Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-05-04

by turning over some ~ ,OUU motor We
hcles built for war purposes to the various
State road departments for use in road
building. At present the States are not
given title to this equipment, and it can
be used only on roads which arc being
built in part by federal aid, but this is ex-
pectcd to be remedied by legislation. The
State will then be able To turn over some
Of the equipment to the counties.
ROADS STIMULATE TRAyPrc.
The completion OF trunk lines between
East and West and North and South will
perhaps stimulate passenger traffic by
highway almost as much as it will stimn-
late freight traffic. For the number of
persons who travel from one part Of the
country To another by motor vehicle is
undoubtedly increasing at great rate.
And this touring" is no longer solely
the sport of rich men that it used to be.
For example, il you hire jitney in Miami,
Florida, in January you are surprised 70
learn that the driver of il is q native Of
some place in Connecticut. He has come
south with his wife and several children
every year for five years, returning north
in the summer. BY following the travel
crowds both he aud his wife are easily
able to get remunerative work and at the
same time 10 escape the extremes Of heat
and cold and sec something Of the world.
Nor are such parapatetic families at all
rare.
A strong evidence Of the increase Of the
auto-nomsd of modest means is the great
boom which is going forward just now in
auto-camping equipment. A great num-
ber of devices have been put on the market
by which nivver may be converted in a
few moments into sleeping chamber,
while cooking outfits. stoves and other
household paraphernaIia for the motorIst
are also available. These devices are
multiplying at great rate, and agencies
for them are springing up everywhere.
American ingenuity is really applying IT.
self To- the task of converting the auto
mobile into a complete home, at least in
way they are, it is no wonder that even
poor men find it expedient 70 take TO the
road and live like Arabs wherever they can
find room to pitch tent II you think this
class of modern nornads is myth, go TO
Florida in the winter or the Rockies in
the summer, and you will see them by the
roadside everywhere. And very happy
healthy lot they look, too.
WE ARE wAvpERLUsTERs.
After all, Americans are all sprung from
n wandering, pioneering stock, and prob
ably most of us are not without a certain
hankering TO take the road and see what
il somewhere else Then, too, there is so
much seasonal work in the United States
that the man who is able 10 go where he
pleases can make money more easily
than the one who has to stay in q certain
place.
The individual who seems 10 be losing
l1-,.tf.r.,1o,.4 #
and highway travel is the horse. As the
good roads advance, he retreats. Until a
couple OF wears ago IL was often pointed
out that despite the great increase in the
use Of motor vehicles, horses were just as
numerous in this country as ever, but this
is no longer true.
The horse population is now in for
big drop. As DIR. II. G. Rommel of the
Department Of Agriculture points out,
the breeding Of heavy draft horses in this
country has fallen off about forty per cent
IN the past few years, and that of light
horses fifty per cent or more. The inn
mediate reason for this is that, while the
price of nearly everything else has doubled
or more than doubled, the price of horses
has increased very little If at ALL The
farmers simply cannot afford TO raise
horses at the current prices IL takes Just
as much feed TO produce a i,5oo-pound
horse as it does to produce fifteen hundred
pounds of beef or mutton, and the horse
takes about five times as long to mature.
Hence it pays better TO raise the beef
and mutton.
The horse is being speeded on the
downward path by a very open and de
lberate propaganda against him carried
on by the truck manufacturers through
their trade papers.
, The Almighty never designed the
brute for traction" one Of these states
editorially. He was probably created
for food Often we find him still so re-
garded. But the cunning and greed Of