The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-03-06
Old Faithful Horse Victorious
Over Chugging Motor.
Gravel Hauling War Near To-
.peka Settled by Farmers.
LOOKED LIKE A STRIKE ONCE
Trucks Earned $40 a Day and
the Horses Only $40.
Pit Moved to impossible Depth
and Motors Lost Out.

/ Dobbin need not seek pastures new
because of the advent of the gasoline
buggies and wagons on the farm.
Faithful Dobbin upon whom for CEN
turtles, the farmer depended for his
motive power, is standing pat. albeit,
with a somewhat sardonic grin, for
Doobin has found that there are times
and places where the gasoline engine
will not do her duty either better or
as well. Witness the victory recorded
at Silver Lake in the past few weeks
and ponder.
When the Shawnee county officials
decided that the highway leading
northward to the Jackson county line
should be surfaced with a gravel and
clay mixture, it was decided also that
as the work was being done in winter
time and as that was the off part of
the year for the farmers. that the
farmers of the Silver Lake district
should be given first chance at the
jobs created by the new project.
The farmers were put on the job
both as laboFers at the gravel pits
and as teamsters. hauling the gravel
to the roadway to be surfaced. The
men with teams were put on the
county pay roll and were paid off at
the rate of $1.4o for each cubic yard
of gravel hauled. BY making three
trips per day hauling two yards at a
trip the farmers were able to start
work at 3 O'Clock in the morning and
finish in plenty of time to do the eve
ming chores and still chalk up $40
as the days wage.
Then Came the Motor.
All went merrily for a time. Then
the farmers and Silver Lake men who
owned motor trucks learned of the
chance and obtained jobs, too. Then
things did not go so merrily. The
truck owners hauled loads of two
cubic yards each just as did the farm
ers who used teams of horses, but by
virtue of their greater speed were able
to make many more trips per day and
some of them ran up daily wage ac-
counts of from $25 to $40. Besides
the envy at the higher denominations
of the check paid the truck owners,
the farmers who used teams also saw
the graveled road finished possibility
long before it would be time for them
to start their regular spring work.
There was talk of strike by the horse
owners. There were jibes and jeerS
from the truck owners and civil war
threatened to break out on the Job.
The truck owners saw easy money and
intended to stay put. The farmers saw
a fine winters campaign all spoiled
by modern invention.
Old Dobbin Wins.
But It is all solved now. There are
! a score of teams working on the job
and the trucks are noticeable for their
absence. The farmers are earning
their sS.40 per day and see continu-
ance of the program until the latter
part of March. All Is as happy and
jolly as If a cloud had never hung
over Dobbin's head.
The solution was simple. The man
in charge of the road work is a farm
er himself. Also he is a diplomat He
saw that there were not enough
trucks on the job to keep the gravel
supply moving if the teams quit and
that there were enough teams avail
able to handle the transport problem il
the trucks went elsewhere, so he SIM
ply moved the gravel pit. The new
source of supply for the road surface
ing material is in q hollow. The
ground thereabout is soft and there
are steep hills on each side. The
trucks simply could not get out once
they were loaded. The farmers by
doubling up their teams got out cas-
lily and besides the new pit was closer
to their homes than the first one.
There you are. Dobbin has come
back. She has won a victory over the
gas engine and established the fact
that it will be some time before she
will be eliminated as a part of a farm
er's equipment.