, 1922-03-22
A nuLIoN Mons by TRtycx.

freight hauled annually by motor truck In the
United States, rs estimated, reaches a total of 1900
100000 tons" says the Boston Transcript ITO trans
port this great volume of business requires 1000, 900
trucks Added significance is given to the figures by
the fact that the number of trucks in use is increasing
year by year. Here Is a business that may still be de-
scribed as an infant industry, but the infant is one of
amazing ~rnpidity of growth What size it will attain
when it grows up, no man can say.
while the motor trucks move in endless procession
through the streets of the cities and mingio with the
pleasure cars on the highways in rural regions, the
horse is still an important factor in American business.
For many purposes he is still to be preferred, but with
the development of new types of trucks how long that
condition will obtain is problematical. Already it has
been proposed to bar the horse from the business sec
may not be acted upon, but it is Indicative of the trend
Of the times. In many unexpected ways we learn of
the supplanting of the horse by the ,notor-driven ma
chine. Not only Is the tractor used on the farms, but
tractors chug through the great Maine woods In the
dead of winter, keeping open the roads which link to-
gether the logging camps And the tractor may be
described as first cousin to the truck.
"The appearance of the motor truck as a means of
conveyance from city TO city has given rise to much
discussion of its ultimate relation to the railroad. It
is not altopether n question of comparative costs, al
though that hns perhaps taken foremost place in the
discussion In many ways, the advantages of the serv-
ice given by the truck are so great that expense be-
comes a matter of minor importance. Take, for ex-
ample, the transportation of the furniture when a fam
lily changes its place of residence from one ely to an
other. Up to distances of one hundred miles or more,
the goods placed in the truck in the morning at the
old home are in the new by evening. There are here
advantages so obvious that no consideration will be
given, in many cases, to transportation by rail, with
i1 attendant delays, the requirement that goods must
be Grated or otherwise packed, the use of trucks at
both ends of the rail route and the additional hand
ling involved. This is one of the cases in which the
trucks have the advantage as distinct from any advan-
tage in he matter of rates. There are others which
involve the transportation of goods in much larger
volume.
"Clearly, the trucks have a place in the transporta-
ton system. It is not n question whether we shall
have them or have railroads. The question that is
puzziing a great many people today is that of deter
mining the proper scope of activity of the two agen-
cies. In many ways they will be competitors, but in
many ways each win give service that the other can
not as satisfactorily perform, and would do well not
to attempt. Among the problems waiting solution is
that of the extent to which the trucks should contrib
ute to the building and maintenance of the highways.
On the part of the railroads, these is the question
whether, by making changes in equipment and meth
DDS, they could not the better compete where compe-
tition is feasible. Just now there is much confusion
concerning such matters, but it does not indicate that
the problem will not be solved to the advantage of all
concerned"