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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1920)
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, rOHTLAXD, 3IABCII 21, 1D20 - T 1 I or the small gasoline truck rery seri NEW YORKERS WIT ously. Hand In hand with expansion by means of trucks comes the means FOR ORIGINAL COST for advertising. Advertising creates more business, and more business can only be handled successfully by faster equipment working a given number of hours daily. The average small merchant is lacking in his ability to expand rapidly because he always I thinks of himself as a small dealer Investment : paid by More- Than Re New Economy. Fight On to Have Car Tracks! he hardly ever considers the large teritory around him -which he could serve if he had the equipment, with ' Taken Out. which to do it. TOLL BRIDGE IS DISLIKED RUCK SOU , ! 1 ; BUSES BROAD! 4 j : DOUBTERS ARE ANSWERED Merchant of Low-Priced Commo dities Often Declares Use or Auto Is Too Expensive. One of the first arguments that a merchant of low-priced commodities pives against truck operation in place of horses Is that the track is tpo ex pensive. The small profit on a small volume of business, he claims, doesn't Aberdeen Motorists Want to Elimi nate Charge for Passage. ABERDEEN', Wash.. ' March 20. (Special.) The Grays Harbor Motor Car association has appointed a deal era" committee to confer with the county commissioners on the elimina tion of toll over the Northern Pacific bridge now being used as a temporary outlet to the east from the Harbor. The association hopes to secure county aid in maintaining the bridge and believes that Aberdeen and Hoquiam motorists should not be made to pay the costs. Jack Sims of Hoquiam was elected president and J. C. Ueily, Aberdeen, secretary. Thirty dealers, represent- CONGESTION IS TOO GREAT Nationally Known Firms in Move to Substitute) Bus Lines for Trolley Cars. A . ,,,..( mootin ET nf the hoard of -directors of the Broadway asso- niaitnn. nf "Vpw York citv. it waft de cided to raise a special fund of 125,000 tv ha ftrnnnHiiH in flTI ftffnrt for T&- moval of streetcar tracks from Broad- I IIOTEL MAN PROUD OWNEII OF NEW PATERSON SIX. r 1; i . .i JV ' -if . i 4 t,'X kIms -4 - 41C?Wn"-1 r I? f ill Mrk Rnptakio (front) of the" Ulentvood hotel bought thin ear taut week from the Lnni fc.. bye Motor company.! I'atrrxon distributor here, the air hrina; made by U. s. KBIe, nno la on me otner aiae oi ine car. nil i-ateraon is apreially painted in a handsome derp jcrrrn. , permit of the expenditure of a truck, the hiring of a driver and the main tenance of it in the proper way. The first thins this merchant does when he says that is that he doesn't want to expand his business. Those are not the exact words he uses, but un knowingly that is implied. Expansion cannot be had with the horse equip ment because it requires a truck to cover a greater area, hence supply more customers. Some typical ex amples and comment on them follow: A dealer in bottled beverages does a town business exclusively and uses one horse-drawn vehicle, which is worked to the limit. No further ex pansion can take place unless another horse and wagon are secured. The frequent starts and stops, this mer chant says, make it impossible to operate a truck economically. Has he ever considered the electric truck or the low-priced gasoline truck, such as the Ford, Dodge, Max well. Reo. etc.? The electric espe cially does away with the objection that frequent starts and stops are ex. pensive, and this type ol venicie can be operated at far less cost than i horse and wagon of the same ca pacity. Above all. this truck will work a greater radius, does not re quire much experience for operation is easily garaged and can be charged by the owner or driver. Few Parts in Electric. The mechanical parts are very few and hardly ever gel out of order; the electrical side or the truck is easily understandable by the town electrician, or in a large community by dozens of garage men and service station hands. It is quite true that the initial cost of such a vehicle is higher man me horse eouinment. but if business ex pansion is to take place it cannot be done more economically unless truck is brought into the business. Take irrnceries. for example. In the smaller towns the progressive mer chant uses, some such small gasoline vehicle as those mentioned above, whiio ihn backward one uses the hors eouinment. The latter will al wavs do a "one-horse" business. He must make his delivery schedule, the size of the load. etc. with the corses ability constantly in mind. Th small erocer. butcher, vegeta He store and hundreds of others will hrinir ud the subject of increasea prices due to the truck equipment. One such merchant recently told the writer that he could not sell even cer tain staples at the same price as the competitors in the town because the competitors either did a carry-home business or used horses. An investi gation showed that this merchant was right so far as prices were concerned, but he gave the wrong reason for the difference in prices, and his own rea son was proof