6. Winton’s Racing Machine.

(Courtesy of the _Scientific American_.)] If, then, there be included under the head of pleasure passenger traffic all not purely business it may with propriety be estimated that three-fourths of all automobile travel is for pleasure. Considering ten million automobiles in use in the United States, that they average 4000 miles per year and carry two passengers each, there results a total passenger mileage of 10,000,000 × 4,000 × 2 = 80,000,000,000 80 billion miles. A number beyond ordinary comprehension. The passenger mileage upon the steam railroads is roughly speaking about 37¹⁄₂ billion miles, a little less than half as much as that by automobile. It is evident that all this travel, even though a large percentage be local, must affect seriously the earnings of the steam and electric railway lines. Since 75 per cent may be estimated to be for pleasure purposes, it will not be possible for the steam and electric lines ever to regain it. The people who do the dancing are perfectly willing to pay the piper, and even though automobile riding cost more than trolley or train riding the people will continue to have it as a means of entertainment.[168] Most men who own cars pay the expenses in lump sums and forget about them. To have the speedometer register in dollars and cents instead of miles, while it might be a deterrent on the use of the automobile, would “take the joy out of life.” =Freight Traffic.=--When it comes to freight traffic cost and time will be the principal factors to determine the type of performance. The element of pleasure is here eliminated and only cold economical features remain. Already horse trucking is rapidly disappearing as it seems to be able to compete with the motor only where many stops are to be made. In large cities motor trucks are utilized to haul packages to certain districts at considerable distances from the store, where they are turned over to small wagons for delivery. Ice and milk are often distributed in the same manner, thus taking advantage of long rapid hauls upon fully loaded trucks and less expensive delivery wagons where many stops are to be made and smaller loads are to be carried. Even in delivery service some merchants have by carefully arranging and timing their routes brought the cost of delivery to below ten cents per parcel. All purchasers of goods at the store whether delivered or not should be interested in reducing this cost because usually in the accounting it is spread out over the entire turnover and charged to the expense of doing business. It may be possible that in a few years horses will be barred from the streets for sanitary reasons; then it will be necessary to use motors for all sorts of deliveries, possibly large ones for hauling to the distant districts and small ones for the house to house delivery in the district. In very congested districts motor trucks are at a great disadvantage because they cannot be used at their most efficient speed. If the congestion can be eliminated or at least relieved by such means as one-way traffic, paving parallel streets, removing buildings which obstruct passage, widening driveways, elevating railroads and street cars, supplying overhead crossings, making subways, or by careful rearrangement and planning of terminal facilities, warehouses, and other accommodations, the cost of transportation in the large cities may be materially reduced. In many such cities public service commissions are studying these questions and applying remedies which will allow motor trucks to operate at a greater rate of speed and much more efficiently. Accurate observations of motor truck performance in city trucking business has shown that a large part of the day is given up to loading and unloading, that the truck stands still so much of the time that the cost is more nearly proportional to time than to mileage. Since certain charges such as interest and insurance go on whether the truck is idling or not, it is better to keep it moving. To do this effectively depots, warehouses, and other terminal facilities are provided to lessen the time of loading and unloading. It may be wise to hire an extra stevedore or two to assist with these operations, or mechanical devices may be installed where the saving will justify it. Usually there is not only a saving in time when a mechanical device is used but the amount of expensive manual labor is decreased. Among the practical devices used are removable bodies. The whole body of the truck may be swung by means of a crane from the chassis to a platform where it is loaded or unloaded while the truck with another body is proceeding on its way. Other bodies are so arranged on rollers that they may be readily rolled from the chassis to the platform. Railways are also taking advantage of removable bodies for the shipment of less than car-load lots. These bodies are made to fit a truck and also of proper sizes so that several of them may be nested or interlocked upon a flat car. One of these units or containers may be left for any length of time for loading then rolled upon the truck and off it to the steam train. At the other end of its journey it is rolled from the car to the truck and from that to the unloading platform with a great saving of time at each terminal. The New York Central railway places nine containers of 6000 pounds capacity on one flat car. These are unloaded by means of a crane in less than five minutes for each container, or the whole car in approximately forty minutes. By this means the railroad is able to take advantage of what