The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-30
LIVE MOTOR NEWS.


 The Standard Oil Company has re- duced the price of gasoline one cent, to 13 cents a gallon in New York for tank deliveries to garages, and IT cents in barrels to consumers. These prices are four cents a. gallon lower than a year ago.
 The belief that obtains in usually well informed circles that the motor truck is cutting into the earnings Of the railroads in interurban traffic, is found on inyesti gation to be erron- eous. Possibly for purely local traffic. the motor truck has in a measure sup planted the freight car, but that at no gross loss on the business of the railroads. In fact rather than prove. a competitor, the motor truck now as- sumes the guise of their ally and through improving the shipping fa- ctlities of points distant from the rail- road, new territories have been open ed that have never before been ex- ltensiyely tapped" by the railroads. In order to give the public some Idea of the extent to. which electrical vehicles are used, it has been pro- posed that some day, preferably hoI- iday, be appointetd as an electric ve- hhicIe day when, in those various cen ters throughout the country, there equipped vehicles, and prizes offered l for the best decorated comnerciaI and pleasure vehicle
 Steps to reduce the danger at grade crossings on thes Long Island Rail- road were begun. on last Thursday,
 when G. o. Wells, chief road fnspec-. tor for the Automobile Club of Amer 1 ica, spent the entire day on the island
 making extra charts of, grade cross ings Within the next few days eau ton signs will have been placed on all highways one hundred yards on l will mean that railroad warnings will
 be modernized.
 i Residents of otoher states who own and drive automobiles are better l equipped than the owners in New l York state, according to Colonel Ed ward s. Cornell, secretary of the Ma tionaI Highways Protective Associa- ton Colonel Cornell has just returned from a tour of eight hundred miles throughout the state and said he ob- served the drivers of thousands of IautonobiIes. In view of the large mum l Iy poor driving by owners of auto mobiles in this state he urged a pass age of a law requiring every owner ] to have a license before operating an tautomobile.
 Prospective entrants in the forth I coming motor carnival to be held the last week in September in connection with the Commercial sTercentenary Celebration are informed that for the night automobile pageant $5,000 in l prizes is to be awarded by the Tercen- tenary Commission for the best deco rated cars. Announcement of an ayp- propriations of this amount was made last week by the commission. In ad- dition to this a number of automobile accessory makers and others have of fered to donate prizes, so that the in ducernents for -ear owners to enter are truly great. The prizes are to be in the form of trophies or cups for private owners and cash. for profes-
 sional chauffeurs driving the wln7 ming cars
 The Abbott Motor Car GO. of De- troit, has issued instructions to it's traffic department to route all freight and express shipments hereafter by some route other than the Erie Rail way, because of a statement purport- ed to have been made by President Underwood, of the Erie road blaming the ssautomobile craze along with Emotion pictures for the sso-calIed hard times in verious parts of the country The action of the automo- bile company. the Abbott people say. Is the first step in what is expected to become concrete movement on the part of automobile manufacturers lin defence of their product against such damaging expressions
 EnIargeme ents now under way and when z cOInp1eIeus VIII AllS tAS lAlt WiIlys Overland Toledo plant the lar | gest' automobile factory in the world It will consist of 64 buildings con taining floor space of over so acres.
 It is reported that the Long Island Railroad probably would issue an or der soon to all watchmen- and gate men ordering that crossing gates to be kept closed constantly and raised only to allow automobiles and other ve- hicIes to pass. This custom prevails 1 in certain portions of France and Eng 1 land and has proved a great aid in 1 safeguarding the public. Continu- ous traf1c would of course make such I a rule .unadvisable.