sufficient that he wasn't using his trucks right. The competitors who used no wagon er truck delivery were of the chain store variety, and these stores buy their goods In such immense quanti ties and have such a rapid turnover that they can afford to sell at a lower price. But rapid turnover is a function of the number of customers you have. Better Syiitem Needed. The more customers the more busi ness, naturally. It is obvious that the greater territory you serve the more customers you will get, and the large territory can be covered prop erty only with trucks. A fish store in one town near the writer serves customers six miles away, and those same customers can buy their sea food only four blocks from their homes. They don't buy from the local store because one can never depend on the delivery of the goods oecause ooy delivery is used. The dealer six miles away has a regular schedule, but he also guarantees that you will get your order delivered at any reasonable time you state. Such service is appreciated hv the customer. Th small merchants like those above mentioned also state that it often Is very expensive to make de liveries because you never can fill the wagon and it doesn't pay to send it out with goods for four or five cus tomers. If you do send it out the cost of delivering eats up the profit on the sales. When operating motor driven wagons it is essential to work them continuously, if possible, through given hours of the day. ay between 7 and 8 for early morning deliveries, between 10 and 11 for noon work and for two hours at night be tween 3:30 and 5:30. When a truck is standing idle it isn't eating oats, and during the time it works it can cover twice to three times the territory that a. horse covers. ' It is a fact that the small merchant tus not considered the electric truck ing the entire county, attended the banquet. S. C. Davidson was appoint ed chairman of a committee to direct the handling of the state auto con vention here in July. Several interesting talks were given on business practices and conditions, among which the used-car situation was thoroughly discussed. FEDERAL TRCCK SOLVED MAR . KETING PROBLEM. Before Truck Came Producers in Fertile District Could Xot Sell Their Produce. Fertile agricultural ground which way and the installation of a motor bus system. This action was taken following report of the transportation commit tee, which on a referendum submitted to the association's members found that 80 per cent favored "removal of the street car tracks and the substi tution of a modern bus system." It was announced that special coun sel had been employed to conduct such legal and legislative procedure as is necessary and also that a special force be employed to collect and prepare data and Information to assist the transportation committee in conduct ing the campaign. Two Car I.Ine in Street. At present the surface transporta tion service in Broadway is conducted by two traction lines, which charge separate fares and do not issue inter changeable transfers. One line runs from the lower end of the city through the financial and retail store section to the theatrical district. while the other runs from the theatri- rin.1,,r -H.if.H nn ca1 oi&irici inrouttn part oi me resi- inconvenience of changing cars when abundance of marketable crops, but lack of facilities for marketing these crops quickly in the populous nearby markets was a keen source of worry for producers, who were unable to cash in on the bounty of nature. In June, 1914. R. B. Briscoe pur chased a li-ton Federal truck. His attempt to solve the local problem was watched with interest by the hundreds of farmers beset with the same problem. Up to this time the raising of prod uce and marketing it by rail had been unprofitable and unsatisfactory because the trip to Los Angeles, the nearest large market, could not be accomplished by their teams in one day. The town bid fair to slide into a rut of obscurity. The first year Briscoe marketed his crops in Los Angeles with little trou ble, no delay, and at prices that gave him a good margin of profit. He was able with his truck to make the round trip in three hours, with the result that he had plenty of time for his farm work. He soon learned that by making two or more trips a day he could market his neighbors' as well as his own crops. The profit of the extra trips more than made up for the labor he hired for his own farm. The following year he easily made two 30-mlle trips each day at an ex pense of J7.20, including all items and $2.50 a day for himself. This was at the rate of $1.80 per ton, hauling two tons on each trip and four tons when necessary. With this one truck Briscoe has been able to market the produce of both his neighbors and himself by ob taining orders from produce men in Los Angeles and other markets and guaranteeing shipments on schedule time. In addition he was able to hunt other markets where the commission men were not so well supplied, such as Long Beach, Pomona, San Pedro and Santa Ana. Briscoe and his truck proved to the farmers of this section of the country that the motor truck is the answer to the