The Dickinson press., 1917-01-06
MOTOR NEWS
By the MOtOrist

: o o o o o o o o o o o o o 3
The San Francisco Examiner, one
of the Hearst Syndicate newspapers,
is affording novel entertainment for
the California regiments doing duty
or the Mexican border. The Exam
iner has equipped a new Studebaker
half-ton truck with a complete moving
picture outfit and shipped it to the
border and will give free shows to the
national guards.
The LaSalle hotel of Chicago, the
only hotel owning and operating its
own taxicab service in the United
States, has just closed a contract with
the Willys-Overland company of To-
ledo, Ohio, for the installation of so
WHY'S Knight taxicabs.
There is some sentiment in favor
of a new automobile license law set
ting the license fee at SIS instead of So
as it now is. Secretary Of state Hall
estimates that there r 10000 ma
chimes in the state. This would bring
about 100000 into the good roads
fund which would be a boost for the
good roads enterprise. A portion of
this amount is apportioned back to
each county in the state as a special
fund for road work. Many states
have adopted a license system which
requires a fee according to the horse
power of the motor, and others con
slider adopting. laws to regulate the
license fee according to the weight
I of the car. Since motor car traffic
has become so heavy, especially in the
eastern states, road building and
maintenapce has become a serious
problem. It seems to us that the
country as a whole will never have
the good roads that the traffic de-
mands unless a maintenance fund is
established. Millions of dollars are
|put into road building and not a cent
appropriated for maintenance. What
would become of the railroads if such
a system were followed? AS soon as
a railroad is built the maintenance
department is on the job and repairs
are made to even the slightest dam
age and as a result the original in
vestment becomes better with" contin-
ued use instead of wearing out. The
same principle would apply to county,
state and national highways, and the
motor car owners would practically
pay the necessary expense.
No portion of the country enjoys
greater prosperity than the great
northwest. This was again demon
| strated this week by the shipment Of
an entire trainload of Buick automo-
biles to dealers in Minnesota, North
Dakota, Montana and the north Pa
cific coast states. The shipment, con-
sisting of fifty carloads, was made in
response to urgent requests of. dealers
in this territory. The Buick Automo-
bile company, through it's distributor,
the Pence Automobile company, made
the delivery. Other shipments of like
magnitude, it is declared, will follow
to the northwest to satisfy the de-
mand for motor cars. Automobile
condition of the northwest is respon-
manufacturers declare the prosperous
sible for the heavy buying power now
in, evidence so far as automobiles are
concerned.
Local dealers and garage men have
the chance the past week of "toasting
their Sims" by the fire since the re-
cent heavy snow put the average mo-
tor car out Of business as far as
try travel is concerned, but are pre-
pairing for the greatest volume of
business in 1917 that the trade in the
city has ever witnessed. The adver-
Using campaign for leading makes Of
cars will begin in earnest in a few