San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-03-02
SAYS EFF RTS.
T0D00M MOTOR
TRUCKSFUT TILE
By Legislating Them Out
Of Existence Progress
Would Be Shackled.
AN ECONOMIC SAVING
Reduce Distribution Costs
and Prices Consum-
er Pays.

efforts to legislate motor trucks
out Of existence are only attempts to
shackle progress and are doomed to
meet the defeat that has been the end
of all retrogressive movements" de-
clared w. l.. Day, president and gen.
eral manager of the General Motors
Truck company, when discussing pro-
posed laws that would hamper motor
trucking.
Motor trucks are here to stay"
continued Mr.. Day. "They are prov
ing 70 be a big factor in the cur
tailment of distribution costs, and,
therefore, an economic saving.
Instead of trying to handicap the
use of motor trucks. law-making bod
les should be doing everything in their
power to encourage more widespread
adoption of this time and expense saw
ing method of Transporting merchan-
disc. Every cent saved in distribution
costs automatically reduces prices paid
by the consumer, who is also the
voter. Both good business and good
politics demand that legislators care
fully examine the question of truck
transportation before taking any ac-
ton.
Do Not Injure Roads.
"No one ventures to deny that mo-
tor trucks are filling necessary
need. The one complaint voiced is
that they tend to injure roads. That
was true a number of years ago. AT
that time the correct distribution of
weight was not as scientifically de-
termined by truck manufacturers; tire
koI I'd for :.
there was a tendency to overload, and
road building was virtually in an ex-
perimental stage.
To-day conditions are different.
Trucks are made to carry loads with
out injury to roads or mechanism. The
introduction of the tractOr-truck has
solved the proper weight distribution
over q sufficient number of wheels to
carry the heaviest load. In fact the
tractor-truck has been one of the great
est advances in motor transportation.
Builds roads to Withstand the pres
ent day requirements, not those of 10
years ago, and there will be no cause
to complain against motor trucks"
Aid In Road Building.
In these days of road building &C.
tivity motor trucks are proving the
pathfinders and are doing the pioneer
work for their more aristrocratie
brothers, the passenger cars. Theil
is the job of carting heavy loads over
soft dirt and mud when new roads
are being graded, and of retracine
their paths with tons of road building
material. At the same time they have
to travel over improved roads where
the maximum speed their weight will
permit is required
To meet the exacting requirements
Of this work, and also those every de-
Nery unit has to contend with on the
unpaved highways found in every COM
munity, an economical truck that CON-
bines great pulling power and yet is
speedy is essential. The only solution
Of the problem so far found, accord
ing to automotive engineers, is the
two-range transmission which has been
developed by the General Motors Truck
company.
Under ordinary use truck with
the two-range transmission operates
on four speeds so geared that they give
the maximum speed for the size OF
the truck. BY the shift Of lever how
ever, another set of speeds are avail
able. These low rouge speeds are
equivalent to a truck equipped with a
low speed rear axle and provide a
maximum pulling power.
High Speed Axle Economical.
Ninety per cent of the time truck
operates most economically If equipped
with a high speed rear axle, or in the
two range transmission on the high
speed range. The other ten per cent
however, represents the emergencies
that the ordinary higa speed truck can.
not surmount.
The two-range transmission makes
truck operation more flexible: it pro.
duces maximum power with an engine
of economical size, operating under
governed speed, and has been found to
be much more economical.