economical marketing problem. Essex Tops Hand Tailored. Tops on Essex touring cars are hand-tailored to each car in the big body-trimming department at the Hudson factory. The tops are cut by expert .designers, the material is sewed by a small army of women and then both curtains and top are care fully fitted to each car. Akron's great tire is The General Cord. It was one of the first successful cords so successful that The General factories have had to work day and night ever since to make enough to go around and six big new additions have been built in the last four years. You can have General Cords on your car by order ing them now. Built in Akron. Ohio, by The General Tire and Rubber Company goes a long way to make friends. Bdwy. 180 going from one of these districts to another have been causes for many complaints. Two even more serious complaints are the congestion in vehicular traf fic and the absence of the logical mo tor traffic Street cars stop to take on and let off passengers at nearly every corner and frequently between street corners. Passengers must pass across the space reserved for vehicu lar traffic to reach the sidewalk. The law requires all vehicular traffic in the lower section of this street to stop when a car stops until the passen gers get on or off and the car re sumes its headway. Even Narrower Than Here. Broad-way. in its narrower districts, I In European cities and in some Amer " ieet wme. ine street car lines lcan cities accommodates under cover occupy ii ieet oi tnis space, mean- While Rrnadwav 1 fh niv -ft operated in Broadway. It is on Manhattan island running from ita I mobile than the street car because It lower end to Kingsbridge, a distance is not .c(J.flned to rails and stops at of about 20 miles and. therefore, the the curb, and while it prevents many logical through highway for automo- accidents by letting the passengers bile traffic, it is not so used because alight directly on the sidewalk, it also of the congestion caused by street would permit all other vehicular traf- cars and tracks. Motor traffic has. fic to move uninterruptedly In the AMERICAN TIRE & RUBBER CO. Distributors On the General Corner, Broadway at Oak Two Phones If One Is Busy, Call the Other Bdwy. 2300 ijw.imiw.iinjimm) i inereiore, Deen using jntth avenue, with the result that that street has to carry a traffic greater than any other, in the world. If conditions in Broadway can be improved as desired. much of the traffic now in Fifth ave- lanes now provided for it. In case of a breakdown the bus can be moved to a side street Instead of blocking the entire line as the street cars now do. 'Reliable information is that a bus nue will be diverted to Broadway andlline can profitably be operated on the trartic conditions in both streets I entire length of Broadway on Man greatly improved. In a statement by the managing director of the Broadway association he says: "Nearly all cities in the United States and on the continent hattan for a single fare. Included among those in favor of a motor bus line for Broadway are United Cigar Stores. Chatham & Phe- nix National bank, Gimbel Bros, Man refuse to let street car tracks be laid hattan Life Insurance company, Con intheir finest streets. I eolidated Gas company. Hotel Inv. "The modern motor bps as used ' perial. AJax Rubber company. N'a- Itional Cash Register company and Park & Tilford. This list gives only a few or the nationally Known con cerns engaged in different lines of trade that advocate the proposed change. Cowl Ventilator Convenient. A popular Essex feature la a cowl ventilator, easily operated from the dash, .which regulates the tempera ture in the front compartment. This eliminates necessity of prying open the doors on hot summer days to let the heat of the engine escape and thus adds to the comfort of anyone in the front seat. Sheridan to Have) Stw Garage. SHERItVAN, Or., March 20. (Spe cial.) A new brick and tile garage will be erected in the business section of the city by Henderson & Houser alongside of their present garage and will be one of the best equipped in this section. We wish to announce the opening ot our new store 1n Pottland, where we will carry one of the most complete stocks ot patent rings in this city. Oversize .015 to ..". 1 and run in size from lVi Inches to 12 inches in diameter. If you are having compression and oil trouble you should see us before having cylinders ground or other rings Installed. We guarantee to give perfect compression and stop otl trouble. We specialize on tractor, truck, marine and stationary engines, alfo air compres sors and aimnonia machines. We have oversizes made especially for rebored cylinders. Double Seal Ring Co. iXOn Bunuide Street The reputation for square dealing we have made the past five years will not be lost now by selling Republic Trucks with questionable contracts. Republic Trucks Are Sold on Their Merits - Roberts Motor Car Co. Vancouver, Wash. Portland, Oregon Boise, Idaho INVESTIGATE A SIZE FOR EVERY REQUIREMENT 34, 1, iy2, 2 and 32 Ton Broughton Motor Truck Co. ( 325-327 Glisan Street PORTLAND OPvEGON Distributors SALES SERVICE 1 N .
