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Show OSE OF MOTOR TRUCKS MIUIM6 TO BE SAVED The war has speeded up transportation transporta-tion as well as production. It has led also to intensive thinking as contrasted contrast-ed with taking things for granted. We are beginning to doubt intclligentlv. to ask why, in this the most progressive progres-sive of all railroad operating nations, one link in the delivery chain should be pathetically weak, needlesslv ex-! pensive, archaic in its relation to mod- n T" n r- i f - nrtnilfnnf 1 ' nn..n nr.'it: i I ton Melhuish, president of the Fulton Motor Truck company. "Before the war sent water rates skyward, one could ship a barrel of flour from Minneapolis to Jersev Cilv by rail, then by water to Liverpool", and again by rail to Birmingham for less than he could move it from Jersey Jer-sey City to Brooklyn, through the usual trucking channels. Re-handling costs money; but congestion costs more money, and congestion is iho middle name of Mr. City Horse. Horses Responsible. "In downtown New York all street traffic is limited to the speed of the slowest moving ,unit. The slowest moving unit Is tho horse truck, moving about two and one-half miles an hour. Fully 95 per cent of all the jams in street traffic are chargeable to horse-drawn horse-drawn vehicles. If motor vehicles were substituted, city streets, narrow as they are. would handle three times the present traffic. They would be cleaner and safer. "The part which such obsolete and costly trucking methods play in the high cost of living may bo appreciated when it is realized that tho cost of getting New York's food from tho terminals ter-minals to the buyers' doors rnnges from $250,000,000 to 5600,000.000. From the terminals, mind you; not from the farms. That this sum could be cut in half with motor delivery and modem freight-handling machinery is beyond serious question. 20,170 Trucks Would Replace Horses. "Thore are 121,000 horses in Now York. They consume enough food each year lo feed a quarter of a million people. Counting reserve horses, we may assume that one truck will do the work of six quadrupeds, and on this basis, 20,170 trucks would replace tho 121,000 horses. "Not more than 1613 stables averaging aver-aging sevonty:flve horses each would be needed if It woro possible to centralize cen-tralize all the horses in New York In stables of this size. But the horse must be housed near his work, and as 'a result we have between S000 and 9000 stables scattered through the cross -streets of Manhattan and other boroughs, and housing all the way from one to 600 horses each. These stables cover in the aggregate seventy-five acres of land, most of it very valuable. And some of them are four, five and even six stories high. This Is a vast economic waste. "The 60,000 horse teams in Nev York placed end to end would make a column 310 miles long, whilo the 20,000 motor trucks that can do their work make a column only sixty-four miles long. This surely is saving room on tho road. Big Saving in Space Could be Effected. "The city horse is not content with eating ten times his own weight each year, but he must have 310 square feet of stable room for himself, his food and his equipment. This Is to say that his housing displacement is three times that of the motor truck, while his energy, as represented by tractive effort and mileage-covering ability is one -sixth as much. This, remember, while limiting the motor truck to the city. "To get down to cases on land waste, a garage SO-100 feet and five stories high will not only house about 150 trucks, ono and one-half to two-ton, two-ton, but provides for a small machine shop as well. These 150 trucks will cio the work of 150 teams, which, with 150 reserves means 3150 horses. To horse even 500 horses and 25U wagons would require a six -story stable 300 by 100 feet, or, If we want to be real y wasteful, a smaller stable and approximately approxi-mately four city lots for wagon yards. And there won't be room for a three months' supply of pressed hay, either. "When business men realize tne versatllltv of the various types of trucks, the tremendous economies they effect and the vast civic Improvements thev eventually will bring about, they will sec progress in more than the mule market and conservation in more thThof0small boy is always heard wlisn posing amid tlic scenory. |