The Washington herald., 1922-02-26
u. S. HIGHWAYS SHOULD FIRST
SERVE FARMERS ADVOCATED
Half Of Our Perishable Foodstuffs Never
Reach Consumers, Says Hoover.

from the market at which they
are sold.
BY motor trucks" he adds. the
farmer will be able to reach bet
ter, markets further away than by
morse and wagon. He will be able
70 spend more time actually pro-
dueing on his farm and be able to
sell FOOD more cheaply by elm
mating the present tremendous
waste. BY use Of motor trucks
the farmer will be able to produce
more and sell at less cost"
IN ADDITION to this, IL will serve
sreatly to relieve the railroads of
their terminal expense in handling
less-thsn-csrload freight over dis
tsnces up to seventy-ffve miles
perhaps. This is the most ex-
pensive freight which the railroads s
haul' and nearly every pound of IL
represent sea loss to them.
BY series of motor truck trunk
line highways this congestion can
be avoided in the large centers. for
1t Is near and between such centers
that the need for them exists and
there the greatest number of motor
trucks is concentrated. These
trunk-line highways will have
many radials. or feeder highways.
which will tap all the adjacent ter
ritory. The day may well come
when we shall see a multitude OF
trucks rolling across the land
headed for these main lines. where
they will be organized into trains
or conveys and moved under a
rigid trafiic control by the block
system OF signalling with gasoline
and emergency repair stations at
intervals all along the routes.
This will cut the amount of time
lost to a minimum, with the ac-
compa nying increase in tons hauled
per day and its corresponding de-
crease in cost per 100 pounds per
ton mile. As such a plan as this
develops on the magnificent scale
to which it lends itself, one may
well see the high cost Of living de-
crease permanently. for IL will
mean that ma ny more people will
come to the stores that supply the
necessities OF life to persons resi-
dent in a territory served by such
method of transportation.
1t has been the experience OF
those who have motorized their de-
NiNC lhdl uOluB 81 mas
greatly increased their field OF
service and consequently their sales
by the fact that the purchasers
could generally get their merchan-
disc delivered the day after Their
purchase. as well as giving a much
greater variety and range of prices
and quality to choose from. Few
people have realized fully what q
tremendous adjunct to sales in
crease a widespread delivery serv-
ice has meant except those rev
who have scientifically developed
the service for all there is in it
A development Of this sort would
also open up a field which is not
now regarded with the respect II
deserves-that of transportation
engineering. Too few people real
ize that motor trucks should be
routed and dispatched as railroad
trains are. and that. in general
they should be operated on exactly
similar lines. This has been done
in isolated instances with such as
founding results in efficiency and
economy that those in charge OF
such installations have found
themselves prophets without hon
or" for few believe they have ac-
complished the results they claim.
1t can be done. il has been done.
and with motor truck highways and
transportation engineering We may
see the promise OF the motor
truck performed" The motor truck
may then take its place as the most
valuable unit in our trinity Of
transportati ion-land. water and air.