Wheels, Rims, and Tires.
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In accordance with our promise of last week, we devote a considerable proportion of this issue to illustrated and other references to wheels, rims, and tires. The variety of choice may appear considerable, but there are many needs to be met in commercial motoring, and there is little doubt that demand and markets exist for the lot. The letter-press and reproductions speak for themselves in the section to which we refer : there is no occasion for us to write at any length here. We merely desire to draw the attention of new readers to the reason for the reservation of so many pages in a single issue for the particular class of matter in question. • There is, however, just one class of fitting about which we must writ a few lines: there is an undoubted call for a good non-skid tread for use upon solid-rubber tires, and not only in connection with fire-engine service. We foresee considerable developments in this direction, and we ask tire manufacturers not to overlook the call for an attachment of the kind which shall be at once effective and of no damaging effect to either tar-bound or paved surfaces.
The Right to Steal.
One has heard a great deal, during recent years, of the right to work ; more than one strike has been stated to have been caused by that ideal, if we do not misapply the word. The latest strike, that of London taxi-drivers, was fundamentally in favor of the right to steal—we decline to be led aside by incidental details of alleged minor grievances for which the undisguised thefts are said to be compensation. These words may appear to err on the side of severity, but they are strictly in accordance with fact. We wrote, last week, that there would be no strike of any importance, as the result of the present unrest, and we still hold to that opinion. A strike, to be of importance, must nowadays be founded upon honest grievances, and win the sympathy of the public. We are inclined to accept the view that the owners are not a bit sorry that the men went out. Owners of tnotoreahs in London, except owner-drivers, have little if anything to lose by keeping the cabs in, whereas the men lose at their accustomed plunder. It is quite likely, we admit, that some of the " spotters" in the employ of the T.ondon Cab Proprietors Association may have made errors in noting down numbers, or in reporting them, and there are obvious loopholes of escape which any cornered taxi-driver would adopt hy way of socalled explanation. Errors or alleged errors of the kind do not affect or mitigate the basic error of the men and their leaders : both have shown themselves
to be more foolish, more shortsighted and less fitted to gauge public opinion than we thought. Hence there has been a strike, though not a serious one—the " Daily Mail" has called it " A strike that does not matter." It was our preparedness to credit the taxicabbies with more acumen and sense than they evidently possess, that led us to believe they would not invite loss of any remaining esteem of the public by a strike for " the right to steal." London taxi-drivers are distinctly in the wrong in this matter of the appropriation of extras, as we were careful to explain at considerable length in the months of March, April, May and June of last year, when we devoted considerable space to the subject, giving publicity to the views of all parties, and there
after publishing our Twenty points for users of London taxicabs," to the extent of 2,000 wall-cards and 50,000 pamphlets. It is no surprise to us that the strike began to weaken after the first few days, as the men realized that they were the losers of the " negligible tips and extras," the while a considerable proportion of the proprietors was avoiding losses. A summary of the men's proceedings, and of other factors in the events of the past week, will be found amongst this week's " Motoreab Topics." We heartily concur in the view that the men should not be taken back except under a contract which will render them criminally liable for the daylight robbery of which so many of them have been guilty. Were the men honestly to pay in the extras as a general rule, following the lead of a few in their ranks who have disclosed by their honesty and regularity in this respect the average receipts from that source weekly, over long periods, we should be perfectly ready to throw our influence into the scale in favour of their receiving additional consideration in cases where they themselves have been " done " by mishaps of one kind and another, including " bilks." The men should remember that two blacks do not make a white, and that the occasional hardships which they have to endure in no sense justify their unwholesome contempt for the title of the owners to the extras. So-called leaders who encourage the drivers to think otherwise are unworthy of the dignities to which they aspire. They do harm, not good.
Petrol by Pipe Line.
The announcement that the Commercial Motor Users Association is prepared to support an application to Parliament for powers to incorporate a company to undertake the conveyance of motor spirit by pipe line has received a great amount of publicity during the last few days, The conception is a bold one, and the probable cost should he no bar to its achievement. When one considers the resources of the netrol-imnorting houses, it does indeed seem a foolish situation for them to be bound by the limitations of barge movements moon the Thames. We reported, in our last issue, the warning by Sir Marcus Samuel, Bart., in respect of the uncertainty of trans
port between the large storage depots, near the Thames estuary, and the centre of the Metropolis. He stated, for example, that three days of fog on the river would see London's supply of petrol exhausted. A new factor, of which we were not aware a week ago, is found in the impossibility of access to the storage tanks at Thames Haven by road, as several miles of marsh land intervene between the location of that storage and the Essex highways. The .Road Board, as has been pointed out in our sister journal "The Motor," might be willing immediately to vote the necessary £20,000 or more to make good this flaw in the link of communication by road, but we do not feel at all satisfied that that solution would be a permanent and ultimate one for the difficulties which are now accumulating. The consumption of petrol in London. is sufficient to justify the laying of one or more pipe lines of reasonable bore, and the advantage of laying more than one would be found in the fact that burning oil and motor spirit could be delivered side by side. If, a few years hence, improvements in paraffin carburetters proved to be such as to put motor spirit out of consumption, which we think is a highly-improbable contingency, all the pipe lines could be used for the'delivery of kerosene.
