Goodrich Truck Tire Head Speaks on War "Order your motor trucks early," was the keynote of an address delivered by S. V. Norton, truck tire sales manager of the B. F. Goodrich Rubber Co. to the Truck Owners' Conference held in Chicago recently. "The entry of our government into the war will create a corresponding demand for trucks and drivers. Motor trucks are already competing so successfully with railroads in a great many instances that the demand for them will not be confined entirely to government requirements. It is certain that 75.000 trucks will be necessary for the first big American expeditionary force. It is not impossible that older men and possibly women will replace experienced truck drivers who will be needed for government service, and in the truck manufacturers' sales organizations older salesmen will be needed to take the place of younger men who enter the government service. The motor truck business is destined for a generous expansion rather than a depression, and my advice to prospective truck purchasers is to buy them now while they are available."

Using a Motor Truck as a Locomotive

One of the large United States motor trucks has been put to a unique use around the Cincinnati factory. The vehicle is employed in "placing" freight cars so that shipments may be loaded with the least difficulty. Incidentally, it saves valuable time which otherwise would be wasted in waiting for switch engines, as well as switching charges. The truck so employed is of the worm-drive type and of five-ton capacity.

U. S. Tires Play Prominent Part in European War European representatives of the United States Rubber Export Co., Ltd., which company handles the export business of the United States Tire Co., frequently report instances in which United States tires furnished by the company have played an important part in the success of some remarkable automobile feat. Truck tires have been great assets in many other services of the warring nations and wherever the real tests have been made, their share in success has been most pronounced.

Metz Chassis Suitable for Truck Attachments Inability to secure Ford cars sufficient to meet the demand of the truck attachment manufacturers has resulted in a discovery that the attachments will fit a Metz car, and it is now proposed to contract for the entire output of the Metz factory, at Waltham, Mass.-about 50 cars per day.

Kimball Turns Out Two Sight-Seeing Leviathans The Kimball Motor Truck Co., of Los Angeles, manufacturers of the Kimball distillate motor trucks, recently completed two special sight-seeing trucks of elaborate construction, designed by their engineer, G. A. Eichelberger. The larger of the two vehicles is said to be the most

60 AND 29-PASSENGER KIMBALL BUSSES, LATTER FITTED WITH LARGEST ONE-MAN TOP IN WORLD.

gigantic and easiest riding passenger truck ever built. The makers contend that the flexible construction used throughout their design is responsible for its easy riding feature, which is greatly in demand by the traveling public.

The general dimensions of this larger truck are: Overall length, 30 feet 10 inches; width, 8 feet 6 inches; wheelbase, 20 feet 7 inches, with an overhang of 9 feet 6 inches. It has ten heavily upholstered cross seats with sufficient room for six large people to the seat, making it capable of seating sixty people comfortably. It is capable of a maximum speed of 17 miles per hour. It is equipped with folding type top, windshield, electric dome lights, etc., making it one of the finest sightseeing trucks ever built. This truck is in use by the American Auto Tours Co., in general passenger service throughout Southern California.

The other vehicle is a special, elaborate high-speed job built on the general line of the Mercer. It seats 29 people very comfortably, with ample leg room and very deep cushions and backs equal to any touring car on the market. This job has a six-cylinder motor and is equipped with electric starter, generator, lights, etc. The top is strictly of the one-man type. This truck with its beautiful rich Bentel blue body is the finest passenger bus ever turned out and is worthy of all the comment it receives. It is in use by the Standard Sightseeing Co.

Both of these jobs are equipped with the Kimball improved gasifier for using distillate as fuel and are of the well-known Hotchkiss type of Timken worm drive, making them perfectly quiet and much sought after for this class of use.

