Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-28
STUDEBAKER MANAGER
TALKS POWERWAGONS
AMOUNT OF MONEY CAN BE
SAVED OVER ANIMAL POWER
Electricity and Gasoline Each Have
Their Fields, Both Showing Great
Economy in Cost OF Transport
tation of Merchandise

At least ten years have elapsed since
any invention of engineering improve
ment has been required to make power
wagon transportation of merchandise
in cities more economical than any
thing that could be done with draught
| animals. The extraordinary hesitation
of those interested in taking advantage
of this fact is an unusually obvious
example of the tendency of commercial
/ laws toward evolution rather than
| revolution The mercantile conditions
which would have ensued in case the
entire interested public had discovered
| this advantage as soon as available
can be better imagined than described.
In those localities which are informed
on matters of this kind the Interested
public has long since ceased to look Tor
! some Thomas Edison Westinghouse
! Smith Moses to lead them out of the
wilderness. They recognize that the
| retardation in the introduction of
! power wagons is due mainly to their
own inaptitude and lack of knowledge,
and instead of getting out a witch
hazel stick to search for inventors they
address themselves to the task of self
/ education.
/ As a matter of fact, there are very
few delivery installations in any city
| in which a competent substitution OF
| power wagons for draught animals
would fail to effect a saving of at least
| $4,000 per annum at a comparatively
small increase of outlay, and this has
| been true for a matter of ten years
past. Moreover, the education required
| is by no means as much in the direction
| of care and operation as ii Is in the
direction of intelligent application to
| the required purpose. man VINO,
with a given amount of clothing busi-
ness, will substitute six sewing ma
chimes for six sewing girls would in
| deed be an idiot. In this country at
| least the item of stablemen and drivers
| is the largest item in all merchandise
delivery enterprises. The power wagon
owes its economical supremacy 10 lts
labor saving qualifications If through
stupidity, or worse yet, mental habit
or tradition, the power wagon is ap-
| piled so that no labor is saved then
nothing is gained, and yet it is the
easiest thing possible to apply 1t so as
to save the $4,000 a year above mem
| toned.
Dogma Guides Footsteps
| The unthinking public guides its
mental footsteps by dogma. They do
not recognize the existence of mental
habit. and yet every act of 80 per cent
of our population is directed by mental
habit. Years ago the Adams Express
company placed in service an electric
delivery wagon in the suburbs of Pitts
burg. The district agent Mr. Hiner
was a very intelligent man. The sub
agent a creature of mental habit. the
| electric wagon was equipped with iron
tires. The first snowfall came; the
| thinking district agent telephoned the
unthinking sub-agent for information
| in regard to getting out his wagons on
! the morning succeeding the snow; the
| sub-agent reported that the horses
were not yet out but the automobile
1 All, 1,Y,4 nn
practicable because it had taken three
quarters of an hour to put sharp
corks on the wheels" Hiner's reply
was: Let me know when the horses
come out" At half past l that after
noon the sub-agent telephoned Hiner
that the horses were out. Htner asked
| what kept them?"s The sub-agent
replied: I'VE were sharp -shoeing them. ="
| Hiner-When did you begin?
| Sub-agent-Three o'clock this morn
| ing.
Hiner-You told me this morning that
the automobile was impracticable be-
cause it took you three-quarters of an
hour to sharp-shoe it, and you have
been six or seven hours sharp-shoeing
the horses.
Sub-agent-Oh! we have always been
doing that.
TO the readers Of this article such a
case of brain fog seems incredible, but
as IndlCeI OI ldCl THIS ldS bCCh thO
principal obstacle to the introduction
of power wagons for over ten years and
has been the only thing that has made
| 1t possible for manufacturers to pre-
pare for the conversion which is now
upon us.
Human Vanity Plays Part
Of course human vanity plays a
! large part in this retardation One of
the last people to whom the user of
power wagons looks for a failure is he
himself, and yet he himself is usually
the cause of it.
Ill advised statesmen assist in the
mental confusion attendant upon ig-
norance. The best and most enlight-
ened organizations engaged in the
business, such as Studebakers, invari-
ably decline to sell a power wagon
without thoroughly investigating the
economical questions involved. IRE
spective of the ethical questions in
volved, no manufacturer could make a
worse mistake than to further retard
the progress of this business by coun
tenancing the misapplication of power
wagons for the trifling returns repre-
sented by the profit on any given in
stallation, and yet the majority of
manufacturers themselves overlook
this point and foolishly instruct their
statesmen to make sale wherever they