has been called store-door delivery. Instead of the consignor hauling its goods to the station and unloading them on the platform to be loaded into cars by stevedores, transported, unloaded into the warehouse, and the consignee notified to come for them, the railway leaves a container which when filled is hauled by truck to the railway yard and in five minutes’ time placed upon the car, which upon reaching its destination is placed upon a truck and hauled to the consignee. Goods shipped in these containers which may be made of steel and securely locked are considered just as safe from predacious hands and the weather as in a way car, and possibly are safer. The demountable container which is rapidly coming into general use, and which has for some time been used by the New York Central Railroad and the interurban railways of Australia, consists of a large steel box or safe, the doors of which can be locked. When it is placed upon a steel flat-car with sides two feet high it cannot possibly be opened as the doors are on the side of the container. And it cannot be removed from the car without the use of a derrick, the top corners of the container being equipped with hooks for this purpose. The containers have a capacity of 438 cubic feet and will hold from 6000 to 8000 pounds of package freight. When the packages are locked and sealed within the containers they are safe from fire and rain as well as marauders. One flat-car will accommodate from 4 to 9 containers, depending upon their size. In addition to the safety furnished by these containers they are economical in saving time of transportation. Re-handling is unnecessary. The transfer of the entire container from truck to car and from car to truck is very quickly made. The mileage of the flat cars is thus greatly increased--with mail cars it is claimed to be doubled. Expensive packing and crating is avoided and the checking at each rehandling of parcels is eliminated. Mass loading or unloading, whether the whole truck body is swung off by a crane, rolled off, or even if trailers and semi-trailers are left to be worked upon after the truck has gone, save little in the way of manual labor. On the other hand they require the installment at each end of the route of special arrangements to facilitate their use. Another class of devices are those connected with the truck itself. For example it may have a winch on it to draw up an inclined plane at its rear such heavy articles as pianos, safes, and large castings. It may have a crane with a pulley running along a central beam over it to facilitate loading and unloading heavy boxes or other things. A swinging crane is also used with some trucks. On others, hoists are arranged to tip the body backward for unloading building and road materials, grain, and so on. Many of these devices make use of the truck power for their operation. Pumps with suction hoses empty catch basins, cess-pools, stopped-up sewers and flooded cellars, pumping the fluid to a tank body of the truck, whence it can be hauled away and dumped by elevating the front end of the tank and opening a gate in its rear. Devices for lifting and dumping coal truck bodies directly into the bin save much time over hand shoveling. Still another class of devices are entirely separate from the truck and may or may not be connected with the warehouse. For example a chain conveyor which can be rolled up to the back of a truck elevates barrels and boxes, sand and stone, and is operated by a small electric motor the lead wires of which are plugged into a suitable socket, up to the floor at the rear of the truck from which place they can be easily pushed or shoveled to proper position. Elevated bins are utilized to store road materials from which the materials run by gravity into the body of a small motor-car which then goes to the mixer where it is grabbed by a device that empties the body into the mixer, thus saving much handling of material. Many special types of bodies are made for peculiar purposes. These often facilitate loading and unloading, for example tank ears for hauling water, milk, gasoline or other fluids; or trucks fitted with shelves on which are placed trays containing fruits and so forth. As the motor truck enters newer fields of usefulness multiple devices will be developed to lessen the time of loading and unloading. The financial importance to both the owner and the public of keeping the truck moving will no doubt lead to the adoption of these devices providing they are practical and will accomplish the desired result. =Traffic between Towns.=--Wherever the roads are dependable and passable at all seasons of the year truck and bus lines have sprung up to ply regularly between the towns. The length of haul most profitable seems to be that over which the motor can make the round trip each day and have sufficient time at terminals for loading and unloading. Forty to 50 miles for trucks and 60 to 65 miles for buses seem to be negotiable and double these distances are proving to be practicable. In many of the states such enterprises have been declared to be common carriers subject to the laws governing such carriers, and must secure licenses to do business from the public service commissions. It is but reasonable that the public should be safeguarded and these concerns be required to take out insurance or give indemnifying bonds to cover loss of goods to shippers by carelessness or theft or injury to passengers by accident. On the other hand the licensed motor transport is entitled to protection against irresponsible truckers. The modern