"SHIP BY TRUCK" MOVEMENT OPENS NEW AVENUES A Brings Farmer, Market and Consumer Into Closer Relationship By HARVEY S. FIRESTONE Tne ship-by-truck movement is opening many new avenues of profit to the shipper. An entire new field of resources is being tapped, bring ing the farmer, market and consumer into close relations. And in this marvellous development which mo tor express has seen in the last two years, the value of the ship-by-truck movement to the manufacturers should not be overlooked. To manufacturers, the motor truck of to-day is as Important a unit of tneir production facilities as the very ;jnachines which make their goods. •The use of the motor truck has "Wrought changes in every depart ment of their business and has done ■•nuch to increase their production capacities and to lower their over head expenses. Let us compare the cost of horse •transport with that of motor ship ments. When the manufacturer was wholly dependent on the former ■ method, he either had to hire nis 'horses by the day, or else he had to .maintain horses and stables of his •own. The latter course entailed Quite an outlay in buildings and drivers. It Involved the use of a large amount of valuable floor space for horses, wagons, repair and paint shops. Furthermore, there had to be a blacksmith shop as well as lofts for hay and grain. When he had made all this invest ment, what did the manufacturer have? He had nothing better than slow-moving horse-driven vehicles, whose actual capacity for service was limited to the physical endurance of the animal; and the horse, being an animal and not a machine, can be subjected to only a few hours of hard labor daily if he is to remain fit for continuous work. When the manufacturer displaced the horse equipment, with its accompanying paraphernalia, and turned to motor trucks for his means of transport, he was able for the first time to get the transportation end of his business down to an efficient working basis, where haulage cost per mile could be determined accurately. Some startling facts were revealed. It was apparent that, on the average, one motor truck would do the work of from three to four wagons, and do it more quickly. In this way alone there was effected a tangible saving at the start represented by the cost of extra drivers, horses, and wagons, as well as of the facilities neces sary for their maintenance. The man ufacturer further observed that he could house and care for a fleet of motor trucks in less than half the space and with far less labor than was required for the same number of wagons with a relative tonnage. The capacity of the truck for work is unlimited. There is no limit to what it can do. and the limit of where it can go Is determined only by the condition of the roads. You can and D UPLEX Tmmß jpfor&t :i>tellsjsl ,P. er- To ii-ml lef y / The Duplex Always Saves We can learn of no single instance wherein the Duplex 4-Wheel-Drive Truck has not reduced JmrW hauling costs. Its savings run from 20 per cent, to 60 per cent., j| in comparison with horses and mules and other Irjif • Duplex owners all report that the ton-mile cost is l ess both on city streets and in roadless country. jffiMj) Duplex savings are positive. They can be count- MW/f ed with the same certainty that Duplex four-fold pulling power can be counted on to take the load IrJ(F through. 8 y| I We ask business men to request a comparative demonstration. • j J; \\ We know the Duplex will win; that the figures MM f ar e sure to show a lower ton-mile cost. Wljjjk Harrisburg Auto Co. JP\ Fourth and Kelker Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. MPANY ' LANSING ' MICHI ® AN SATURDAY EVENING, HAJmiSBURG;£33®& TEEEGKSFH JUNE 7, 1919. AUTOMOBILE NEWS TIMELY LOCAL FEATURES OF INTEREST TO AUTOISTS BY ALFRED P. DAVIES, AUTO EDITOR. GROCERY STORE Off DODGE BROS. MOTOR TRUCK CALLS ON HOUSEWIFE IN SCHEDULE TIME, SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY The Keystone Motor Car Co„ local distributors for Dodge Bros, motor cars, are in receipt from the Dodge factory of a photograph of the first grocery store on whee els, a likeness of which accompanies this article. This grocery store Is a n Idea of a Dallas (Texas) man. I t carriers a complete stock of fresh and smoked meata. groceries, green goods, fruits, etc. It makes reg ular trips to all parts of the city and saves the housewife a lot of time in eliminating the necessity of dressing and going to her regular store. should exact duties from your truck that are entirely beyond the poten tialities of horse and wagon trans portation. You can give your trucks new transportation duties, a wider radius, and special responsibilities that no other