Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-21
AUTOS NOT FEARED
BY VETERINARIANS
They Say Horse Is Not
Threatened by Ex-
tinction.

At convention of veterinary surgeons
held recently the surgeons found mucn
in saying that the threatened ex-
tinction of the horse by reason of the
influx of motor cars is now turning OF
the tables. Optimism prevailed at the
meeting and the talk generally was that
the horse was coming back into his own
Evidently these surgeons had not been
posted on the statistics as to the in
fluence of motor cars and trucks IN
changing the economic position of the
horse, as stated by a writer In Motor.
who with other things. undertakes to
show that the beast of burden has been
reduced from a former position of pride
to that of an economic source Of waste.
In twenty-five years the horse mortality
has been great in most cities. The writer
selects twenty-five representative cities
which in total show a mortality of over
10000 horses In New York the number
is 1904: in Pittsburgh, 1O,9S5: in Chica-
go, 1900: in Philadelphia, 5000; in ST
Louis, 4,222, In Cleveland. 5000: in Bos-
ton, 5000: in Baltimore. $500. The writer
also adds the following:
Horse Loss Is High.
Taking the average value of horse
at 500, which is $40 under the United
States government statistics, We have in
these cities alone a cash loss of 1000, 600,
no contemplate sum, and yet inconsider-
able in comparison with the indirect loss
due to the disorganization of traffic
through the death of animals. And
recollect that this is the loss of but a
very small fraction of the country TAX
ing New York's city loss of roughly
20 900 horses a year and continuing it on
a basis of population would give us a
death rate among the entire country's
the tidy sum of $50, 100000 as the yearly
loss in horsef1esh. Practically all this
mortality is due to the labor that Is de-
manded of the animal.
Now let us glance for a moment at
the present status of what we believe
to be the horses successor. There are
today considerably more than a mil
lion motor cars of all classes running
in the United States. OF this number
approximately $4,000 are trucks, the
class of car that by Its activities brings
into the greatest prominence the chang
ing position of the horse
Figures Not Impressive.
"These figures do not sound over
whelmingly impressive by themselves,
but when considered in their compare
tive capacity they become amazingly
significant, for 1t is only within the
last two years that the commercial
motor vehicle has given evidence of
coming into its own. Up to the begin
ming of the year 1911 there had been
manufactured in this country approx
mately $4,000 motor trucks. During
the y3ar 1911 there were turned out
1898 trucks, or more than the total
production Of these vehicles from the be-
ginning Of the industry to the open
Ing of that crucial year.
But this was only a tuning up, as
the output Of trucks in 1912 was
24133, a number almost equal to the
total produced up to the beginning of
that year. And the estimated output
for 1913 is $4,000 motor business
wagons This estimate is no arbitrary
assumption of prophetic insight; 1t is
based on carefully collected statistics
and almost beyond question errs on the
side of conservatism. The average