Agrimotors by Adaptation.
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A correspondent (page 446) makes a suggestion which greatly appeals to us. We have already communicated his suggestion direct to Mr. S. F. Edge, the Director of the Agricultural Machinery. Branch of the Ministry of Munitions. The interesting suggestion, it will be observed, is based upon our publication on the 28th ult. of an abridgment of a patent, by a Mr. M. L. Adams (No. 101,834, dated 12th April, 1916), concerning an attachment of the chain-track type for•ready fitting to motor vehicles with driving wheels of the ordinary pattern.
• Any general employment of the suggested method of securing a quick supply of agrimotors by the adaptation of existing motor vehicles is, of course, dependent Upon the large-scale production of such attachments. Before this can be done, there must be standardization of the mechanism. Such standardltation presents no insurmountable difficulty from the engineering point of view, having regard to the peculiarly-adaptable 'characteristics of the chain track for propulsive purposes. We are satisfied that Mr. Edge and his colleagues will study the possibilities in relation to the new manufacturing demands.
Another forth of adaptation for Mr. Edge's attention will concern the services of experienced motorhaulage contractors. -Their capacity to render aid is as considerable as their proven powers of supervision. Initial organization itself cannot be complete if it disregards these widespread sources of co-operation.
The County-Council Passenger Tax,
We understand that the County Councils Association is much disappointed at the yield—which yield is practically negligible—under Section 20 of the Local Government (Emergency Provisions) Act of last year. This county-council tax upon passengers, in which form, unless the necessity be removed, we Fops to see it duly brought home to the travelling public hereafter, is oneof the worst examples of hasty legislation that has come under our notice during the past ten years.
We may recall that, at the instance of the Staffordshire County Council, the clause was introduced, re; an amendment, in the House of Lords, without discussion, and was accepted by an uncomprehending House of Commons. There is a measure of safeguard in the temporary character -of the section, but we are concerned with its effects upon passenger development: both under war conditions and under normal conditions.
Proposals for the establishment of any new service of motorbuses are now rendered nugatory by the existence of the right to levy local tolls which is thus conferred, although only temporarily, upon every local authority. It has already been found that one village will ask 225 per vehicle per annum, and the authorities who are concerned with the adjacent stretches of highway anything from 1d. to 3d. (or more) per motorbus-mile. These . disgraceful demands, when compared with the result of a fought
out case before Parliament (e.g., Sheffield Corpora.. tion v. Derby County Council), are known to be enormously in excess of equitable rates.
Three results to date are probably not those for which the County Councils Association looked. The first result is that no new services are started ; the second result is that the public is deprived of the use of certain services which happened to have been started between the 1st March, 1916, and the date of the new legislation ; the third result is that desirable newcomers have to do nothing or to " over-bus " existing routes. This snatch legislation of the County Councils will have to be fought in the future, in part, as we have stated, by bringing home to the public that there is in being a county-council passengei tax, and in part by pointing out to the County Councils that there is a better course. The better course is to maintain the petrol tax (commercial) at its present net rate of 3d. per gallon, giving half the yield to the Road Board for improvement purposes, and the, other hall to the same distributing authority for allecation to local councils to cover "extra maintenance." That course will provide a pool from which locallyaffected councils may draw. If•they are chiefly concerned to get the money, and not.to damage passenger-transport developments throughout •the country;
they will accept this alternative willingly. Their true attitude is not yet clear to us, or to the leading motorbus organizations and owners in the country.
A Peaceful Motor Press in America.
One always associates the idea of fc push and go," with American journalism. Etymological gymnastics and twists may go a certain distance in creating this atmosphere. Be that as it may, 'Britishjournalists usually find something of interest, both in general and trade or technical publications from the other side of the Atlantic, as regards subject or style., It is seldom that one can find an American journal whichlays down in advance, andannounces, a placid scheme of future conduct for ii whole year, yetthat. is the course 'which our contemporary "The Horseless Age " appears to have found it possible to do. We read in the periultirciate isSue.of our contemporary for the past year the statement that its editorial plans for each issue will be based upon a vital subject developed into .a special: feature.A list of those vital subjects" for the whole' of the year 1917 follows the
announcement. • •
• -Calm and uneventful, indeed,' must be the state of American journalism, in these stressful times for British journals, when it can thus assuredlY be known what is going to happen to it for so many months ahead. The subjects with which they are going to deal are special ones, we admit ; others may develop as they go along, but, presumably,. they have no occasion to contemplate the attempted copying or upset-. ting of their apple cart" by other peace blessed contemporaries. .Everybody, including motor papers, must be inaking, handsome money in the U.S. A., and not a little engaged in rubbing their well-filled hands.
Potential Motorbus Orders from Tramway Undertakings.
The end of the war, whenever it proves to come, will undoubtedly find the majority of the tramway undertakings of the United itingdona in a position of difficulty Which can be met only by the temporary or permanent employment of motorbuses. The prices of copper and of steel rails, to say nothing of the uncertainty of delivery of the latter " supply," will be very high indeed. Prices are likely to remain abnormal for an indefinite period, and delivery likewiseto remain uncertain. Immediate relief must somehow be obtained, to supplement services in certain instances on existing routes, and to extend existing routes in others. The motorbus will provide the solution. May the makers realize that prospect by early concentration upon its sources.
