mobile Every auto that was not un-
dergoing repair found itself abruptly
dragged into the toughest kind Of con
tinued usage. and that there is one
machine still running, instead of more
than half of the original number, Is
one of the wonders Of a wonder-de-
veloping period. None of them is as
pretty to look upon as 1t was three
weeks ago, and few Of them are en-
Lr-.1 i,-od hut nr,nn,crla af than,