Articles That Are Meeting With Approval.
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WE THANK those readers who have been good enough to write us giving their opinion of the usefulness and value of the series of articles, now appearing in The Commercial Motor and dealing with the correct course and detail methods to be adopted in the overhauling of definite makes and types of commercial vehicle chassis. We have heard from motor manufacturers, agents, repairers, and users, and will welcome further expressions of opinion, because they will be a guide to us in the general conduct of the series.
It is intended to deal with all types of vehicle, petrol, steam, and electric, and we feel convinced that many a repairer, after he has read and studied a number of the articles, will come to the conclusion that he is capable of handling certain classes of overhaul—for example, the electric vehicle—which he is now hesitant to tackle. The difficulty (which we have overcome, however) is that all repairers and garage proprietors will not jump quickly enough to the idea that the series of articles should be preserved and filed for future ,reference. Anticipating a constant procession of applications for "a copy of your issue containing the article on the overhaul of the X chassis," extending over many months, we have arranged for a stook of reprints of the articles on a paper that will stand much handling, and we propose to prepare binding covers which will be supplied on application by a recognized repairer. Our suggestion is that the article be taken from the issue (or if it be desired not to destroy the issue, to obtain a copy of the reprinted article), bound up in the cover and. indexed, so as to be available for ready reference. If the pages are likely to receive much handling in the works, it would net be a bad scheme to obtain two copies of each reprint, to paste the pages on thin card and to size and varnish them before binding.
The head of a, leading manufacturing concern told us, the other day, that, in his opinion, the series of overhaul articles was one of the best moves ever made in order to improve " service" for commercial vehicle users throughout the country, and he heartily welcomed the diffusion of the knowledge which comes to the manufacturer concerning his own vehicles, but which is not general among vehicle repairers.
A prominent garage proprietor and repairer expresses the opinion that" this is the right stuff to give the agent." As we have said, further expressions of opinion from makers, repairers, and users -will be welcomed, with a view to putting the utmost value into the series. Users and the New Licensing Regulations.
FROM THE editorial desk nearly 500 communications have gone out to inquirers for assistance or applicants for information concerning the new licensing and taxation scheme. We are glad that we foresaw the difficulties that owners of commercial vehicles would be in when the new scheme threatened to come, or actually came, into force, and the articles in our issues of December 7th, 14th, and 21st have (fortunately for us, as well I) anticipated many questions that. must otherwise have agitated the minds of vehicle owners, faced with a change in the law, and with a class of tax collector who takes a petty delight in being vindictive.
As it happens, however, our readers are now better posted upon the requirements of the law than the postal and Excise authorities, for, on making inquiries therefrom on details of the scheme, we have found them entirely ignorant of the matter and equally uninterested, the only good source of information being the Roads Department of the Ministry of Transport. Even there, lioweeer, we have found some uncertainty. A reply from the Department has been received by the editor of The Motor saying that " it is not considered likely that objection would be raised to the, licence being attached to the windscreen and facing either forward or backward." The position for the licence suggested by our contemporary is a good one, provided it faces forward, but we feel that the Roads Department is in error in saying that the licence could acceptably face rearwards. Nor, 80 we gather, was that latter concession asked for.
The law is clear that all vehicles must be re-registered on or after January 1st, and that only a few weeks' grace will be allowed. In the case of a, vehicle not registered on December 31st, no period of grace is allowed, 'and the licensing and registration formalities must be completed before it is taken upon the road.
Exit theHorse.
THE ARTICLE which we published on page 659 does no more than depict one aspect of the present situation in so far as it affeets, on the one hand, the horse, and, on the other, mechanical traction in all its branches. The effect of the war on the price of commodities of all kinds has been felt to its greatest degree in. connection with transport. Those who are, in the main, concerned with motor vehicles and have noted with dismay the continuous increase in the running cost, of that class of vehicle, and particularly in the price of one or other of its staple fuels, must, on many occasions, have felt that their position, as compared with older methods of transport, was becoming precarious. They may rest ieassured. The user of horsed transport is in far worse case.
