Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-11-04
TRAINED
MOTOR TRUCK
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE


burdened with high costs as long as
| the war makes 1t necessary, but when |
we have made "A new Europe II Will be |
| time to initiate new regime OF busi- |
ness and Industrial efficiency and |
| prosperity.
These fellows who will come back |
from over the seas will be needed and |
needed badly. especially those with |
specialized technical ability. Johnny |
who went away a teamster will come |
| back q truck driver with new out |
| look on transportation and on work.
How valuable is the training which |
Uncle Sam will give the boys in khaki
| Is illustrated In some measure by the |
history Of several OF the companies of
truck drivers which were sent over the
Rio Grande TO feed the troopers with |
Pershing One OF these companies, |
with its truckmaster and his assistants |
was employed en- masse by great |
motorized circus because the organ
izers could nowhere find group or
men who knew so thoroly how to get |
the message to Garcia by truck as |
these men. They knew their trucks |
| from top to tire. they knew how to |
take care of them ard knew enough |
to do so, they knew roads and how |
| to get over them in all sorts OF weather
and more than all of this, they were
not afraid of work or of pough living |
and they knew how to take orders.
Efficient Truck Drivers.
"Yet these men were employed as
civilians by the army with no exami-
nation or training and in many cases |
with no previous experience. The |
army itself was but little better pre-
pared to, use the trucks than the
drivers, Yet in the light of necessity
| such wonders were worked as have
not been paralleled by commercial /
users of keen business acumen and
| thoro technical ability.
| Fancy, then, what sort Of men will
some driving back from Francel Ask
your neighbor who has been having
the very own time to get anything like
a decent array of operators for his We
hicles what he has to choose from
now Ask him what he had in the
| best days of piping and prosperous
peace This is what he will tell you:
Motor truck drivers have always
been scarce commodity and good
ones as scarce as the proverbial hens /
| tooth 1t would be easier to describe
| the virtues of the average truck driver
were they not so difficult to locate.
| but their shortcomings were and are
about as follows:
! 'They lack driving skill. They have
no conception of discipline. They are
ignorant of motor truck mechanism
|
| ment. They are reluctant to assist in !
loading and unloading. which is to
say they lack industry, which fact |
| also exhibits itself in a tendency to !
watch the clock and to slow up at the |
end of the day to avoid an extra trip. |
| so general is this feeling that old
horse drivers who know the routes !
and are accustomed to handling heavy !
boxes and bales are the best truck !
drivers whatever their shortcomings /
as regards the finer points OF motor |
truck repair and attention, that II has
become a well-recognized rule among
the owners of the larger fleets of
trucks in all parts of the country that
the driver is the man to drive and to
drive only. Rules forbidding drivers
to raise the hood or to carry any but
the most elementary tools are quite
common.
| 1t will be no such men as these who
will return from the battle for dem
ocracy to enter the battle for com
mercial efficiency. The soldier is
| chiefly distinguished from the ordi-
nary civilian by his self-reliance when
| thrown upon his own resources. his
| lack Of false pride almost about
| manual labor OF all kinds and his
thorogoing recognition of authority
and just discipline. If there are vir-
| tues more commendabe in a truck
| driver than these, the writer for one
has never heard them mentioned
| Motorists Will BE I'm Demand.
| But, someone will ask, Is there go
| Ing to be room for one hundred
thousand motor truck drivers after
the war? Let us see. BY this fall
| there will be over three hundred
motor trucks in commercial use in
| the United States. II the war lasts
| another year there will be more than
| half a million. If 1t does last that
| long there Is going to be scarcity OF
young men to drive them, but they
| will be bought just the same and
| women and old men will drive them If
need be. And this number will not
represent anything like the number
| that we could use If we had the men
| to operate them.
| Purchases will be largely limited by
| by the labor market. They are today
and they have been since. the first
motor truck was sold. One Of the
most vexatious questions which the
salesman has to answer for the in
tending purchaser is: Where am 1
going to get drivers?" Ask any sales
man who has had any experience with
| motor trucks at all what effect solu
ton Of the driver problem would have
on the truck problem and he will
/ answer you that the difference is as
between selling snowshoes to the
Iggorotes and candles to the Esqui- !
| maux.
As previous articles have pointed
out, the scarcity Of horses and the in
creased cost OF feeding, raising and
stabling them; the lapse in railroad
construction which is already serious
and will intensity railroad congestion
with the continuance Of the war, the /
/ shortage of shipping bottoms the
world over; the increase in production
| Of industrial plants and improved eff |
| cheney in all pursuits are bound to
dictate more extensive use of motor
trucks, not only for local haulage
about cities, but for rural haulage be-
tween farms and the railroad and the |