British manufacturers of motorbus chassis will, at tile conclusion of hostilities, be in a position to deliver, and to do 80 at short notice. They will probably be best placed to tender delivery of chassis which are slightly heavier than the usual typo of motorbus chassis which was the pre-war vogue, butthis will be an advantage. Abundant evidence has accumulated that the. London type of chassis is not the best for country roads, and is in fact distinctly under-powered for hilly routes. The heavier and higher-powered vehicles, of which the output has been so enormously increased to meet war demands, will help tramway undertakings as much as any big users, if not even more. Several hundred vehicles of this type will, after'soine date not yet known, be available for delivery weekly, the equivalent of which rate of delivery will not be attained in any other branch of industry in the country contemporaneously, and least of all from those works which were at one time employed upon tramcar construction. The fundamental explanation of the ea,ceptional position of British motor-vehicle manufacturers at the conclusion of hostilities, so far as a,biliv to give delivery is concerned, is not solely found in large outputs. Many factories are now concerned with anich outputs, but of munitions of classes and types which are not applicable, without considerable, modifications, and in the majority of cases total changes, to civilian uses. The British manufacturers of motor-vehicle Chassis can go on completing their war outputs, at least to the extent of partsand supplies which are on order and going through, with the certainty that they can sell them— gradually, if not at once. How different the position of a manufacturer who is, for example, turning out phenomenal totals of shell, or fuses, or guns, or torpedo boats?
We know that the British motor-vehicle manufacturers are protected, under their latest contracts with the Government, in the matters of definite orders and adequate notice. Have they considered, we wonder, the probability that., if the necessity to utilize their outputs is suddenly removed the Government may not take delivery 1 There Would, of course, have to be tendered something in the way of financial cornpenss.tion, but the state of any manufacturer's works, congested as it might conceivably be with unabsorbed output in a very few weeks, can readily be visualized.
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Such a position s not, in our view, beyond the bounds of possibility—nay, ef probability. The absorption of part of this diverted output at the hands of the tramway undertakings of the country, for the relief and auxiliary services which we have in mind, must therefore be mutually beneficial. It, must prove to provide a real means to give immediate help to such of the tramway undertakings as are at the moment quite unable to discharge their obligations to the travelling public, and the position of which undertakings in this regard cannot otherwise be improved ; it must help to give the British motor-vehicle manufacturers time to adjust themselves to the new circumstance of having more than one customer, the State, when that new circumstance arises. Motor-vehicle output is one of the few that can and will be continued.
Higher Railway Rates.
Higher railway rates for goods traffic have not as yet become an accomplished fact in the -United Kingdom, except in the. disunited part of it—Ireland; a 10-per-cent, rise took effect in Ireland from the 1st ult. The railway companies in Great Britain have, so far, only avowedly increased their passenger fares. They do, however, continue to draw closer and closer to nothing the various extra facilities which, in past years, have by force of competition been the rule. The latest withdrawal of facilities, so far as motor transport is concerned, is reported to us by an owner in the neighbourhood of Rugby ; his letter will be found amongst our "Opinions from Others." Whilst we sympathize with this owner, it is of course clear that railway companies are entitled to charge for any accommodation which at their hands .saves any contractor the cost of finding his own. The custom of giving such accommodation free of charge is not found in any railway rate-book, so it rests upon no sure foundation. A contractor in this case has no remedy, 80 far as we can see, but to add the charge to that which he makes for the work done.
An interview with the district goods manager might help to smooth away. difficulties, failing which there are only two alternatives open to our correspondent, or to others who are similarly placed : one is to refuse to do the wcrk under the new conditions ; the-other is to recover the charges from the party for whom the work is done. Either course is dependent upon the nature of the contracts, if any, between the owner and the hirer. One point remains. We-presume the railway company is not giving an "undue _preference " to the competing horse-contractors of whom our correspondent makes incidental mention.
1917: the Agent's Year, and Agents' Preparations for Peace.
The fourth article of our series dealing with " 1917: the Agent's Year" appears in the present issue (page 439). This article is not from the Editor's pen, as will be observed. We are desirous that the series of articles shall present all competent views, and for that reason we have had pleasure in adnirtting the first contribution from an accredited and experienced agency member of the industry.
We did not, in last week's article, exhaust all the points which concern the equipment of a suitable receiving, storing and maintenance depot for the handling of commercial motors, but the -interposition in the series of the article to which we have this week given place does not in any real sense break the continuity of our argument. It does, in fact, supplement and serve to accentuate certain of the points with which we have either already dealt or are about to deal.
The agents are preparing i for peace. This statement is literally true, and n no singular or narrow sense. • There are indications that, just as the highest agents of the conflicting States are preparing for peace, groups according to their own methods and necessities, so are the trade agents of the belligerent powers and the neutral powers similarly preparing for the consequences—the reversions and revutsions —of peace. We do not by any means conclude that peace will come this year, however significant certain portents may appear. The initiation of moves ih the direction of peace may be separated from its conclusion by many a moon. The point of import-. mice to the commercial-motor industry is, that it shall not be found unready for the great change when it does come—for the loss of its great war customers, the Eraeire and its Allies. The exchange of treaties will bring the opportunity to the industry to serve hundreds or thousands of smaller customers, and to bear its due share in one or other, or partly in each, of the three great sales-agency branches which are open to it at home. Now is the time—the accepted tame—to make ready. It is trade at home that will save the industry at the gasp, not trade overseas.