The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-11-13
GOTHAM FAVORS
NEW MOVING DAY

Why SHOULD virtually all residence
eases in he city begin and end oct,
| 7 Is the question New Workers. are ask
ng themselves this fall The first an
] 5war island ordinarily Il would satisfy
the ordinary GothAmite-it has always
been that way. There may be Other
perfectly good answers, but nobody
seemed to remember them when Louis
Lee Arms went out to round UP = NOV
ing day story for the New York Tri-
The turmoil and economic upsettlhr
incident to the yearly SHIFT Of thou
ssnqs OF households In . few days ha
always been bad enough, but Il Wa
worse this season. The general hoos'
IN rent rates added immensely to IN,
number Of those who fluttered up ltk
BIRDS and after a whirl or two settleh
down again not far from where the
arose, The change OF residence in tn
metropolis Oct. /. or as near that dat
as IL was possible to get with tn
iaoillties At hand, was estimated At
hundred thousand, The number OF var
Of all sorts available was about S,M
The average time consumed ia loadins
hauling and unloading each household
er'S goods WAS four hours. Figure that
cut and then add the fact that prao-
tlcally every family that moved forced
some other family TO move and the
result car easily be imagined,
But, like most other crises, II set peor
pie 70 thinking, The Van Owners as.
ISOLATION Is leading off and the real
estate agents are showing signs OF fol-
lowing The a owners have reduced
their thoughts to figures and II the
real estate people find a way TO put
their end Of the problem into the same
concrete form, lease endings may be
scattered over at least half the year
1.-The summer half-and the worry Of
MT. Householder, II not his expenses,
be considerably curtailsd.
Not only Is the ~ subjected to
great ~ineonvenience by the annual NOV,
ing panic, but storage and moving conf
panies suffer actual loss through tho
concentration Of business, Is the con-
clusion Of Charles Morris, president Of
the Van Owners association of greater
New York. The man who pays $40
. Va an hour for . van finds Il hard
70 agree viii, Mr.. Morris, but here is
the way Mr.. Morris figures Il out:
The cost Of one van for one year
amounts to, say, $2,SS5.60 for upkeep,
or S1.S5 a day, to which may be added
on the majority Of the 300 working days
" for gasoline and oil, IS. SO. for driver,
$l2.7b for helpers and 60 cents for com,
pensation, Il total Of 500. so a day. The
cost to the patron has been raised from
w an hour to $40, which means an in
come Of 800 for a 10.hour day-~-a hand
some profit while II lasts.
But-and here's the rub. according TO
Mr., M~orns-there is more business than
can be handled for q week or two and
nothing much doing the rest OF the year
and the companies that deal with union
labor often have TO put their drivers
70 packing, for which, Of course, they
have to be. paid drivers wages, The
crews have to be kept intact because
there is enough business to Keep tina
vans going NJ average Of three DAYS
4 week the year round, and It can not
ton. ~
The present system hits the house.
holder with double force, toe. Mr., Nor
ris says, and through no fault Of the
van owners. Many apartment houses |
have no way Of getting furniture IN
and out except by the freight elevator, |
II three families In the building have
engaged vans from three different
companies for the same hour. the crew
that gets possession Of the elevator first
naturally monepoll1es II until ia van
is loaded, The other two crews lit by |
the hiIl N