"MILESTONES."
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The Psychology of Motor Coach Touring and its Antagonists.
NOTHER EDITION of " Milestones " is being enacted. dust as in the early part of the last
century, there was an outcry against the iron ship superseding the "wooden walls," and, later, the steel vessel in turn replacing its predecessor in the evolution of the shipbuilding industry, so now the forces of reaction are up in arms against the increasing tendency of the public to travel by road. It is precisely the same antipathy that was manifested in the early part of the railway era' when people with set ideas, many of them with interests probably in coaching enterprises, pursued what appears in retrospect the foolish policy of anti-rail propaganda.
To read the reports of meetings of local councils, it is evident that, in some quarters at least, the meter char-à-bancs is regarded as a present from' B24
the devil himself. Sitting in the privacy of the council chamber, old men, with old ideas, pronounce old and, consequently, defective judgments upon a phase of industry which has developed too rapidly for their mental growth. Old ideas are venerated as nothing else under the sun, and the motor coaeln because its newness is wearing intoregular service, yielding enjoyment to thousands of people each day; has perturbed those who, forever, talk of yesterday. The purpose of this article is to appeal for a wider outlook in the development of the road passenger services. One does not speak in ignorance of tho district councils, the town and city councils ; they are constituted in the main of representatives whose ideas, instead of being fresh, are thoroughly in harmony with the status quo. The public attitude is very largely apathetic, but it needs something fresh
all the time, change, variety, excitement, and enjoyment within the range of their earnings. The motor coach has , appealed to their imagination because there is nothing the public loves more dearly than to be in fashion. The motor coach is the modern and, therefore, a fashionable mode of travelling. Whether it will always be so depends very largely upon the owners and their ability to continue to provide the public with what it wants. Ask it what that is and no answer will be forthcoming. It is for the owner to probe the depths of the public mind, to exercise imagination and to venture on new and untrodden paths.
The motor coach industry ia young and has youthful devotees—at least in outlook. Persons of matured ideas are startled at the sound of the horn, and imagine the char-it-banes to be potential evil, endangering life, damaging :roa.ds and their foundations, and, generally, disturbing the serenity of the countryside. Horror-stricken, their vision is always susceptible to negative ,aspects. Consequently, they register their protests, appeal to the police to exercise increased vigilance on these coaches, arid, in fact, do everything they possibly CM to assure for • their ideas, decadent as they are, the dominance which they think—and, one believes, quite honestly —they deserve. Motor coaching, the writer believes, will become a relatively permanent institution. It has, really,. just been horn; hence, because it may modify the usefulness of something more or less ancient, it is derided. After visiting many important cities and towns— seaside, rural, and industrial—one has no 'doubts whatever of the solid backing the passenger coach is receiving from the public. This support will not diminish if the motor coach receives from proprietors and designers a constant and never-ending stream of fresh ideas; rather will the prosperity of road touring be carried Onward to a period of undreanit-of prosperity. The first question an owner should ask himself is : " Do I really ,believe in the future possibilities of motor co-aching?" If the answer is in the negative, it can only be conjectured whether the right vocation has. been chosen. On the other hand, if he answer "-Yes," then let him ignore the frowns and complaints of the ,kill-joys, and apply himself with unabated energy, not to the perpetuation of existing cenditions, but to improving upon them. In most places the motor-coach fares compare very favourably with those charged by the railway companies. In some towns and cities they are actually less.