Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-04-13
RURAL EXPRESS
GAINS GROUND
over NEBRASKA
Gain Of 800 Per Cent in
Amount Of Live Stock
Delivered in South
Omaha.
(Motor Worldly


the motor truck as freight vehicle
comes from Nebraska with the new,
tina. the Nebraska State Railway
commission is looking into the mat
ter Of freight rates charged by thu
lines now i'll existence. The objec
is to standardize these rates.
This movement follows routine
announcement in the annual repor
OF the South Omaha stockyards
that quarter million of live animal.
were delivered to the stockyard.
during the year 1918, an increase o.
more than 800 per cent over the
1917 record. That this number will
not be reduced this year is indicated
by the figures for January, which
report that 2l,486 hogs were de-
livered at the yards that month. TIL,
number of other animals was not in
Guided in the monthly report.
From Nearby Farms.
The Omaha stockyard figures
have been attracting much atten
ton in the middle western state.
since they were published the frs
of the year and many transporta.
ton people have sought an expla.
nation. The facts revealed are thai
the greater part of the 100000 an.
imals delivered came from farms
within radius of Is miles of the
stockyards and were delivered by
trucks running on recently estab-
lished freight lines.
These lines bring produce Of ali
kinds into Omaha and take back
merchandise to local merchants. The
lines are joining to organize depots
for groups, the idea being to reduce
the overhead and pickup charges.
Where stores sell freight that is
difficult to load, such as machinery
the trucks cali at the freight room
Small package freight is picked ur
at the depots, where the stores de-
liver it.
Rates Adjustable.
The Omaha rates are said to
present complicated study. Some
of them are adjusted on a more OF
less scientific schedule as to weight
and distance and others are just
figures which REPRESENTATIVES. II
is the latter condition and COM
plants arising from it which have
attracted the State Railway com
mission. Men who have made "a
partial investigation of these rates
say that the present average is rs
cents per hundredweight for all dis
tances to Is miles and cent per
hundredweight per mile after that
distance.
Railroad men in Omaha arc re-
ported to be accepting this situa-
ton with more or less satisfaction
AS matter of fact the railroads
never have favored the handling OF
live stock for short hauls. The
time, damage claims and the clean
ing of cars and other handicaps are
said to have made this traffic very
expensive as compared with the
rates the roads are allowed to
charge.
To Cover Entire State.
Nebraska is in many sections pre-
senting a very favorable develop
ment of the rural express idea, SO
much so that some of the strong
farmer organizations in the state
are planning a cooperative motor
truck service that will criss-cross
the entire state. The centers for
this service are planned in the chief
markets and railway points, with a
view Of developing car-lot ship
ments of freight at stated intervals
from certain points. The idea be-
hind it is that the farmer who wants
to ship something can hang the mo-
tor motor truck flag at his front
gate and the truck will stop and
pick up his shipment without trou-
BILE to him and at no greater ex-
pense than was imposed upon him
when hauling this small shipment to
the railroad station.
Long Haul Problem.
One idea behind this general plan,
which is expected to develop this
spring, is that such an organizatio
would have emergency truck capac-
ity and might, in time, be able to
move the accumulated freight at
trade centers to larger markets on
trucks. However, the long haul for
such freight is still problem iH the
eyes of the Nebraska folk. But they
are sure that such fleet of trucks
could be sent to this district when
the potato movement is on, to that
district to handle peaches, over there
for strawberries and some place else
for the cabbage or wheat crop,
The gathering of these various
crops, usually on farms in much
less than ,ar-lot quantities, would
enable car-lot shipments to eastern
markets of much material that is
now lost because Farmer Jones does
not want to bother with his five
bushels and Farmer Smith is too
busy to take his own machine and
haul seven bushels nine miles to
the shipping point. However you
look at it, the Nebraska situa ton
is one that should be watched and
given every encouragement, for il
holds large possibilities and if prop