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Show CHAIN STORE HEAD OPPOSES TRUCK HAULING Hauling merchandise by trucks in opposition to railroads, is strongly opposed by O. P. Skaggs, head of the Skaggs Safeway stores, among the largest operators in the western country. Mr. Skaggs, in a letter recently re-cently sent to his many managers, urges support of the railroads, where possible, in preference to the trucks. His letter, which follows, speaks the altitude of the nationwide nation-wide merchant; "We have told most of you personally per-sonally at the time of the opening of your store that we did not approve of our merchandise being hauled by trucks, except in Instances where the. truck could deliver it in much shorter short-er time to the store than possible for the railroad company. Most truck haulers' charges are slightly below that charged by the railroad company, com-pany, in most cases consisting of about the amount of the drayage, but this slight saving should not be considered by any member of our organization if the railroad can deliver de-liver in near the same length of time as the trucks. "There are very few towns In the country wherein our stores are located lo-cated that do not have several railroad rail-road employees. The patronage of these employees constitutes a great part of our business at many points. Besides it has never occurred to us that it is right for trucks or buses to lie able to use the public highways, high-ways, and almost free of charge, am" j compete with the railroad companies (which have made great Investments Jin the same territory. Any of you Jean find from your newspapers that tho largest taxpayer in your community com-munity Is the railroad company, meaning that the railroad company is contributing more than anyone else to the building and upkeep of I roads .in order to make it easy for .trucks and buses to take its ljusines.-,. ,Tlie writer lias never ridden in a bus 'but twice. There have been many j times when we have lost some time by waiting over a few hours longer in order to ride the train. Our company com-pany does not ask any of our employees em-ployees to ride buses, so In suggesting suggest-ing to you that you favor the railroads rail-roads who are an essential element in the prosperity, comfort and success suc-cess of your community, we do not ask you to practice anything that wo do not do ourselves. "The railroad men of your town would certainly be rank Bolsheviks if they felt friendly to your store, jand went tbero and bought their i foods, knowing you are discrimlnal-'ing discrimlnal-'ing against their employer, and allowing al-lowing your foods to bo hauled into your town by trucks. We want to jtell you that these railroad fellows are not Bolsheviks. Many of them are more loyal to (heir companies than men of other businesses. Kvon the man who sweeps the freight room floor knows that his job dc-' dc-' ponds on how much business his company can gel. There are not, to .our knowledge, any outstanding cases cas-es where any operator Is not right : toward the railroad company of his town. The object of this communication communi-cation Is more to point out to each member of our organization the reasons rea-sons why we should tint use trucks, than a criticism. "There are many operators In our organization who favor the railroad j to the extent of receiving their freight one day later than would bn possible to receive it. by truck, and we think such operators are not. only wise and fair-minded, but. they are using wonderfully good business 1 judgement. Such procedure, of course, requires a little extra good management on the part of the operator. op-erator. "Just bear this in mind that when you are throwing business to your local railroad company, you are actually ac-tually furnishing work and patronizing patroniz-ing the citizens of your town who are carrying on tin; railroad work, and that tliey look at it that way, as they should." |