Odd Moments
Page 4
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With Men, Matters. and Movements.
THESIMPLE STATEMENT that the margin between the wholesale and retail prices of petrel has now been put up to 5d. is perhaps calculated to convey the impression that this margin must be regarded as a minimum from now onwards. The real fact is, of course, that the margin is 15 per cent., which, at the present prices, represents 5d. If, when the war is aver, the price goes down to .half what it is now, then the margin will go down to. Lid., and so on..
Reconstruction. T.. GOVERNMENT' PROPOSALS in connection with the Ministry of-Reconstruction struck , many of us as being veryunsatisfactory, inasmuch as that Ministry is apparently given powers Of talking but not of acting. It is described as being advisory rather than executive. If the .amendments carried by the House of Lords are made a part of the Bill, this weakness will be further accentuated. One of these amendments is to the effect that no order under the Bill shall be issued except in pursuance of a resolution passed by both Houses of Parliament. • If we are not careful, we shall find that the Ministry of ReconstruCtion merely develops into a kind of glorified waste-paper basket, into which the nation is at liberty to push as many important schemes as it likes, with the sore knowledge that, when it has done so, nothing whatever will result.
• Co-operation or Carriers ?
T, HE ADVOCACY of co-operation among retail traders contained in a recent leader in THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR leads me to ask the question whether this form of co-operation will 'really be achieved by collaboration among the traders themselves, or whether there are not better prospects of getting something done as a result of the initiative of the local haulage contractor or carrier 1 Thus, the carrier goes to the butcher who tells him that he has not enough -work to justify him in hiring a van. It is then suggested to the butcher that he should meet the grocer and the baker and discuss with them the Possibility of a joint hiring arrangement. The result woukl be that the carrier would supply a number of vehicles, each one of which would work for a group of traders. This should lead to economical operation and to regularity of service, since the carrier would no doubt be able to keep a spare vehicle to take the place of any that might break down. Personally, I believe the scheme would work out better in this way than by the joint ownership of vans by the traders themselves.
The "Hallea-tractor Idea.
pERSONALLY, I AM no friend of compromises in mechanism. I. remember some time ago coming across the proposal that lorries now in the service of the French War Department should, after the war, be converted into farm tractors, and forming the conclusion s-perhaps a hasty one—that any such scheme was foredoomed to failure. Still less do I like the idea. of converting a light touring car either into a tractor or into a lorry, whether it be by replacing part of the mechanism or by drawing a substantial trailer on two or four wheels. It seems to me that the ordinary van, body that can go on to a' touring car chassis is likely to be quite big enough B28 to hold all that that chassis ought to be asked to carry. I should expect the addition -of a loadcd trailer to mean, among other things, a big increase in the tyre bill, and perhaps in the number of accidents.
Attempts to convert the mechanism -appeal to me "still less. If the conversion is sufficiently thorough to ensure proper strength in every part from engine to driving wheels, taking into account the lower speed at which the machine will have to develop its power, , then I would rather go a little further and have tWo i totally separate machines, each one of which wonld be reserved for its own proper purpose 1ehould like to see a reasoned statement in the form of a comparison put: forward -by the people who advocate these . converting mechanisms, and also to see an equally j closely-reasoned reply to their arguments made by a manufacturer of light vans and a manufacturer of light farm tractors. I am prepared to back the two. latter toget the best of the argument.
Wasting Labour.
8 DAYS GO BY, it becomes more and more evia • dent that, if the military mind were capable of organizing for the best results With the least possible material, we should not be in our present straits for civilian help. , The organizing soldier is, nowadays, revelling in unlimited resources of men, money and material. He can have them all for the asking, and he wee them all with splendid impartiality and at other people's expense. If he were corns' _ pelted to realize, for instance, that it does not need.' from eight to ten men to unload a lorry, transport at home need not. be further crippled. One day, recently, several crews of strong young R.N.A.8. meta: were busy (1) for more than one day clearing away marquees from a sports ground at Wembley. Selfridge's or Whiteley's would have done it in half the time with half the men. And yet men cannot.be • had for love or money to unload civilian food transport wagons, to say nothing of driving' theml Wakelarnisms.—No. 1.
roR. WAKELAM, County 'Engineer of Middlesex, is steadily cultivating a capacity fors making fatuous suggestions, some of which may become almost as historic as the notorious utter ance, of Mr. Fell, of which Sir John Macdonald has: recently reminded, us. Perhaps Mr. Wakelam's best np-to-date is the suggestion that any arrangement made for contributions to the reads by Motor omnie bits proprietors should be subject to frequent revision, because .aS buses and the methods of maintaining them improve, operating costs will -go down, and then, . the companies Will be able to afford to give more to the highway authoritiee. I cannot exactly see the operating engineers, the directors and the managers of the omnibus ersznpanies, or the manufacturers of buses, straining every nerve to effeet improvements, ,the only or main consequence of which will be to hand over more money to be disposed of by Mr. Wakelane This gentleman does not appear' to see that if he• annexes the increased profits that-result from improving methods of , construction and management., he' definitely discourages improvement a-nd endeavours to establish the principle that the ,Wo,rat. and most damaging vehicles are the .ones that should pay least. This is not Mr. Wakelana's only bright idea,but surely it must be one of his brightest! .
THE DOD MAN.