method of state regulation does not contemplate competition as an economic factor in the determination of rates and routes. The old doctrine of “everyone for himself, and the devil take the hindmost,” is certainly most wasteful. This is about the way that method worked. A starts a bus line between two towns. After he has run it a short time and built up a trade B, seeing his success, decides to put a competing bus on this same route. Then there is a period of competition. Rates may be cut and speeds quickened until each bus is running at a loss. This cannot continue indefinitely. The result is that either one man goes out of business or there is a combination of interests by actual coalescing or by a “gentlemen’s agreement,” so that there is practical monopoly anyway. The modern method is to regulate all common carriers as far as rates and routes are concerned so that each may make a justifiable profit. This may be tending toward socialism and away from individualism; it may be a violation of the Darwinian doctrine of a survival of the fittest. But that is departed from every day. Our cornfields and gardens would amount to nothing if the weeds were allowed undisputed sway. It would seem to be the duty, therefore, of public service commissions to grant licenses to truck and bus lines, to establish routes and equitable rates, to require careful and complete accounting and to make public from time to time such items as the people may be interested in. The Railway Commission of the state of Nebraska was, perhaps, the first public service commission to exercise the right of regulating highway transport (1918). Colorado, California, and other states soon followed. In California the matter came upon a complaint that adequate service was not given by the railway and the decision was: “We are of the opinion that the public deserving transportation of freight and express ... is entitled to a more expeditious service than that at present being given by the Southern Pacific and American Railway Express.” It went on further to state that notwithstanding their ability to give service the evidence was to the effect that it was not given, hence motor highway transport was licensed. The first highway transport freight rates established by the Railway Commission of Nebraska placed the freight under four classes, describing 103 items. The rates were: 1st Class 20 c. plus (1¹⁄₂ c. per mile per 100 pounds). 2d Class 85 per cent of the 1st class. 3d Class 70 per cent of the 1st class. 4th Class 60 per cent of the 1st class. In addition they established rules and regulations, standard bills of lading, etc. These rates have since been rescinded. In Colorado two sets of rules were adopted, one for the prairie and one for the mountain division. For the prairie division the minimum charge was 25 c. and the mountain 30 c. per 100 pounds. The rates for motor truck hauling was made, for the prairie division, 30 c. per 100 pounds for 5 miles and for distances up to 100 miles graduated 5 or 10 c. for each additional 5 miles until they reached $1 per 100 miles. For the mountain division, the rate for 100 pounds carried 5 miles is 36 c., graduated to $1.20 per 100 miles. =Motor Bus Traffic.=--Suburban and interurban motor bus passenger service is growing rapidly. Buses accommodating as high as sixty persons are being used on the haul where the roads are well paved, but twenty to thirty seems more popular. At present these buses seem to be well patronized, usually bringing their passengers to the larger city in time for business or shopping and returning them home in the afternoon or evening. The rates of fare for bus travel are about the same as those for steam car travel, or approximately 4 c. per mile. The rate of travel depends upon the character of the roadway and the condition of traffic, being usually routed upon dependable but less congested roads. Just what may be the outcome of this traffic is problematical. Can the buses compete with other forms of transportation in fares and speed? If so, they will survive; otherwise they will gradually discontinue. Some writers seem to think they will not only live but will eventually kill the older forms of transportation. Although they will no doubt take over very much of that transportation it seems highly improbable that all transportation can be taken care of by motors. =To and from the Farm.=--Farm trucking seems to be firmly established and very much if not all farm hauling will eventually be done by automobiles. Very many farmers now own their own trucks and the number is constantly being increased. Glowing statements by government officials, reports of investigational committees, and propaganda by manufacturers and dealers have worked up the farmers’ desire for trucks. A congressional joint committee on agricultural inquiry has recently stated that, No single development since the railroads were first constructed has had so marked an economic and sociological effect upon productive life as the motor vehicle. Previous to its appearance the economic zone of transportation was sharply defined by the haulage range of the horse and the cost of such transportation. There is the evidence of no less a person than Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover that the farm motor truck will be of vast importance to the agricultural interests of the country. Here is his statement: Fifty per cent of our perishable foodstuffs never reach the consumer because the farms on which they are raised are too remote from the market at which they are sold.... Forty to 60 per