The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-23
Returned American Soldiers VIII Create Big Truck Demand
One Hundred Thousand American Soldier -Chauffeurs Coming Back From War to Open New Epoch in
 American Automotive Industry

Highway Transport is the name of the new epoch in the American automobile industry.
 The motor truck has come into its own, as a result of the war and the greatest single development of the motor industry has marked the comparatively few weeks since the war was ended.
 And back from the American army of soldiers is coming new army of highly trained motor vehicle men, chauffeurs, repair men, executives, hundred thou sand and more of them. Not a single state in the union will fail to feel the / thrill of a new life in it's highway de- velopment with the return of these dis ciplined, often times battle-scarred chauf- feur-soldiers.
 The motor truck, with it's unlimited op- portunities for short distance and long hauls, has been a demonstrated success by Uncle Sam on scale never before possible for any single manufacturer or even any group of manufacturers.
 The motor transport corps of the United States army operated a grand fleet, fleet of 75,000 and more trucks alone, in groups of thousands, in smaller units. and as single vehicles for miscellaneous de- livery.
 With tho end of the war there is revolution in the personnel of the auto- mobile industry. The war with its break ing down of many phases of American business life has in the automotive field broadened the industry. and opened the dield to a perspective never before real ized
 The human and mechanical elements are both affected by this revolution. When the United States went into the war, it was with the motor truck as an innovation, hardly beyond the experi- ntol Gatd fr0p Today the war has demonstrated the truck as a carrier for long and short distances, in huge fleets, as rival of the rail transportation, dangerous rival for short haul work.
 In the human side of the revolution, is the return to the industry of men trained in the broad field of the motor truck as seen in the war, a veritable army of trained automobile experts com iEg back to operate trucks, and garages, men who really know the machine they drive as no one in ordinary civil life can come to know the heart and soul of his vehicle.
 One of the greatest things in Americas prosecution of the war was the manner in which the country was searched for fit men for motor transport service. The universities, the farms, the oil fields, the cities alike were canvassed for volun- teers for this service Rich mems sons were educated with the boys of the poor, and then sent across to drive trucks hundreds of miles with big cargoes of supplies to convoy troops under fire along the front of the fighting armies, and these are the men who are coming back to make highway transportation the biggest thing in the American transpor- tation world. When America entered the war, the entire army was only about 100000 men. When the war ended, there ov1x txxyfn hof In1h n m o. tor transport corps alone.
 At first the men for this corps were taken from garages. from taxi companies. taken wherever there were men to be found who knew motor vehicles. The supply of trained chauffeurs who could enter the army was soon short of the needs. Then the American universities came into the field. Among the first was Purdue university at Valparaiso. Ind. A motor school was opened there. Various technical motor schools as at Kansas City and ePittsburg, threw their resources into training men for the service, and when the armistice came there were none great centers for preliminary training of me nfor this corps ready for establish ment west of the Mississippi alone.
 Meanwhile, the training progressing in some 90 cantonments and army camps, was being standardized by the motor transport corps headquarters at Wash inEton, where Brig. Gen. Charles B. Drake had been named as chief of the corps. On the other side, Colonel Pope, one of the early advocates of extensive motor military transportation, like Gen eral Drake, was operating the motor fleet on the lines of the French trans port system. In America General Drake called together educators and specialists in motor transportation, and prepared for the establishment of training schools for nff nd schools were being conducted for men already with the A. E. F.
 A wonderful schedule of education was worked out, with vehicle school at Camp Joseph E. Johnston, Fla, and an administrative school at Camp Meigs, Washington, D. C., half dozen section al schools, and a chautauqua circuit to