The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-14
THE COMMERCIAL VEHICLE OF
 TODAY.
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over the horse. Previous to that tune it was in an experimental stage. All experiments are costly, and the motor truck was no exception. The item of repairs alone made the operative cost almost prohibitive, and it is not to be wondered at that the merchant who a few years ago bought truck to experiment with before investing in the number he could use in his bus mess, decided to wait awhile before disposing of his horses.
 Today the truck is commercially perfect It is. developed to the point where it can show 100 per cent econ- ony over the horse in almost any line of work. It shows to greatest advantage in the field it has made for itself-what would be termed the Hong haul' for horses or the ''short haul for railroads. Many concerns that have traffic within a radius of fifty miles from their places of bus mess are now using motor trucks ex- clusively within that radius. Where formerly they used horses to draw the load from the warehouse to the freight station, then delivering it to it's des- tination by rail- and then re1oading 1t on wagons drawn by horses to its final destination, goods are now load ed on the motor truck and delivered to their final destination, eliminating the railroad entirely, and thereby saw
 
 The truck has assumed such propor- tions as to demand a show all to it. self, and when the doors of Madison Square Garden are thrown open Jan- uary 16, on the first exclusive com mercial automobile show. the visitor will have an opportunity to see the multitude of uses to which the motor car has/bben put.
 A question that is repeatedly being asked is What does it cost to run a motor truck?" A large contractor has been running big five ton truck dur- ing the past year and averaging forty miles daily at a cost of $6.47 per day, including every item of expense This is the lowest operative cost that has come to the writer's notice. The other extreme is that of a gen eral trucking concern that averaged twenty-five miles per day at total cost of $22 per day. The first case motor truck with proper care, and the last what will always happen if the truck is run without oil, with over loading and with general neglect.
 A New York firm selling goods in Westchester county. and various points on Long Island and in New Jersey, delivering them to the doors of their customers, report that the cost of do- ing this week by motor truck is less by one-half what it was when these goods were hauled to the railroad sta tion, sent by freight, unloaded again into wagons and delivered.
 Another New York concern in an- swer to an inquiry said that their five ton truck showed an actual saving of $124.24 a week of what it had prevf- ous1y cost them to do the same work with horses; that they not only paid for the truck the first year, but show ed profit also of $1.212 or A per cent. YtI~ k1,1& ,11~ I,ue cost them nothing. and is saving them over s6.O00 year.
 The economy of the motor truck and the various uses to which it is adapt ed is illustrated by an up-to-date farmer of Beach, N. Dakota, by the name of Smith. His automobile truck draws his blows, harrows and seeders, making one operation of the putting in of the crop. When the grain is ripe the motor truck draws the reaper that harvests it. The motor of the truck runs the threshing machine, and when the threshing is done the truck is used to haul the crop to the mar ket. one thousand bushels at one time. It cost this farmer s555 per acre from the time of the breaking of the ground to the landing of his crop at the mar ket. He keeps one. horse on his farm why. he does not state-but it is pre- stunned, unlike David Harum, he en- 
 riding.
 Since the application of the differ ential gear first made the self-propell- ed vehicle a possibility on the high way, the assertion repeatedly has been made that the motor would show to greatest advantage in the commer- cial field. Tn spite of the great prom ise for the auto in the business field, however, the pleasure car for a num- Der of years absorbed the attention of designers and inventors for the more prosaic truck. there being only few who tenaciously clung to the working out of the many and widely different problems involved in the heavier machine.
 Nearly ninety percent of the visi- tors to the last horse show in New York went in automobiles, and prob ably not one per cent of the visitors to the automobile show at Madison Square Garden will journey there in horse drawn conveyances. What would people say if it were predicted that five years from now the horse would not be allowed on crowded streets, and what did they say five years ago when it was said that a man would fly from Albany to New York? What was said when Marconi claimed to be able to telegraph messages without wires; when Bell said he could talk to person a mile away over a wire by using an instrument he had in- vented and called a telephone?
 When our grandfathers predicted that the railroad would supplant horses for hauling goods and passen- gers for long distances, they were laughed at, just as motorists are now when we say that in a few years the horse will be a rare sight on city streets. The prediction of the motor fsts is as sure to come More than this, just as surely as the faithful animal is being crowded from the city streets, so is he being pushed from his labor on the farm. The reason for the doom of the horse is that he can no longer complete with the mo- tor in drawing the carriage, the wag- on. or the blow. Even the persistent Missourian admits he has ''been shown in the case of the pleasure car, and the past two years have proven that the horse can no longer successfully compete with the motor in trucking goods or working the farm.
 To cover the field of usefulness of the auto truck in the space allowed, a visit to the Madison Square Garden Show from January 18th to Fist will be a forceful object lesson.
 WHAT TO SEE AT THE AUTO
 SHOW.
 (Chas E. Duryea, Special Technical
 Cores. for A. L. A. M
 In a great gathering of beautiful and we'll made autos such as arc se1.