cent of our potato crop is lost each year by rotting in the ground owing to poor transportation to market because of inadequate transportation over long distance.... By motor trucks the farmer will be able to reach better markets farther away than now by horse and wagon. He will be able to spend more time actually producing on his farm and be able to sell food more cheaply by eliminating the present tremendous waste. By use of the motor truck the farmer will be able to produce more and sell at less cost. Some of the arguments advanced in favor of the farm truck are: (_a_) The motor truck allows the farmer to haul larger loads, longer distances in less time, thus reducing the actual cost of haulage. (_b_) That he can better take advantage of market fluctuations and thus be able to sell at high markets. (_c_) That a truck on the farm will replace several horses; that the cost of keeping these horses far exceeds the cost of keeping a truck. (_d_) That the truck may be used to market produce while the horses are busy in the field. (_e_) That the truck will allow land otherwise too far from market to be farmed with perishable but better paying crops. (_f_) By means of trucks the farmer is often enabled to put his hogs or other live stock on the early morning market in less time from the farm and consequently fresher, gaining the advantage of better prices. While there may be some question as to the validity of all these assumptions they are no doubt, in the main, correct. The United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Crop Estimates, collected data showing that in 1918, the hauling in wagons from farm to shipping point cost on the average for wheat 30 cents per ton-mile; for corn, 33 cents; for cotton, 48 cents. For hauling by motor truck the average costs were: wheat, 15 cents; corn, 15 cents; and cotton, 18 cents. These unit costs were, consequently, reduced to less than half by the use of the truck. The same bulletin gives the average length of wagon haul for these products to be 9 miles, and of motor truck haul, 11.3 miles; furthermore the average number of round trips by wagon per day was 1.2 while by truck it was 3.4. Whether or not the truck on the farm will release any horses will depend on what determines the number of horses kept. To do his hauling does the farmer keep more than is necessary for farm operations alone? The passenger automobile, no doubt, did release many driving and riding horses, but will the truck release many more? The thoughtful, foresighted farmer usually plans his yearly work so that he may do his hauling when the horses are not otherwise busy. This of course limits his farm operation to products which, like wheat and corn, can be stored indefinitely. This limits also diversified cropping which farmers find in the long run to be very much safer than “putting all eggs in one basket” by raising a single product. It is seldom that a wheat crop, a corn crop, a beet crop, a hay crop, an apple crop, and gardening crops all fail by drought, wet weather, hail, or other untoward events during the same season. Good roads, trucks or anything else which will lend assistance to diversified cropping are without doubt beneficial to the farmer. Intensive farming of perishable crops can be done only where the roads allow daily contact with the market. The truck, because of its more rapid speed, will widen the zone of such farming very much over the old zone when the horse-drawn vehicle was in vogue. Because of the risk involved and the labor necessary the net returns per acre for this sort of farming are high, allowing small parcels of land to keep a family. As the distance, or rather time, the “fourth dimension,” from market increases the less intensive the farming operations and the less net returns per acre. The community as a whole is deeply interested in widening the zone of intensive farming in order that more people may profitably make a living upon this land. Persons who are not familiar with stockyard activities will be surprised on visiting them early in the morning at any one of the packing-house industries to see the large number of hogs and other farm animals arriving for the early market in motor trucks. These animals have been brought from distances up to 60 miles, but have been on the way less than three or three and one-half hours. Careful stockyard figures show that in 1921 more than 6,000,000 cattle and very many more hogs were transported in motor trucks. These animals upon arrival are very much fresher and show less shrinkage than those that have been driven to their home station and loaded into stock cars the day previous. Other things being equal, the top of the market is accorded to the fresher animals. Also for short hauls, say up to 60 miles, the transportation costs are in favor of the trucks. The farmer may obtain the benefits of motor transportation in at least four different ways: (_a_) He may own and operate his own truck. This pays when the farm is of sufficient size to keep the truck reasonably busy. (_b_) Two or more neighbors may coöperate in the ownership of a truck. This is applicable to small and medium-sized farms. (_c_) By patronizing truck lines privately owned which haul products, freight, and express upon a charge basis. (_d_) By the trucks of the United States Postal Service. Whether or not it pays for a farmer to own and operate a truck depends upon the size of the farm, kind and quantity of the commodities hauled, distance from market, character of the roads, and the loading on the back trip. A small farm could not be