transportation method can assume. One year ago highway transport had arrived nationally, the few of us knew it. It took the war to wake us up to its possibilities. To-day it is known, discussed, praised, criti cised. encouraged; and every month sees it grow in volume. In five years there will be a network of rural ex press lines on all the main highways of this country that will cut down the cost of food, increase the quantity of food, and still create more profit for the farmer. Volume of business in dollars and cents is usually the criterion of profit on an enterprise. If we furnish bet ter and quicker transportation to our rural districts it will add greatly to the wealth of the country as a whole, while we stimplate an increased pro duction and bring the market closer to the purchaser. When we realize that the farmer is the only big busi ness /nan who is forced to supply his own transportation, and this rarely on an economical basis, we can see the great fields that are open to rural development. The motor express lines of the future will make a shipping platform of every farmer's gate. Other industries are being benefit ed, and benefited greatly. Even now in the far west nucha are boring their way into the forest, and. with the aid of trailers, bearing oft the logs to the mills, the lumbermen have reported as high as fifty per cent saving over any other method. Pack ing companies have begun to trans port fresh meat in huge refrigera tor trqeks. Live stock is being brought to market in Omaha, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Instances of the utility of motor trucking could be multiplied indefinitely. In particular, the Government has resolved to take a hand. Already mail routes run from Portland, Me. to Hartford, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington to the Plains, Virginia. Between January first and June thirtieth, 1918, the national mail routes averaged more than twenty-six hundred miles daily, cleared over 1125,000.00 and Justified their being extended to the Pacific coast. C. H. SCANDAMAS NOW WITH AMERICAN AUTO CO. C. H. S'candallis, manager of the Penn Harris Taxi Company has be come associated with C. A. Slough in the American Auto Company, the local distributors for the American Six. Mr. Scandallis is well known In Harrisburg duo to his connection with the Penn Harris Taxi Service. He is spending part of his time in the sales of the American car and has opened an office in the Penn Harris in connection with the Taxi •Company. The American An to Company has recently received shipments of cars and are in a position to make im mediate deliveries. T>ONT WAIT FOR PRESENT PRICES TO DROP Haas, proprietor of the Square Deal Auto Supply Company, one of the leading uptown accessory stores, located at 1412 North Third street. In talking about the present condi tions and whether there was any hopes of a drop in the near future, showed the writer the following article on present prices. This arti cle comes as near touching the true condition as possible: When will prices go down? This is a question Which Is, to-day. In the minds of most business men. Probably wo are all agreed that prices will not remain always at the present high level of war-time con ditions. Probably we are also agreed that prices will not return, at least ror a long time, to the level of pre war conditions. Somewhere In be tween is the point to which we may expect a gradual reaction within a reasonable period of time The one big difficulty in the way of price adjustment is that every °"e.®fpc<;ts th e price of other com modities to go down before he de creases his prices. Mpll, manufacturer cannot reduce his prices until the price of labor that 6 *™ ' The laborer maintains that his wage must not be cut un til the price of commodities is cut to , nOW ; at 010 pric * yo have * OT labor has not decreased and that your cost of raw materials is practically where it has been for some time, or even higher. You are not able to reduce your charge for service to your customers because of these factors. Your situation is probably exactly like that of every States busineß3 man ln the United j Every business man is confronted labor costs - bißh taxes, high transportation rates. Transpor tation rates not only increase the cost of manufactured goods, but have a material efTect on the price Of raw materials. The only result can be a of manufacture j"df?h price to the consumer. Wheat is always a barometer of business conditions. To-day the price of wheat, higher than at any time since Civil War days, is guar anteed by the United States Govern ment. As a result of this guaran tee, it is certain that we shall be paying present