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Show MOTOR MS FOB THE Fii Continuing his speech before the Transportation Conference of the Na tional Automobile Chamber of Com merce in New York City in an early pari of January, Mr. Arthur Capper o'l tho Topekn. Kansas. Farm Press, had the following to say about niotor trucks as applied to the farm: The United States department of agriculture ag-riculture estimates today that more than 70,000 motor trucks arc farm owned. Unfortunately, figures art- not available for all mid western states in reference to the actual farm distribution distribu-tion of motor trucks. But Kansas, ray own stale, may serve perhaps as typl cal lor the rest. Here we have a farming farm-ing population which owns 193,136 motor mo-tor cars-but only l)3lo motor trucks. The moral that can be drawn from Ihese contrasting figures, I shall point out now. Of course, the answer frequently fre-quently given to the relatively low distribution dis-tribution of motor trucks in tin's territory terri-tory is that the American farmer is not yet completely converted to the Idea of power fanning. This might indeed have been very true four or five years ago. But today he has so fast absorbed this idea and has so quickiy put it into practice that we can no longer accuse him of being unconverted uncon-verted to the idea of greater ju'oduc-tivencss ju'oduc-tivencss through an extension of power pow-er rami ing. Your friends, the tractor manufacturers and distributors, can tell you how rapidly the tractor market mar-ket is growing. Today the cry is not "Educate the farmer to the idea of the tractor" but "For Heaven's sake, manufacture man-ufacture fast enough to supply the demand. de-mand. Sell us tractors." Lot me cito another illustration. Since last spring it has been almost impossible to supply the demand for automobiles in this same farm ma: ket. Tho medium-weight, hiedium-piiced car, used or unused, has been nt an absolute premium. This it not because the farmer is given over to the dubious delight of automobile joy riding. Quite the contrary.. With its quickness audi flexibility as opposed to the horse-drawn horse-drawn vehicle, the automobile, both as, a carrier find hauler, "is an absolute necessity to the farmer's business. In fact a recent investigation showed over 75 per cent or tho middle western j lanuers bought their cars not fori pleasure but lor business. .These facts, gentlemen, point iheirj own moral. It i.-. my humble opinion! iiwt too many manufacturers have j J)ceu intrigued by the somewhat, immc- ai.ato and waiting market or the cities, i which arter all is only legitimate and 1 to be expected. Hut such a truck .sales policy lolloweu oo long and lav cx-! clusively, leaves ignored and npglect-j ed the vastly stronger and much larger in all its ultimate potential values, the' farm market of the middle west. I am not prepared to advocate at this point, that policy which would place on every farm, a motor truck, just as I am not prepared at the present pres-ent timt to urge every fanner, irres-i pecuve ot ins resources and acreage,1 to buy a tractor. The mere physical) situation, the man capital and money capital as well as climatic and soil' rac:ors, must bo taken into considera-' lion. Besides, I do not think that' there 13 yet a motor truck or tractor, on the market, sufficiently low-priced,' sufficiently enduring and sufficiently i backed by an adequate service system.' to make every farmer buy one. In . ; fact, it is my conviction that no' farm-' ; it, excluding the truck grower and! .specialty crop grower, should, vs a general thing, under present truck; prices and specifications, purchase a; truck unless he be the owner or op-1 orator of a farm of 150 acres or over.1 You know as well as I that in reckoning reckon-ing the ultimate return on such an Investment that it. is not enough to count merely the first cost and ignore j the constantly mounting factois ofj overhead and depreciation. But there' are some L'50 thousand frms of over 350 acres in the middle west. I doubt! if 15 per cent of them, today, own I trucks. There is yet another phase to the situation in these 1G middle western states. There are 10.012 inland com-j imunitles of under 2500 inhabitants, tint are absolutely dependent for their incoming and outgoing freight service upon some form of vehicle transportation. transpor-tation. In a majority of cases, pithei owing to an unexploited market or the state of middle western roads, it is the horse or mule and not the motor! truck that does most of ih-i hauling, j The mention of good roads bring3 me to a subject very near to my hearUj Or the total of 2,225,000 miles of rural highways in tho Mississippi valley only a scant one hundred thousand! are hard-surfaced or 7 8 per cent of I the total. 1 have not time hero to) discuss the economic and social advantages advan-tages of good roads. Cut I do be-' jlieve that the future development ofi the automotive industry and particularly particu-larly the extension of the motor truck tnarkel is absolutely dependent on the extension of hard-surraced highways. In ?ome recent investigations, con-1 ducted by the bureau of research. Tin Capper Farm Press, ot stock hauling of fanners with motor trucks, there was found a distinct relationship between be-tween the amount and the value of livestock hauled and that radiation small or great, or good roads centering in and about such stock yard centers as St. Joseph, Omaha, Kansas City anl Oklahoma City. If I could, I should like to show you two charts which woudl indicate much more vividly vivid-ly inan Is possible in words how such a" stock yard center as Omaha -with its relatively greater mileage of hard sur faced roads draws more hogs greater distances than do the stock yards In Oklahoma City. If 1 had time, I should also like to tell you how one good road begets another and how a g. d road plus a good motor truck uegOiJ almost I six niotor trucks in any community and in "any locality. .But I have not the time to do this. |