expected to furnish sufficient hauling to keep a truck busy unless intensively farmed and producing commodities which require frequent marketing. Even a small farmer, though, might by hauling for neighbors keep his truck reasonably busy. Or several neighbors may coöperate in the purchase of the truck and arrange how it shall be operated. They may even form an express line and go into the transportation business as a side issue. The parcel-post service has been very successful in handling packages of produce even as large as a case of eggs. The post-office department allows its carriers to pick up and deliver packages along the route the same as letter mail. Privately owned Rural Motor Express vehicles are also operated successfully which pick up and deliver all sorts of express packages, farm produce in small quantities, fruit, butter, eggs, and cream. Trucks which haul nothing but milk and cream are quite common. The farmer leaves his full cans of milk or cream at a specified place, usually a platform at a level with the truck floor, on the roadway. The driver of the milk truck picks up the full cans, leaving empties in their place. Or he may pick up the full on his way to the market, creamery, or railway station, and leave the empties on his return. Such routes are both privately owned and coöperatively owned by the several farmers patronizing them. Often these trucks deliver the milk and cream to the railway in time to catch a special milk train into the city. [Illustration: HAULING BEANS BY MOTOR TRUCK AND TRAILER Sacramento Valley, Calif.] [Illustration: HAULING SUGAR BEETS TO MARKET IN A MOTOR TRUCK] Since the trucks come directly to the farmer’s gate to pick up and deliver express or freight, the convenience is much greater than the service given by either the steam railway or the interurban trolley. As a result the trucks will probably be patronized when the railways would not. The habit of sending eggs, cream, and other perishable products daily to the market is formed. The daily credit the farmer receives amounts to a considerable sum by the end of the month when he collects from the dealer. Many farmers much more than pay living expenses from the sale of small items utterly ignored before the days of the motor express.[169] Even the farmer who owns his own truck could hardly afford a daily trip of several miles and the time entailed to market small amounts of cream, eggs, vegetables, and fruits, but the express man by combining the incoming and outgoing commodities of many farms can without much expense to anyone do a very good business for himself at an economic benefit to his patrons. If the farmer, or several farmers, desire to purchase a truck it would be well first carefully to consider the question with an idea of finding out the character and amount of trucking at hand and then purchase a machine best adapted for the purpose. The kind of bodies available should be studied, remembering that he may wish to haul grain on one trip, hogs or sheep on another, then cream and vegetables. He will want, probably, to haul back groceries, flour, feed, lumber, hardware, implements, fertilizer, cement, and gravel. In looking ahead he should estimate the increase in the quantity of hauling that more rapid transportation, the going to more distant markets, and the possible raising of different products which may come about through the owning of a truck, will bring to his farm. In this connection the reader is referred to the chapters on “Highway Transport Surveys” and “Effects of the Ease and Cost of Transportation on Production and Marketing,” given later. =Terminal Facilities.=--Railways have found it advantageous to spend enormous sums of money upon terminal facilities. Depots and warehouses, garages and repair shops will be necessary if truck lines are to prove efficient and successful. It would be quite feasible and profitable for all the truck lines leading from a city to have a union or common terminal station. Portland, Oregon, has such a station owned by a corporation composed of bus lines that operate from there to every city of any importance within a radius of 100 miles. The terminal resembles a railroad depot with waiting rooms, ticket office, announcer, and conveniences. Buses load and unload on a platform at the rear of the building reached by a drive-in from the street. Patrons remain in the waiting room until the bus is announced. Two buses are sent out if more than enough tickets are sold for one. Under the present schedule 150 departures in 21 different directions are provided for. This gives the farthest cities two stages per day while many closer ones are served hourly. Some of the advantages of a terminal station may be inferred from the above. Another is that the total number of clerks and employees may be cut down, for one clerk can route goods on half a dozen different lines almost as easily as on one, and there will be no competition between lines, except by service, if the public service commission has allowed no duplication of lines and establishes rates. Much of the freight and express will be brought by the shipper to the depot, where bills of lading will be made out and charges paid. To be sure, large shippers may desire freight to be picked up elsewhere, or small express trucks may be used for this purpose, but orders for this can conveniently be phoned to the central office and directions given from there accordingly. Similarly one garage and one repair shop may easily look after the cleaning, repairing, oiling, and fueling of several cars more economically