Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-16
In Behalf of the Horse
BY Frederic J. Hnskin

Now OrfS, req. 10 ne lash ure
horse in New York is scheduled to be
auctioned off this month. and the entire
Z fire department is TO be motorized, much
20 the distress of the members Of the new
Horse Publicity Association OF America
who arc bitterly opposing every substitu-
tion of motor for horse.
In changing its means of locomotion,
the fire department declares that the city
has grown SO huge, and the distances 70
be covered are so long that the horse is
no longer equal to the tas IA conclusion
which seems TO be acceptable TO every
body except this new organization Tor the
championship of the horse They re-
main unconvinced until they see the actual
figures. Are we sure, they ask cautiously,
that the motor can outran the horseY
Do we absolutely know that the motor IS
more efficient, or do VIC merely think so?
And so on, until by the time the III. p.
A. A. gets through with you, you have the
guilty feeling of having done your favorite
animal great injustice, and that perhaps
your knowledge of motor transportation
rs about as limited as your opinions con-
cerning spiritism.
For the nast few years il has been taken
for granted by most people that rs q
means of quick and efficient transporta-
ton, the horse WAS fast becoming back
number. Gradually, more and more
trucks have appeared on the city streets,
and one by one the largest business houses
of the country have sold their horses and
introduced motor trucks into their de-
livery systems. Moreover, the statistics
show that this is not merely a hsliuclna-
tion on the part of the public, but that
the number of horses in industry Is actu-
ally rapidly decreasing
HORSE prshppp.RfSG
In 1910, for example, there were i23, "a
horses on the streets of New York. By
1917 that figure had been reduced to
los. .OS6, while according 10 the latest
report Of the United States Department
OF Agriculture, there are only 1910
horses owned in the metropolis this year.
In Chicago the number Of horses has dc
creased by seventeen per cent IN the past
year.
The Horse Publicity Association admits
that these figures are only too true, but
they believe this widespread substitution
of the motor for the horse Is due to nls-
taken sense Of values on the part OF the
driving or delivering public. They
believe that we sre all motor mad, and
that If VIC would only pause and calmly
.epnSder the facts we would find that the
horse and wagon, while old fashioned,
are a cheaper mesns of transportation
then the motor truck. They do not blame
q for holding such high opinion of the
efficiency OF the motor truck, because,
they Assert, We hive been subjected to
the ltisticst hind of an advertising cam
pAign for the past few years IN which We
have been told over and over sgaln how
much better IL the truck Millions OF
dollars have been spent by the automobile
industry, they declare, IN convincing us
Now the III. p. A. A. proposes to spend
. lot more money in showing US that we
are all wrong.
I'VE horserncn have eat stiIl and twid-
died our thumbs in the face of a situation
that has called for vigorous action"
declared the secretary of the association
during . recent meeting, "many OF us
secretly fearing or openly admitting thst
the automobile has doomed the horse,
when the most cursory investigation VIII
prove that the decline of the horse has
not been justified by the facts IN the case:
What the horse needs is 8 fair trial, and
If condemned. well and good. But he
wont be condemned Merchants pur-
chase motor driven trucks and delivery
wagons for commercial purposes without
examination of comparative costs, be-
cause they think it Is the thing to do. |
Horsemen are entirely ct fault for thus |
condition. 1t is our aim to remedy the |
fault.
CLAIM HORSE cHEArEH
ssWe want to pound home the claim /
that for anything up to fifteen miles, /
the horse Is cheaper than the automobile |
1t L our claim that for the short-haui, |
and many-stop traffic, the horse Is more |
reliable and cheaper than the motor, and /
that the growth Of the automobile ID this
I s,,*.- I1f
believe that eighty per cent of all hauling
can be done cheaper by horse, than by
automobile truck.
In proof of this contention, the horse
men quote certain figures obtained from
q large packing house which show that
'sthe cost of delivery for an average trip
of ten miles was thirty-hve cents per cwt.,
with q two-ton automobile truck, as
against fifteen cents for a one-horse
wagon" This does not take into con-
sideration the cost OF depreciation IN the
auto-truck which during the second year
would be greatly increased. while there
would be very little depreciation In a
wagon, they point out
The initial cost of the two-ton auto
truck, according to the horsemen, Is
hundred dollars, while q
two borse truck, including horse and
foetS OIis a iUo1calu NOliaiS-
The motor truck wears out In i've years,
while the horse-drawn vehicle, the horse
men claim, Will have 10 be discarded only
At the end OF fifteen years. Mules are
even more economical. they assert. You
can buy two teams of mules for thousand
dollars, which will do as much work as
hve-ton truck for which you must pay six
thousand dollars Overlooking too, they
declare, rs much less dangerous with
,orse-drawn vehicles, than with motor
apparatus.
As an illustration of this superior
Efficiency of mules TO trucks, the associa-
ion saws it knows of two mules that
cost only FIVE hundred dollars
which have been driven on the streets of
Richmond for the past fourteen years.
During this time, the horsemen figure,
hese two mules have travelled distance
learly twice the circumference Of the
arth and have hauled a tonnage equal
o a freight train twenty-six miles In
ength, or some such comparison.
For the short time that 1t has been in
xistence, the Horse Publicity Association
{ America mas gathered a large and be-
sldering lot of data TO sustain its horse
artInents. 1t has even gone elaborately
mt. the sentimental aspects Of the ques-