Culled from Contemporaries.
Page 17
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A Selected Collection of Extracts from the British and Foreign Press.
A New Authority.
The report recently issued by the Board of Trade on the traffic conaitions of London is particularly interesting and significant in view of the fact that it recognises the necessity for an alteration and in some cases a reconstruction of roads in order to meet the requirements of modern traffic conditions. The report has been compiled by Colonel Sir Hubert Jetsylc, who is a distinguished authority on road traffic.—" Hereford Times."
"Pull-up Tramcars.
We are living in an age of pampered luxury. The Metropolitan Railway intends to put on a Pullman car between Aylesbury and the City. By means of it you will be able to enjoy a good breakfast. . . . Good luck to the " Met." Its motto is "Pullman." The motto of the London County Council tramcars is " Pull up." Anything more exasperating than the incessant stoppings of these conveyances I cannot remember.—" London Opinion."
It Touches the Spot.
Since the United Kingdom is still the best foreign customer of our auto industry it might be concluded that our trade with that country would likely be injured by the revocation of British automobile patents held by American manufacturers. . . . . Fortunately the success of our manufacturers in the British markets is based not nearly so much on patent protection as on superior factory organization and large scale operation. American inventors will in future be less eager to take out British patents unless the inventions are such that they can be readily sold to established firms, or of sufficient importance to warrant the formation of new companies in Great Britain for their exploitation.—" The Horseless Age."
Thanks to the Commercial Motor
Thanks to the commercial-motor vehicle the public itself, by its preference for motorbuses and cabs, is providing much of the encouragement. that is responsible for the advance of the motor and the decline of the horse. The public is itself, unwittingly, but nevertheless certainly, providing evidence as to the superiority of mechanically-driven couveyance.s, and by almost exclusively patronizing the quicker mode of transit is itself bringing the completely mechanical age a perceptible stage nearer day by day. The particular point to be observed by motorists is that the public cannot thus familiarise itself with, recognise and tacitly admit the advantages of public-service motors without at the same time modifying its views upon the motor question generally. The time is coming when every man, woman and child who has any occasion to travel will he a motorist, and it is scarcely a far-fetched argument to say that on this account the amelioration of conditions for which motorists, either individually or representatively, have pleaded and agitated for so many years must come simultaneously and automatically.—" The Royal Automobile Club Journal."
To Pencil His Own Tickets.
A ticket system might well restore the popnlarity of the horse-cab. Here, despite competition, the old overcharging remains. If drivers were compelled to pencil on a ticket, bearing their number, the journey and the fare charged, and to give this to the passenger, the trouble would be at an end. They might charge what they liked. The passenger, if overcharged, would have his easy remedy and his indisputable evidence.—" The Daily Graphic."
Hansonx's Patent Safety.
Now that every week witnesses a distinct addition to the number of taxi-cabs on the London streets, it is no wonder that the hansom is steadily passing from sight. Time was when " Hansom's Patent Safety " was thought to be the acme of travelling perfection, and when the Earl of Shrewsbury, a score of years ago, sent forth his crowd of " S. T." cabs, no one dreamed there could be an improvement. But from the moment a swift and safe motor-cab was forthcoming, the hansom—difficult to enter, and draughty and often damp when taken—was plainly doomed to every eye except that of its driver. He remained as generally discourteous and unduly exacting as ever ; and it has been only within the past few months that he seems to have awakened in even slight degree to a realization of the fact that his reign is ended. And thus it is that "the growler," our old familiar friend the four-wheeler, which he so cordially despised, remains on the streets, and especially at the railway stations, as a welcome convenience, especially to those who are not in a hurry, and who detest draughts, while the hansom is fading away.—" Liverpool Echo."
A Prophecy not Without Honour.
A few years ago Mr. Balfour was speaking in the House of Commons on a County Council Tramways Bill—probably one of the early attempts to get the cars over Westminster Bridge—and argued with great skill on the absurdity of spending so many millions of public money on what he called " the fixed track vehicle " when, in a short time, they might be displaced by " the mechanically propelled free-running vehicle." Certain Liberal publicists—to whom whatever a Progressive County Council does is sacrosanct—declared that if this were the best argument that he could find against a Spring Gardens Tramway Bill it had been better had Mr. Balfour held his peace. In those days the motor-omnibus had just made its appearance. its noise, its vibrations, its erratic movements, its frequent breakdowns exposed it to the jeers of the multitude. Yet to-day we have a Government. Department solemnly telling us that what a politician with a scientific turn of mind then regarded as a probability, and was laughed at for being impractical, is now a realised fact. " There is little room," says the London Traffic Branch of the Hoard of Trade in its second an Dual report, " for improvement in the tramcar. Motor-omnibuses, on the other hand, are only beginning to show their capacity for dealing with traffic in large volume, and there is still ample margin for improvement." This will be cheerful reading for the ratcpay-ers of Great Britain, who have sunk something like forty-four millions in capital expenditure on tramways.—" The Morning Post."
A Warning to Tramway Constructors.
Tramways are no longer capable of improvement. They are as good and as cheap as they are likely to be, whereas the motor-omnibus is still in its infancy, and is likely to grow with great rapidity. . . . . The advantages of the motoromnibus over the tramway are obvious. . . . In these circumstances it would seem only prudent in the London County Council to reconsider some of the schemes they already have in progress, and to undertake no new ones for tho present. The absence of any commercial inducement to hold their hands ought not to blind them to the possibility that they may be saddling the ratepayera of London with a vast system of tramways which may prove eventually to be inferior in point both of convenience and cheapness to motor-omnibuses. There is no need that they should treat the question which of the two systems is the better as already decided against tramways. All that they are asked to do is not to treat it. as already decided in their favour.—" The Spectator."
A Most-undesirable Animal.
It is the horses of London thatkeep the air so dull and impure. The horse— much as we may love it, useful and faithful as it is—is a most undesirable animal to keep in a large town. Roughly speaking, one horse will use as much air at a breath as five men, and a working horse at each respiration will destroy enough fresh air to supply twenty men. It must be remembered that not only the air inhaled is spoilt. The animal's exhalations destroy still more. The organic compounds in respired air are the cause of the evil results of bad ventilation and foul air. Motor-vehicles certainly destroy much oxygen, but there the evil effects of motor-engines upon the air cease, for they give off none of the poisonous compounds to be found in respired air. They may impoverish the atmosphere, but they do not poison it. Realise that each horse represents twenty men in air-destroying capacity, and then imagine the result upon t'lle character ofthe air in the streets if horses were eliniinated. There would be room for hundreds of thousands more people, and yet the air would be left fresher than it is now. Could all horses be excluded from the London streets, the reduction in the number of cases of chest and throat diseases in the spring would be surprising. In fact, in all complaints of the respiratory system, the diminution would be large, and of chest complaints, pneumonia and bronchitis would be reduced most considerably.—" The Daily Mirror."