than could each keep its separate shop or even go to a commercial shop. The terminal building may be arranged, if desired, so that it can be used jointly for a passenger station, a freight depot and a storage warehouse. If for a passenger station there would be need for the agent’s office, waiting rooms, and toilet accommodations for men and women. The freight depot is a place for the collection of freight and should be arranged for convenience and rapid loading and unloading of the trucks. The installation of devices for this purpose may become advisable as the amount of traffic increases. Storage room should be provided for those articles which are to wait some little time for shipment. A check stand to care for parcels is a convenience to passengers and furnishes the company some revenue. =The Social Aspect of Motor Transportation.=--The change from poor roads and horse-drawn vehicles to good roads and motorized vehicles has produced in society changes quite as radical. These changes are not entirely separate from economic changes and one cannot always say that this particular thing or that particular thing is due to the automobile alone because every activity in life has its effect on every other activity. As the waves upon a pond circling about the point of shock come into contact with other waves their effect is enhanced, minimized, or transformed, and just what part of the resultant may be due to one agency or to another agency is impossible to decipher. That each has entered into a combination with the whole and affected the result there is no doubt. For example it is claimed that because of the prevalence of pleasure riding the giving and receiving of dinners and teas have very greatly diminished. No doubt the high cost of living has had its effect also. Clothiers and haberdashers complain that automobile owners finding it impossible to keep grease spots from their clothing, are now buying an inferior grade and losing the art of good dressing. Builders claim that the expense of buying and maintaining an automobile has prevented many persons from making needed repairs on houses or even building new ones. As people live most of their leisure time in the car a very small apartment will accommodate them for the remaining time. Fewer books and newspapers are read, it is claimed, and there is less attention paid to the cultural niceties of life. People go riding in the evening, so the Sunday evening church service is not attended. An editorial in the _Nebraska State Journal_ of August 31, 1921, puts the matter piquantly, at least: The savage determination with which the American is sticking to his automobile despite the drop in his income is an occasion for wonderment and no little irritation with a lot of us. For the sake of economy we may have to exchange our seven passenger for a light six or one of the little fours. Beyond this we need not go. But the farmer, yelling his head off at the fall in corn prices, what does he mean by sticking to his car? Your mechanic resisting the inevitable fall in wages, would be well enough off if only he would give up trying to ride like a millionaire. These merchants, claiming they aren’t making a living, don’t give up their cars, you will observe. Why pity them, then? Thus does the general assumption that the automobile is a super-luxury impinge upon the fact that the automobile has become a prime necessity. You laugh. Well, go inquire what are the other things the people will sacrifice before yielding up their speed machines. A sharp automobile manufacturer assured a gloomy harvester manufacturer the other day that not only would the men do without harvesters rather than lose their cars, but the women would yield up their very chewing gum. Yea, more than that, their pretty clothes. Food is, of course, a superior necessity, but even that can be reduced and simplified in favor of gasoline. As to houses, we like to be conservative, but there is a perfectly obvious disposition to put house shelter second to automobile shelter. That is why the house shortage isn’t hurting us as we expected it to hurt. The people are in automobile camps. Observe the sudden energy in developing automobile camps. They are wise. It looks now as if half the population will have deserted houses and flats for their automobile tent within another year or two. In winter time a corner of the garage will do well enough for a living room during the few minutes at a time we are at home. If we insist on a separate house, then the tendency is toward a very small one. What is the sense in maintaining a big house not to live in? That is the way our minds run now. This will help the lumber men to understand why building doesn’t pick up as it should. And that is how we manage to keep the car while incomes fail. It is done by cutting out such unnecessaries as houses and furniture and clothes and heavy dinners. America has been living at a fast gait on its nerves. Isn’t that which we see now the natural reaction from the nervous overstrain of fixed habitation and the relaxing ways of the nomad? The automobile came along in the nick of time to furnish the transportation, and off we go. The universal gypsy is breaking out in us. This isn’t more than half moonshine. It is at least half solid fact, with economic and social consequences which, whatever they prove to be, will be important. The above editorial indicates that people are beginning to notice the social changes being brought about by the automobile, and more, they are ascribing them to the automobile. Changes usually come about so