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Show Just Between You And Me They call it America's love affair with the automobile. auto-mobile. In the wide open spaces of the west, and for rural residents in most of the country, it's less like a love affair than a vicious triangle with the automobile in one corner, the soaring gas prices in another and us caught in the other corner. cor-ner. For many of us the only means of transportation is the automobile and its not a matter of choice, but necessity. neces-sity. 0 -Take Milford for instance. There is no bus service, no passenger train, and air service is difficult to say the least. Travel inside the city limits or outside the city limits, requires an auto-" mobile. It is the onlymeans of transportation. Even if you wanted to take a bus, it is necessary to travel 70 miles round trip to catch one, and then have someone meet you, constituting consti-tuting another 70 mile round trip, or a total of 140 miles by automobile, even if you just are going to Salt Lake. Since the trip to Salt Lake is only 200 miles, there would only be a saving of 60 miles to drive yourself, and you'd still have a 200 mile bus ride, plus need for taxi, bus, or car rental when you reach the city. Show me the saving and it certainly cer-tainly wouldn't be as convenient. 0 - Commercial transportation transpor-tation between major metropolitan metro-politan centers, and within metropolitan areas is a feasible, if not always convenient con-venient alternative. We firmly believe that all reasonable effort should be made to make it not only convenient, but pleasant, and reasonable. We heartily approve the concept of mass transportation, trans-portation, but it will never be practical for rural areas. - 0 - Take for Instance the individual indi-vidual who finds it necessary to travel from Milford to central Washington. The trip is less than 1000 miles by automobile. By plane or train it's necessary to travel 200 miles to board a commercial com-mercial flight or Amtrac. Either will deposit you from 150-250 miles from your destination. Consequently, the traveler must in order to use commercial mass transportation, transpor-tation, for a 900 to 1000 mile trip, must travel 800-900 miles by auto to make connections, con-nections, effectively defeating defeat-ing any savings that might have been realized by using mass transportation. If that constitutes a love affair with the automobile let me off -I'll walk. - 0 - We believe in conservation to the point that unnecessary driving should be curtailed as much as possible. But anybody who disillusions themselves that conservation conser-vation will solve the gas shortage is either niave or just plain stupid. But the Governor has laid down the law, and you'll find wall to wall bears on the freeways, and at times almost anyplace, so if you must drive, pay close attention atten-tion to double nickles. " - 0 - What is so ironic about the whole thing is that while the administration has been telling us that the OPEC raise would raise the pump price two cents a gallon, gas prices have increased from 14-20 cents up and down the pike. Worst is that OPEC oil, since the price increase hasn't hit the market yet. o - And the old rebate ploy is back again. Manufacturers raise prices so they won't get caught if price controls go into effect, and then offer rebates, which will be quickly dropped if Carter Car-ter freezes prices. Either way, the retailer takes it on the chin. - 0 - Some economists advocate advo-cate buy,-"buy, buy! before prices go up more. But the smart ones won't buy what they don't need, and won't go in debt, if they can avoid it. - 0 - Don't forget theStockshow Saturday, which will be honored by the presence of Governor Matheson. He's no fool he's had a sample of a Minersville feed on several occasions, and knows a good thing where the prices are right. |