prices for wheat for a long time. The business man who goes ahead on the assumption that present prices will remain for at least eight or ten months, is playing the game with a reasonable margin of safety. W. T. WADE SELLING STANDARD EIGHT MACHINES W. T. Wade, a well known local automobile salesman has secured the position as assistant salesman ager of Chester Taylor & Company, local distributors for the Standard Eight. This agency was just opened a couple of weeks ago in this terri tory. The Standard Eight is mado by the Standard Steel Company, of Pittsburgh, and is fast gaining an enviable reputation. In an interview with Mr. Wade yesterday he said, "The Standard is a car that measures up to the aver age person's expectations of a mo tor car. It develops 80 horsepower and is as pretty a car as you want to look at. We expect big things in Harrisburg for this car and will go right after sales. About the middle of Jnly or the first of August the Standard Steel Company expects to place a four-cylinder car on the market that will sell for a medium price. When this car comes out, competition will surely be keen in and around Harrisburg." LOOKS FOR LARGER TRUCK SALES AT ONCE "Now that the Government has announced a definite policy for the disposal of its surplus trucks, I look for a distinct increase in truck sales," says Harry M. Lee, President of the Duplex Truck Company of Lansing, Michigan. "The various stories ns to what the Government was going to do hurt the truck business. Many business men who were ready to buy trucks held off in the hope of get ting an army truck cheap. "Now that, it has been decided that the surplus army trucks are to be used In road building and Post Office work and will not be offered to the public. I believe that the truck prospects who have been hold ing oft will now purchase, "The bad weather of the spring has also hurt all business but this Is passing. "Despite the Government trucks that are going into road work, the highway builders who have had ex perience are buying Duplex 4-Wheef Drive trucks because they know that where the going is bad the Duplex will go through with a load where the ordinary truck would be stalled light." {Continued on Pace 14,] LICENSES SHOULD BE ANNULLED FOR RECKLESSNESS Drivers Who Are Careless and Indifferent Should Be Punished It is becoming more apparent every day that the one sure way to curb the reckless driving that has been on the increase in this city and vicinity for some time is to take the license away from every man who operates a car with all disre gard for the property and lives of others. There are any number of drivers who try to operate their car in a legitimate manner and who be come the victim in a smashup be cause some other fellow is trying to beat a world's record or else is not looking where he is driving. There are certain arteries in the city where crossing intersections re quires an undue amount of caution because of heavy traffic. Certain other streets on a straightaway in vite speeders to tryout the speed of their car with the result of a smashup to some fellow who tries to cross, and does not reckon on the speed of the other car. Another bad feature of motoring is the fellow who tries to run around everything on the road when out ip the coun try. This fellow not only endangers himself but often times forces the other fellow down into the ditch. It is all right to pass another car on the road if all conditions are favorable but not when it requires an exces sive speed on a narrow road. Another cause of accidents on highways are the glaring headlights that blind the | I II Ail Owner Test it || The Kind That Counts J j|§2 It T* Ac Ayiii iMifiAktiid and Los Angeks. It was a most severe test, ewer mountain wf a Standard Bight— the powerful car. The Standard Eight "picks up" on hills that other cars barely "make." Its-eight cylinders with eighty-three horse power-and its lightweight combine tremendous power with grcattflexibaity. A demonstration —with yourself at therwheel—proves thi^ mSwi CHESTER TAYLOR & CO. DISTRIBUTORS Seventeenth and Derry Streets DKIiI> PHONE 2781 tlade-by the' Standard Steel Car Pa. largmtt industrial imwtitmtione causing accidents. ] It is high time that every driver I of a motor car use a little caution ( when out on the road. If he has a desire for speed and recklessness it would be well for him to hunt out 1 some lonly road forty miles from no- < where and then let her go. If he kills 1 himself or smashes up his car It wfl. be his own fault and he won't en danger anyone else. In many states an examination is required before anyone is allowed to operate a car and such a law should be passed in Pennsylvania 13