gradually that, like the hands on a watch, the movement can be noticed only by comparing what is with what was some time previous. Rapid transportation and rapid communication has extended Broadway clear across the continent. One writer by taking an automobile tour found the American world extends from ocean to ocean, that the hat she purchased in New York had its duplicate in every millinery window all the way across to Los Angeles. She further found that the people between were not all “hicks,” and that farmers did not go around with alfalfa on their chin and straws in their mouths as shown in the cartoons of the funny section. Some farmers play golf on their own pastures. The fact that the sack containing their clubs is often tied with binding twine is of no consequence. The social intercourse which good roads and the rapid moving automobile makes possible between neighbor and neighbor and between country and town tends to produce a more homogeneous people. Each gets the view point of the other, which reacting modifies his own. Factions are largely broken up. Tolerance gains sway and more satisfaction and happiness results. High wages and profits during and following the war led the average citizen to purchase some of those luxuries which before then he was unable to afford. He has had a taste of a “higher standard” of living. No wonder he objects to a return to pre-war conditions, no wonder he objects to giving up his automobile, the thing which has furnished him with more pleasure than his previous humdrum life believed possible. No, he will fight to maintain the new standard and new living conditions. A social revolution has taken place, and in traveling about the spiral the world is one step higher. And while some will for a short time be content to live in one corner of the garage, as the editorial writer opines, the natural longing for a home will assert itself. By the aid of the automobile property will be bought in farther-out district where lots are cheaper, where taxes are not so high, where there is more breathing space, and healthful conditions are more likely to prevail. Men of wealth can build suburban estates, and men of less means comfortable homes leaving the downtown apartments and tenements to those who cannot yet afford motor cars, and many there be, more’s the pity. It will be a good thing to have the farms near large centers of population divided into smaller tracts whereon by intensive cultivation can be supported many families. Here there is always a demand for garden products which by means of a small car, or through the agency of motor express lines, can be marketed daily. It does not require a very great deal of land to support a poultry farm from which there will be a continuous income. By diversifying crops something will be coming in at all seasons. Good roads and the automobile not only make it possible to diversify farming but make the home life in the country less monotonous. No trouble to go after supper 12 or 15 miles to the town to take part in civic affairs, to attend a lecture, watch the movies or go to church. No extra horses need to be kept for these purposes, neither are the farm horses deprived of their rest. While the swift ride through bracing air rests the weary farmer after his day’s toil in the fields and gives new life to his faithful spouse upon whom the lonesomeness of isolation lies the much more heavily. Salesmen have in great numbers provided themselves with automobiles large enough to carry their samples. With these they can make many more towns than when they were compelled to depend upon trains and the small-town livery stables. The result is either a wider territory or more frequent calls upon customers. Hotels, during the summer season, especially, if located on one of the popular cross country roads, are seldom without tourist guests. Nina Wilcox Putnam[170] states that from Washington westward the “wily tourist will always wire ahead for rooms, and preferably two days ahead. The truth is that the best places to stop are not nearly large enough to accommodate the crowd.” Speaking of these hotels she finds them well equipped, clean, and well cared for. There is no doubt but that the automobile tourist traffic has had its effect, too, upon them. Each spring they clean and spruce up with the idea of securing as much of this traffic as good service reported by the camaraderie of travelers all along the way will bring to them. Mention has been made of the country people going to the larger cities to market their products and purchase goods wanted. It is not considered at all unusual for country and small town people to auto 30 miles to patronize the large department stores in the city. If a trade which satisfies both trader and tradee is beneficial and of economic importance to both then this would seem to be a good thing. The selling of the goods is beneficial to the store-keeper because he makes his profit. The trader has a large variety to select from and having made a voluntary selection is satisfied, because he or she may secure exactly what the city cousin gets. But what is to become of the business of the country store-keeper? How is he to get along? The best thing he can do is to put upon his shelves goods of a standard quality. His rents and overhead are less than those of the city competitor; he, therefore, can sell at a less profit. This is so true that the writer has known of city dwellers going to the country store for these standard articles. Such interchange while of economical importance is also sociological in differentiating between city and country merchandising and in bringing together in a new way the city and country dwellers. =Consolidation of Rural Schools.