In ether directions than that discussed in the article, however, the war has had considerable effect in depreciating the commercial value of the horse. It is only during and since thewar that the agricultural tractor has become to any extent popular. It is Sow well established, so much so, as was indicated by our contributor " Agrimol, " a week or two ago, as entirely to 'displace the horse in most farm operations on progressive estates such as that of W. Dennis and Son, Ltd. It would now, therefore, appear that the time has come when the automotive industry as a whole should combine for a big effort, for a big push, against the horse. It is to be observed that his last. stronghold will, of necessity, be the farm. This is so principally because the farmer not only finds the horse convenient for traction, but also because, by breeding them, by breaking them in on his farms, and subsequently selling them for city and industrial use, he largely eliminates the factors of capital outlay and depreciation from his own haulage. Our industry, therefore, can tackle -this problem from both ends. By providing the industrial user with economical motor transport, it can diminish the town market for the farmer's horses, and, correspondingly, lessen the farmer's interest in that animal. By proving to the farmer that better and more economical cultivation and more profitable farming results from the adoption of the speedy tractor, that interest will be still further diminished until, apart from foreign trade and the breeding of hunters and Army horses, the interest will vanish. We do not suggest, of course, that we are, as yet, very near the vanishing point, or that we shall arrive there inside the next decade; but the tendency for development to take place on the lines indicated is undoubtedly there, and for the moment we do but suggest how that development may be accelerated.
The Diversion of Motor Taxation Proceeds.
ADEBATE which took place in the House of Commons on December 20th, on the subject of schemes for road improvements, afforded a glaring example of the gross and even impudent lack of consideration to which motor owners are expected to submit cheerfully,
We have already referred to the abandonment of the original principle of devoting the proceeds of motor taxation to road improvement, and the decision to use the bulk of them for road maintenance, as, in other words, for the relief of local taxation. This in itself means a material alteration of the undertaking under which motor owners originally acquiesced in special taxation. We have referred also to our fear that the comparatively small proportion of the proceeds of the new taxation proposals supposed to be earmarked specifically for schemes of road improvement would be used only incidentally for that purpose, but primarily for the relief of unemployment.
Duringthe debate refprred to, Mr. Neal, Parlia mentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, made no bones about the matter. He referred to road improvement projects simply and solely from the point of view of their effect on unemployment. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, he said, had authorized the submission to the House of the proposal. that, in anticipation of £4,000,000 becoming available out of the Road Fund for road improvement during the next three financial years, this sum should be used tor the relief of unemployment as the occasion arose. Later he referred again to " this scheme tor the relief of unemployment." The real use to which the money is to be put is, then, perfectly obvious. The road improvement which motor owners believed they would get. in return for heavy taxation is purely a secondary matter. If unemployment is bad, much work will be put in hand promptly. If not, the scheme will no doubt be delayed in view of the possibility of unemployment becoming more serious later on. Money will be used as the need for it arises; not, be it noted, the need for road improvement, but for the relief of unemployment.
, Later an, the debate degenerated and deserted the main point at issue, until the climax was reached by one honourable member relating a sad story of how one of his cows had slipped on a tar-sprayed road, apparently desiring the House to draw the inference that nothing but macadam roads should be constructed in the country districts. Apparently it occurred to no one to inquire whether the motoring community is being fairly treated, but later on Sir Eric Geddes himself gave another oppontunity for the House to realize this point of view. Sir Donald Maclean had asked what steps were being taken for the co-ordination of the road schemes. Sir Erie replied, agreeing that there ought to be co-ordination, and suggesting that it had been so far attained by an arrangement that additional money should be spent in localities where the Ministry of Labour certifies that there is grave unemployment,
One would have thought that this arrangement would lead to the exact opposite of co-ordination of road improvement schemes. Such co-ordination is only possible if the problem of road improvement be viewed as' a whole, and if the money be spent where it is needed to make the road system good and complete. How this effect can be produced by spending money particularly in those districts where unemployment is rife is a problem which Sir Eric Geddes appears to regard as simple, but to which he did not tender any solution.
We all realize the gravity of the situation as regards unemployment. "We all recognize the necessity for dealing with that situation, but we fail to see why it should be dealt with specifically by the diversion of the motor owners' money from the legitimate purpose for which that money is to be collected.
Now it remains to be seen whether the effect of this wild advance expenditure from a fund not yet raised will be followed by a, discovery at the Ministry of Transport that there is not, enough money for the road improvements urgently required, and that the scale of motor taxation must, therefore, be increased for subsequent years.
Apparently the Ministry of Transport is becoming merely a sort of spending department of the Ministry of Labour, and has given up the idea of regarding transport as its first care and consideration, preferringto look upon it as a source of revenue for expenditure on other objects.