Municipal Visitors at Olympia.
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it will be found that some pages of this issue are devoted to a condensed summary of the case for the ownership of commercial motors of all types by county, municipal, urban, rural and harbour authorities, as well as by gas-works undertakings, boards of guardians, and hospitals. Closely allied to the latter, of course, there is the use of rescue vehicles by colliery companies, but this we only mention incidentally. The perusal of that portion of to-day's " Show Opening" issue, by some thousands of chairmen of committee, engineers and surveyors, clerks to couecils, and other officers, will prove useful, whether the parties who read it are able to go to Olympia, or only to make up their minds at a distance in regard to purchases or extensions of plant. We, however, have the satisfaction of knowing that visitors to Olympia who attend from the above-mentioned classes of Home buyers will be assisted by our notes, and we are able to state that such attendances will be a satisfactory feature during the busy eight days on which the Show will be open to the public.
Both Show numbers of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR will be in the hands of practically all.theae influential buyers and intending buyers, whose money, in that they have the rates behind them, is known to be good, and who also, once started upon their motoring careers, seldom if ever turn back. We wish to see the hold of commercial motoring thus strengthened. Not only will public-service vehicles of all types receive attention at their hands: fire-brigade, haulage, street-cleansing, road-rolling, ambulance and motorvan exhibits will eachamake their effective appeal. The contents of next week's issue will, of course, give particulars and illustrations of first-rate examples of vehicles which fall' within the .whole of these categories, and others, at the Show.
The Reflex Action of Motorbus Success in London.
The writer has repeatedly advanced the opinion, in these columns and elsewhere, that the financial recovery of London motorbus undertakings from their critical .stages of 1807 and 1908 has been of a far' reaching character for the movement and to the undoubted advantage of the whole industry. Oilier writers have looked upon the L.G.O.C. developments and extensions in a narrow .fashion, and have supported the view that this operating comnany was not entitled either to arrange its own manufacture, or to come on to the market as a selling factory. We took the view at the time, as we do now, that the material addition of one more well-equipped factory to the list of those which belong to approved makers of commercial motors was of less account, from the competitive aspect,. than the huge gain in world-wide advertisement of the fact that L.G.O.C. motorbuses had become outstandingly prosperous in direct com petition with rate-aided electric tramcars. The transfer of the llaimier commercial-vehicle production from Coventry to Walthamstow now gives added force to that view. We can trace purchases in all parts of the world to the records which the L.G.O.C.
has made, and sales with that common genesis have by no means been confined to the public-service branch.
The latest proof of the soundness of our contention is from Glasgow. This is peculiarly appropriate, in view of the large panther of municipal and other public bodies which—by reason of our campaign and propaganda amongst actual and potential Home buyers—will send deputations or officials to Olympia. The Convener of the Glasgow Corporation Tramways Committee, in submitting the year's accounts last week, .directed the Council's attention to the situation in London. He considered that "it was somewhat alarming to watch the traffic war between the L.C.C. tramways and the motor omnibuses . . . . The lesson for Glasgow was to he ready for every contingency, and the Corporation should eeetainly be prepared, financ.iay and otherwise, to adopt the latest improvements in transport facilities." Thus, it appears, may Glasgow roam be added to the growing Jiat-of British municipalities in which it is realized that the immediate duty of the Council lies in the direction of placing motorbus orders, instead of fatuously consigning the vehicles to museums.
Steam-wagon Representation on the S.M.M.T. Council.
Ileaewed complaints are heard from steam-wagon men that they are treated very much as. outsiders by the S.M.M.T. The virtual atosence of steam-car repreacntation on the S.11,I.M.T. Council may not oecasion any grievance, but. we do think that a case formonsideration arises in respect of the present disproportionate representation of the steam side of the commereial-motor arm, especially when one pays regard to the all-round renewal of interest in steamvehicle manufacture and use.