=--The people of the United States have been justly proud of her public schools. No one has ever considered them to be perfect, but the influence exerted upon the minds of the growing children has been wholesome. The very life of a republic depends upon an educated citizenry. With thorough education along right lines there is no reason why the nation should not live forever. To obtain such an education as is commensurate with right living and with the upbuilding and maintenance of our government and civilization requires that every means at hand should be utilized. The broadening, informational, and unifying influence of the automobile should not be underestimated. Edison’s theory that the movie should supplement the textbook because visual education is remarkably interesting and effective, needs more than a passing thought. The instruction which the young people receive from parents, from associates, from newspapers, magazines, and miscellaneous books, from civic organizations of various kinds, and from Sunday school and church cannot be overestimated. Neither should be forgotten the vast and important education which comes through the hard knocks of experience. An illustration of what the public schools may do for the preservation of the country can be drawn from the history of the Great War, the worst and the fiercest the world has ever seen. During that war the patriotism of the people shone forth with undiminished luster. The response to the President by the citizenry of the country, whether of his own or opposite political faith, by every honest organization, public or private, by business and professional men, by Congress and legislatures, was all but unanimous. This surprising unanimity was, no doubt, due to the influence of the public schools. The public schools have always inculcated patriotism and loyalty, and these lessons were potent as was evident because even before the draft many young men with Teutonic names took their places with others whose forebears were of other nationalities as well as with those of long-standing American descent. Therein went astray one of the guesses of the enemy, namely, that our Teutonic citizens with their children would prove more loyal to the “fatherland” than to democratic America. The lessons of patriotism the children brought home from school, the stories of Valley Forge and Yorktown, of Gettysburg and Appomattox, were communicated to their parents and penetrated deep, so that only a moiety of our foreign born element could be classed with the enemy. Thus have the public schools in this great melting pot of the world been the conservators of liberty. The effect of the public school upon the ideals of peace is no less than that upon their state of mind during war. Every day examples are so plentiful they need not here be mentioned. Suffice it to say that it should be made possible for all the young people to come under the influence of the public school learn the American’s Creed, and be steeped in the symbolism of the flag that stands for true democracy. =Changing Concepts of the Public Schools.=--Schools have continually had to change with changing society. During the pioneer period, and that extended through many years from the first settlements along the coasts, and the occupation of the great fertile areas of the mid-west to recent efforts to subdue the semi-desert and desert regions of the farther west, the schools taught for a few months only a little reading, writing, and arithmetic. The farm and home life supplemented this with manual labor and the attainment of skill in making and repairing necessary articles and machinery by the boys, and the arts of home making, weaving, and cooking, by the girls, thereby completing a well-rounded education for the times. But with the increase in population there came a division of labor and specialization. This meant that the simple school of the pioneers could no longer fit for life, hence new and additional subjects were added to the curriculums, until at the present time no one pupil can hope to complete all the work given by the larger secondary schools. The changing character of society caused the earliest private schools to be transformed into semi-private and semi-religious schools, and these to tax-maintained schools. The graded schools in the larger communities were found to be more efficient than the ungraded. In country districts the advantages of the graded system could only be brought about by consolidating several small schools thus enlarging the districts to get sufficient pupils. This made distances from home so great that walking to and from school was no longer possible; pupils must be hauled. Considerable progress was made in such schools with horse-drawn vehicles, but not until the advent of the motor bus was attained anything like a practical solution of the problem. So rapidly has the consolidated school made its way that now there are more than 12,000 such schools served by motor buses. Since a six-room consolidated school will replace about nine small schools the greater efficiency of a graded school extending through a longer school period is gained at little if any increased cost. In the years to come the results of these schools must have a marked beneficial effect upon the entire country. =Rural Mail Delivery.=--The development of the Rural Mail Delivery and its relation to the better roads movement has been touched upon in