The matter is now engaging the attention of wellknown Parliamentary agents. There is no doubt that it is also one which is being studied by the capitalists who are now handicapped by the extraordinary restrictions, who are well entitled to resent the old-fashioned methods of the Port of London Authority in respect of the transport of petrol upon the River Thames, and who chafe under sonic of the supplementary restrictions for which the London County Council is responsible when the spirit is brought ashore.
Motorbus Rumours.
Circumstantial and detailed reports have been common in the daily Press, for upwards of a week, in regard to alleged definite terms of agreement between London " Underground " interests and the proprietors of the London General Omnibus Co. Similar rumours have proved to be groundless before, on more than one occasion ; at the present time, we are not justified in going beyond the statement that negotiations are again taking place. No forecast of terms which has yet appeared in print appeals to us as being good enough for the L.G.O.C. shareholders, and we think the directors of that company can be trusted, seeing that they are themselves very large holders of stock, not to make a bargain of an adverse character Whilst we doubt the plan of a guar antee of 10 per cent, per annum upon the L.G.O.C. 'stock, in the absence of a clear path to the completion of a purchase and re-sale arrangement, we do not for one minute doubt that the position of the L.G.O.C. might be strengthened by a working arrangement with the tubes and shallow railways. The L.G.O.C. Board was, earlier in the year, faced with threats of a huge new promotion, and the most-disturbing movements in the values of its stock ensued— probably to the detriment of many holders who were disconcerted by the apparent lack of stability. Were the L.G.O.C. to fix uo an arrangement with the " Underground " group, upon a basis which insured to it alone a " correspondence" and interchange of tickets, so that the tickets might be available partly by rail or tube and partly by motorbus, or in the reverse order, and were this arrangement to be coupled with an undertaking that no comparable facilities would be extended to any new motorbus undertaking, its present and future interests would be safeguarded, and the likelihood of erratic competition considerably reduced.
We do not wish to help forward any plan of action which makes in a direction other than that of the
public advantage, and did we not fully believe in the intentions of the L.G.O.C. directors to place additional fleets of motorbuses upon the highways of London, even to an extent which may lower the present average revenue per mile from, say, 10.5d. to 8.5d., at which latter figure the motorbuses could pay their way, we should be instantly ready to encourage new companies. As the matters stand, we should say that the consolidation of the L.(1.0.0. interests has been such, since May last, that the flotation of a new company can be of little benefit to anybody but the promoters
Who Said 54 Tons ?
An acknowledgment, we feel, is due to the parties who held to their guns, some 2 years ago, Amen all the forces of the commercial motor industry were brought to bear against them in order to delay or to frustrate the regulation of the Metropolitan police which fixed the maximum unladen weight for a double-deck motorbus at 3i tons. This journal was content to press for the alternative of a gross weight of six tons, which alternative was granted. Nobody can walk about the streets of London and observe the smooth running of the latest-type double-deckers, all of which comply or virtually comply with the 3i-ton requirement, and all of which, without exception, comply with the six-ton requirement, without feeling that Sir Edward Henry, the Commissioner of •Police, and his technical adviser, Mr. W. Worby. Beaumont, were right in adhering to the views which were so widely qpposed at the time. We are prepared and delighted to own that they were right, although we hope that they will be equally prepared to admit that their requirements caused serious losses here and there to individual members of the industry. There has, however, been a net gain to the industry in the end, for motorbus operation in London is thoroughly rehabilitated, and there has been a sympathetic accession of commercial-motor business, from many quarters, in consequence. That beneficial reaction has, too, only just begun to show itself, and its limits cannot be fixed. Effects will be world wide.
More Strikes Threatening: Speculative Purchases and • Bonuses for Delivery.
The already-full order books of manufacturers are likely to be made a greater source of anxiety to them, so far as delivery between now and the end of next year is concerned, by the reiteration of intention on the part of railway and other workers to enter upon further strikes. The peculiar quality of the independent motor vehicle, that it can maintain emergency or regular services in spite of labour troubles, has been well sent home during the past few months, with -consequential beneficial results for the commercial-vehicle section of the industry. These advantages promise to be still further enforced. It looks to us as though numerous commercial and transport interests will be tumbling over themselves to obtain delivery, and that we shall even go through a period of bonus terms, to insure early delivery, comparable with the experience of the private-car trade in the years 1903 and 1904. We are not out to recommend the speculative purchase of commercial motors, but we cannot ignore the reports that have come to us from certain sources to the effect that purchases of the kind are being made. We hope they will not be upon any extensive scale, as this factor is not, in our opinion, a desirable one. Manufacturers, indeed, might well consider the incorporation of a re-sale barring clause in their contract notes, or the advantage will be with the speculative middlemen. There is, we agree, no reason to discourage advance purchases by men in the trade who have the courage to do it. Our desire is to check any temporary incursion by the young men who like to make money easily, and who disturb normal business.