We cannot support the view which is sometimes expressed, that ateaan is not given fair play by the Society, but we do support, and do so very strongly, the view that steps might be taken with advantage to encourage more steam men to come in. There is no reas.en, for example, why the ratio of steam to petrol on the Commeacial Vehicle Committee should not be the ratio disclosed by the heavier-vehicle membership alone; if due regard were paid to such proportional representation, there would certainly be several more steam men put on to it immediately. Should it be necessary to enlarge the membership of the committee, which course might certainly be followed without doing harm, to anybody, we see no obiection. The infusion would be helpful.
It is when one comes to consider the situation in regard to the Council as a whole, and also as regards the Committee of Management, that we find difficulties. The Council and the Committee of. Managemeni; most reflect the membership of the Society as a whole, and here not even the keenest of the steam. men Can pretend that internal-combustion interests are not in the ascendant. Their preponderance has to he
recognized. It is hopeless for steam interests to seek to become more than a /small percentage of the whole membership, and the question then resolves itself into a choice between two courses : (a) that the steam men, who are almost wholly on the commercial-vehicle side, shall be content to press for an enlargement of the Commercial Vehicle Committee of the ; (b) that they shall form their own separate organization. We know that the latter proposal has been under discussion, but we deprecate its adoption. The Society is the body which deserves to be supported, and its past records show that it has at all times been ready to modify its views, and even its constitution, in order to adapt itself to successive altered needs of the industry. Do steam-vehicle makers support the B...iciety as they might ? Is it not their first duty to join ? We shall be most happy, as soon as the Olympia Show is out of the way, to assist our friends on the steam side of the industry to secure such larger share in the direction of the commercial vehicl.ie affairs of the Society as may prove to be consonant with facts as they exist, and also possible in relation to all the circumstances that have to be taken into account. They wili be ill advised to follow isolated lines.
Motorbuses for Small Towns.
The claims of motorbuses have of late been enormously strengthened for consideration at the hands of the smaller municipalities. Eastbourne has done very well with its own motorbuses for more than ten years, but prospects with up-to-date vehicles, for any new purchaser, are undoubtedly much brighter than with older types. An example of the excellent service that can be given to one of the smaller boroughs by motorbuses is provided at Tunbridge Wells, and in this case only modern vehicles are employed. We commend it as a place to be visited by any intending municipal buyers. The idea that motorbuses will only pay in London, or in conjunction with some big and established tramcar undertaking, dies hard, but is none the less incorrect. The inclusive cost of working a provincial motorbus undertaking, to serve any towns with populations varying between 20,000 and 100,000, will range between 13d. and 9d. per mile rim. On county roads a contribution of 0.33d. per vehicle-mile may be required by the county authorities as a maintenance guarantee.
Roads and Rates : An Important Lead from Germany.
The German .Bundesrat has given a lead to the world in regard to modifications of existing laws which affect heavy-motor traffic, and it has done so in a manner which safeguards the interests of existing owner. That point is of vital importance to every user in the United Kingdom ; it provides a precedent which will undoubtedly serve its purpose when the British Legislature finds time to revise highway laws. We print elsewhere (below) a summary of the changes, as it has been supplied by our own correspondent in Berlin, and we wish to draw attention more especially to three of the provisions. First, every road motor in Germany is in future to be fitted with tires of rubber or other elastic material—the steel tire is to disappear, except as a rim upon which to carry the rubber tread ; second, no axle-weight may in future exceed six tons ; third, the intensity of load, measured at the base of the rubber or other elastic tire, may not exceed 7.38 cwt. per in. of width. The fundamental safeguard for existing owners ia found in the enactment that vehicles and trailers which are already licensed need not be altered until the end of the year 1918. A period of nearly six years is to be allowed for conversions to be effected, and it is this feature that we have most pleasure in noting. Germany's procedure, added to precedents in the United Kingdom, provides yet another assurance for present-day owners and buyers of the heavier types of vehicle that their interests will not in any way be ignored or sacrified. The writer's knowledge of German roads convinces him that they do not compare in excellence with the highways of Great Britain, and there is no reason for our acceptance of a six-ton axle-weight. The wisdom of specifying robber tires more and more widely, however, must again become apparent.