Omaha daily bee., 1919-06-29
MANY HOMELESS
AMERICANS NOW
CRY FOR SHELTER
Gigantic Building Program
Gives Contractors Many
Problems Which Only
Trucks Can Solve.

Homeless Americans, thousands
of them in nearly every part of this
country-are walking the streets.
eagerly watching for vacant house
of even few rooms in which they
may live. As result of this con-
dit1on we are witnessing one of the
most staggering building programs
in the history of this country-a
program that is compelling the con-
tractors to use every known device
that makes for efficiency in building
and one in which the motor truck
looms up as the greatest aid in the
transportation of this vast volume
of building materials.
The homeless, in their mad desire
to get home, or room, are re-
sorting to every known method that
will bring results. They are bribing
rental agents and offering fabulous
rents for any kind of dwelling that
affords shelter.
The appeal of these homeless peo-
pie is becoming almost as pathetic
as those in the war torn countries.
The seriousness of this problem can
easily be visualized when we see
people living in tents, houseboats,
and practically every imaginable
shanty that affords shelter from
the sun and rain.
This condition requires the inn
mediate erection of thousands of
homes and buildings. To do this,
and effectively meet the on-rush of
building progress it is no longer safe
for the contractors to rely upon the
horse-drawn vehicle for their deliv-
cry of materials, for blaming the
delays on old methods is not a very
acceptable excuse when the men who
let out these contracts know that
fleet of good motor trucks will full
fill this demand for quick deliver
les day after day.
If more homes and buildings must
be built each day, the excavating
must be carried out faster-more
brlck-more steel--more lumber and
plaster must be delivered each day,
otherwise this task will not be ac-
complished; but the contractor can
overcome this situation by placing
good, reliable motor trucks to work
on his delivery equipment, instead
of wasting time with the old meth
DDS.
Some of the most successful build
ing contractors in the country have
been farsighted enough to see this
condition. They have availed them
selves of this more efficient delivery
utility and now their motor trucks
haul the steel, the brick, the tile, the
cement, the lumber and the plaster
from which the homes, factories, Of
fices and buildings are fashioned.
Look at their delivery equipment
and you will find that it ranges from
light truck for small fixtures to the
ponderous dump body type for the
giant load.
Having decided that the motto,
truck is the logical servant to meet
this bigger, quicker and more eff
cient delivery demand, the next
problem is the selection of bodies
that will be of the greatest value to
the contractor. One of the Paige
truck dealers who is in touch with
all the building contractors in a
large city, makes study of their
needs, has this to say regarding the
most serviceable type of body for
construction work:
"The contractors are making a big
demand for 3H ton trucks equipped
with the hoist type bodies, as they
permits a much wider use in build
are realizing that this type of body
ing construction work, because it is
adapted to haul almost any kind of
building materials"