The Tractor vs. the Horse

Comparisons Show that the Equine, as an Economic Transportation Factor, is Fast Being Out-Distanced

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By O. H. STEVENS, Los Angeles Manager Holt Mfg. Co. EVER more than at the present time has there been a period that could so truly be called the Power Age. Yet we are, in fact only at the opening of this era. It is human nature to adopt changes slowly. The McCormick reaper was bitterly opposed for many years. The first metal plows were opposed by many farmers on account of the belief that they poisoned the soil. And so, right up to the present time, many farmers have been opposed to tractors, some because they cannot be convinced that tractors are cheaper than horses; some because they believe animal power is more dependable than any form of mechanical power, but the vast majority not because they have any real objection to tractors themselves but simply because they have the "horse habit."

Now, with the whole world at war, the issue has been forced from two points: First, the army has called for the best horses and mules for use on the battle-fields, and second, the demand for food has called for a production so greatly increased that tractor power is absolutely essential. There is no question, however, but that time would

have brought about the change which necessity has forced immediately, for the superiority of the tractor over horses has been proved beyond question.

Thomas A. Edison says that the horse is the poorest motor ever built. He eats 10 pounds of food for every hour he works. He eats 12,000 pounds of food a year. He eats the whole output of five acres a year. His therma! efficiency is only 2 per cent. There are some 25,000,000 horses and mules in the United States at the present time. Even before the war this stock consumed food to the value of $2,000,000,000 per year, or as much as the total annual operating cost of all the 250,000 miles of railroad in the United States. If the four great agricultural states of Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio confined their agricultural operations solely to the raising of horse feed, not enough food could be raised to feed our 25,000,000 horses and mules.

Government reports show that the farm horse averages only 31⁄2 hours of work per day and tires out in 6 hours. Each horse requires 27 minutes of one man's time per day for the labor of feeding, watering and care, and this. it must be remembered, is labor of the most disagreeable

sort.

These are a few figures that show the horse cost of living. The amount of feed a horse eats, his power and the money it costs to care for him during the year are all out of proportion to the actual work he does.

Look at the other side of the picture. The tractor is always ready, day or night. It can work 24 hours at a

stretch if necessary. It increases efficiency because it puts into one man's hands the power of many horses or mules-6, 8, 10, 20 or 40. as the case may be. Thus the tractor not only solves the question of power but also that of labor. A!

a time when labor is scarce, it multiplies the efficiency of the individual and enables one man to do the work of several.

The tractor of today is an efficient, dependable machine. The average man's awe for things mechanical has largely been dispelled by the automobile, which has demonstrated for him that the internal combustion engine and the transmission and gearing necessary to operate a self-propelled vehicle require little attention and can easily be taken care of by a man of average intelligence. The operator of a tractor, in fact, need possess no more intelligence than the owner

of a good lot of work horses would want the drivers of them to display. Add to an ordinary amount of "horse-sense" a bit of special training and you have a man who is fully qualified to get splendid results from a tractor.

Of course, there are many different kinds of tractors and many different kinds of men. Some men abuse or neglect machinery and could not make a success of the finest tractor ever built, and some tractors, on the other hand, are so cheaply constructed and of such poor material that even the best of care cannot save them from an early trip to the scrap heap.

In the East and Middle West many of the farmers have been willing to "play" at the tractor game. They have followed the policy of "getting their feet wet" gradually so, instead of buying a high-grade tractor and relying upon it for their work, they have kept all or most of their horses, put a small amount of money into a cheap tractor and thus have failed to give the tractor-farming proposition a fair trial. Out here in the Far West, farmers have had to put more complete reliance upon the tractor. Here there are vast acreages to till, and labor is scarce. Full reliance must be placed upon

the tractor for the heavy work of plowing, hauling and harvesting, and Western farmers know that in order to place reliance upon a machine it must be of the highest grade.

