The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-04-12
Frederick Haskin's Letter.
The Exit of the Truck Horse.
tsbeci.I Correspondence of The Argus.l

New York City, April 1.-THE
truck horse may be slow, but at
least his exit from New York will
be speedy, if the traffic improve
ments recently proposed by DR..
DR.. John A. Harriss, special dep
uty police commissioner of traffic
here, are put into effect.
Il believe" says DR.. Harriss,
that law should be passed at
once putting an end to the use OF
horses in Manhattan by 1925. That
would give the owners of horses
warning and plenty of time in
which to dispose of their animals.
The horse is too SLOW It slows
down traffic everywhere. The auto
mobile is now cheaper than the
horse for every kind of yehicular
use"
Since DR.. Harriss is the man who
introduced, as an experiment at his
own expense, the traffic towers
which have brought order out of
chaos on Fifth avenue, his judg-
ment is much respected. II he as
serts that the horse-drawn vehicle
is clogging the city's traffic arter-
les, the public is willing to concede
that he knows what he is talking
about. But the Horse Association
of America is not. It has come for
ward with a loud protest, backed
by private testimonials and statis-
tics.
Business men in New York
know that it is ridiculous to talk
of speeding up traffic by the elm
nation OF the horse" declares
Wayne Dinsmore, secretary of the
association. "Only the other day,
the transportation manager of one
of New York's largest ice compa-
MES, declared that better time could
be made in the downtown districts
with a team than with a motor
truck, and in actual delivery work
there is no comparison between the
two.
Statistics show that without ex-
ception horses are the cheapest to
operate, the longest to live and the
easiest to handle on all short hauls
in cities where frequent stop work
and deliveries within a radius of
10 miles from the heart of the city
are essential.
Big Loads, Short Hauls.
Consider the situation of the
trucking companies, for example.
The island of Manhattan is narrow,
and the docking facilities are locat,
ed along both sides of the island,
while warehouses and railroad de-
pots are centrally located. This
means that trucking companies in
to handle with minimum length
Of haul.
1.-The congestion in the business
sections of the city, where most of
the trucking is done, makes travel
necessarily slow. The exclusive
use OF automobiles in place of
horses in these areas would in
crease the congestion without no.
ticeable speeding up of traffic.
Horses are more easily stopped and
started than motor trucks Think
of how difficult it would be to de-
liver milk by motori
Furthermore" continues Mr.
Dinsmore, statistics do not bear
out DR.. Harriss' statement that the
automobile is now cheaper than the
horse for every kind of vehicular
use. Figures are available which
show that the actual cost of oper-
ating a five-ton gas truck for a
nine-hour day equals S26,25 as
against $13.o5 for the cost of oper-
ating one five-ton two-horse wagon
truck for the same period.
only last year. he points out,
1.-The committee on local delivery of
the American Institute of Meat
Packers made an exhaustive inves-
tigation of the comparative costs of
operating gas and electric autos as
compared to horses. The results
convinced them that. for anything
under 20 miles a. day, the horse is
more economical"
While it is doubtless true that,
here and there, individual firms
have found it more convenient and
economical to use the horse in