The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-09-07
AUTOMOBILES FROM THE RURAL
SIDE.
81. Louis GLOBE. Democrat.

St LOUIS 6tOOe-O eUOCTUt.
"Who comes there p" is the challenge of a
sentry, and the only satisfactory answer is "A
friend with the countersign." The next best
response is to announce friend without the
countersign, in which case the guardian warily
proceeds to investigate according to circum-
stances. Along the country roads at the pres
ent time the automobile is not popular visitor
The farmers and villagers call 1t the 'red DEVIL"
or some other name suggesting the old war
chariots whose axles were extended with cythes
to NOW through the ranks of an enemy. Yet the
automobile is only vehicle with power applied
in a new way, an evolution of the primitive cart
with solid wheels and the first pleasure wagon.
It happens that automobiles in their earliest es
tate have developed chiefly in the direction of
speed. If they had plodded along at maximum
of six miles an hour the country folks would
have raised no objection, and might possibly
have suggested that they ought to be improved
so as to go faster. But already the automobile
has a record of two miles minute, and COM
monpace capacity of mile minute. With
such power at command, ready to be applied at
a movement of the hand, the temptation to
squirt is strong, and here the trouble begins.
That precautions must be enforced as to speed
and other points is evident.
But the rural population in time will see that
the automobile, duly adjusted to conditions of
safety is especially, in its principles, thing of
promise in country life. Numerous cases have
been reported in which the red devil has been
used in an emergency to run threshing machines
or other farm machinery. Tillers of the soil
should give a welcome to anything practical in
the nature of power in their barnyards and fields
Perhaps it could best be obtained by wire and
the electric current cheaply generated by the
streams that are within convenient reach almost
everywhere, but motor vehicle has valuable
possibilities of its own. Maybe the red devil is
a red genii misunderstood, just as cotton was
once considered weed, and made its first great
advance when machine was invented to pre-
pare it economically for the market. Automo-
biles are now expensive luxuries. Their devel-
opment in cheaper forms is yetto come. On the
farm they would be engines that propel them
selves wherever wanted. Their fuel should be
greatly cheapened If the promises heard in con-
nection with denatured alcohol are realized.
In another important respect automobiles are
a harbinger of decided rural progress. They en-
courage the building of permanent good roads,
subject that has become prominent in all State
legislatures. A properly constructed road is
money in the farmers pocket, and adds to the
comfort and enjoyment of his family as we'll as
to his profits and resources. The rural delivery
postal system has compelled more attention to
roads, yet the daily mail is only one of the ad-
vantages of a well-kept highway. Eventually,
motor vehicles will be more numerous on the
farm than wagons and buggies have ever been.
Scorchers will be suppressed, and they are In
truth the only item on the debit side of automo-
biles, aside from the trail of odor, which can also
be corrected. If automobiles had been extant
In the days of the 40 gold excitement, the honk
across the plains would have been continuous
from the border of Missouri to the western foot
hills of the Sierras and the prairie schooners
would have played but little part in the cara
vans. The rural folks should distill out the
abundant good there is in automobiles for them
selves.