The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-07

ably crop and decreasing population,
antilles like this are common.
and though they cling to
IN farmers. This old fellow supports
car prices are about the same here
in Belgium.
EIectrifying the Railways
In both France and Belgium they
are discussing electrifying the rail-
ways. The French scheme is asso-
ciated with the Harvesting of the
water power of the Rhone river, an
excellent report upon which has been
made by DR. William c. Huntington,
former commercial attache to the
American embassy in Paris. He says
that the Rhone basin is theoretically
capable of producing 100000
horse power, and that 1t could &C
tually give 100000 horse power all
the year round, which is equal to the
Importation of 100000 tons of coal
per annum. France has a program
to electrfy more than 5000 miles of
railway, covering large part of the
most important French systems. The
total expense is estimated at more
than 100000. 900 francs.
The Belgian scheme of electrifica-
ton is based upon its coal mines. 1t
proposes to begin with the Brussels
Antwerp line, and to go on from here
to the Luxembourg line. IL will have
both self-propelling trains and trains
drawn by electric tractors. The speed
made will be As or SO miles per hour.
Automobiles in Belgium
/ am surprised at the lack Ct motor
car transportation in both Belgium
and France. The United States has
an automobile or truck for every two
families, and France. even at five
people 10 the family, which is a high
estimate for that country. has only
one for every forty families. 1t Is
abe ut the same here in Belgium,
where there are $1,000 cars to seven
or eight million people. Neyerthe
less. Belgium has three times as many
automobiles as she had before the
war, and about one-seventh of them
are of American make. There are
half dozen or more firms manufac-
turing motor vehicles. The three
largest, the Minerva, Metallurgique
and Fabrique National, are making
only light cars. The great part OF
the motor vehicles made in France
are also of low horse power and light
weight on account of the high up
ceeds the cost of our cars at home.
Gasoline in France costs so or rs
cents per gallon, though it is much
less in Belgium. We often filled our
car during our motor trips from
square cans as long as a stock Of
stove wood each holding a little
more than a gallon. 1t took ten of
these cans to fill our tank, and the
man or woman who seld them
hrA 10 nj
poured them in one by one. Occa-
sionally we found a gasoline pump
like those used everywhere in the
States, and most of these were i'm
ported from America. Gasoline is
called essence" in France, the name
coming from the essence of petro-
leuin, which is just what tits.
In Paris our automobile was always
stopped at the gate to see whether
we had taken in any Essence" out
side the city and thereby avoided the
payment of the octroi tax, which is
imposed upon all goods entering
Paris. There were usually a halt
dozen or more cars waiting to re-
port to the tax gatherers the amount
of gasoline they had on hand. Each
motorist measured his tank with
stick going out and stated whether
he had bought any more gasoline be-
fore coming back. If there was any
doubt as to his report the tax col
lectors made their own measure
ments. and, if their sticks showed
he was lying. a heavy fine was i'm
posed.
Private Cars Mere Toys
One striking thing about the pri-
vate car is it's smallness, and another
it's individual character. They have
cars here so small that you could put
one into the tonneau of an American
seven passenger machine and it
would rattle around. In some of the
smaller cars the body hangs down to
within eight or ten inches of the
roadway. and 1t runs On only two or
three horse power. The most popular
of the cheap machines has from five
to ten horse power, and the largest
and best seldom have more than
thirty or forty.
Many of the cars. small and large.
have especially designed bodies.
When a rich Partisan orders an auto
mobile he has plans and specifica-
lions made out as though for a house.