It is for this reason that factories have developed on the Pacific Coast which are turning out tractors of the very highest grade, using the finest materials and skilled workmen. That there is ample demand for a product of this sort is demonstrated by the fact that the Holt "caterpillar" factory in Stockton, Cal., has developed in hardly more than a decade from a shop employing only 200 or 300 men in the busiest seasons to one which employs at the present time 2500 men working the year around. This is simply cited as an instance of the fact that quality pays. There is probably no piece of machinery that is subjected to severer service than the tractor, and cheap materials and cheap workmanship do not pay under such conditions. But, as already stated, the success of the tractor does not rest alone in the condition of the tractor when it is sent from the factory. A tractor must be given a reasonable amount of care and attention. It must be lubricated frequently and lubricated with a good grade of oils and greases. Certain adjustments are necessary and all bolts must be kept tight to insure continued good service from the machine. Some of the tractor manufacturers, therefore. have gone so far as to follow up their machines with an elaborate degree of service. This service consists not only in supplying expert engineers or service men to make

self is not qualified to make, but also in supplying complete. text-books and bulletins of information by means of which the tractor operator may familiarize himself fully with the care and operation of the machine.

Thus the whole question of tractor vs. horses comes down to the question of making the proper choice of a tractor. It would be ridiculous to try to prove that a tractor which is frequently subject to breakdowns could be operated at less cost and at greater convenience than horses. But if a tractor is built for service and is backed by service on the part of its manufacturers, this tractor can surely do farm work at far less cost than horses or mules. Detailed figures might be given to prove this, as many tractor owners, particularly the large sugar companies and extensive land owners, have kept detailed comparative costs to prove the economy of tractors over horses. Figures, however, are rarely interesting and figures that might apply in one section would not apply to another and therefore would be valueless.

The best thing for a prospective tractor purchaser to do who is still skeptical as to the comparative merits of horses and tractors is to go to some farmer is his community who owns a tractor and who he knows has given his tractor fair treatment and find out what that owner's experience has been. Better still, let him go to several owners, so that the average of their experiences may be obtained. He will thus obtain irrefutable evidence of the economy of this modern farming factor as compared with

Fields Heads Liberty Sales.

Joseph E. Fields, sales manager of the Hupp Motor Car Corp., resigned recently to become manager of sales, advertising and service, for the Liberty Motor Car Co., and has acquired a stock interest in the Liberty company.

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Gilbert Heads Carlisle Tire Sales.

Charles A. Gilbert, former western district manager of the United States Tire Co. on the Pacific Coast and in the Far East, has been appointed general sales manager of the Carlisle Cord Tire Co., New York. He was for four years branch manager of the Continental Caoutchouc Co., Chicago, during the next four years assistant Eastern district manager of the United States Tire Co., and later was Western district manager for the same company.

CHARLES A. GILBERT

General Sales Manager Carlisle Cord Tire Co.,

New York.

Mason Tire Co. Trebles Capacity.

The Mason Tire & Rubber Co. has let contracts which, when completed during the next few months, will treble the capacity of the company's plant. raising production to 1,200 tires a day by Jan. 1, 1918. Production is now nearly 500 tires daily. The plant is working on three 8-hour shifts in many of its departments and two 10-hour shifts in the remaining department. Mason tire sales are now at the rate of $2,000,000 a year.

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Collins Succeeds Lelands in Cadillac.

Richard H. Collins has become president and general manager of the Cadillac Motor Car Co., Detroit, following the retirement of the Lelands, father and son from the company. The new president was originally connected with the John Deere Implement & Vehicle Co., Moline, Ill., for twenty years. later becoming Western manager at Kanses City. He entered the Buick Motor Co. as Kansas City branch manager, later going to the Buick company as general sales manager.

Rieman Builds Up Elgin Plant.

The tremendously rapid growth of the Elgin Motor Car Corporation, Chicago, is largely due to its founder- vice-president, and general manager, Charles S. Rieman. Commencing operations fourteen months ago in a small rented building, with 8,064 square feet of floor space, the factory has since been increased until it now occupies 108,800 square feet. In building 7,776 cars this season as compared with 724 cars last season-1,074 per cent increase he has made the greatest ratio of production increase ever dared by an automobile company in one year. During the past 365 days the company's assets have grown from $10,000 to more than $2,000,000.