Life, 1912-01-25 · page 29 of 44
Life — January 25, 1912 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a commercial advertisement for Alco motor trucks, not a political cartoon. The page depicts the early automotive industry's push to replace horse-drawn transportation. The image shows Alco trucks operating alongside horses and wagons in an urban setting, illustrating the transition from traditional to motorized transport. The text targets business owners, arguing they should calculate the true cost of maintaining 30 million horses in American service (worth $3 billion). The American Locomotive Company's Transportation Cost Bureau, headed by "Wm. P. Kennedy," offers free analysis to demonstrate that motor trucks could reduce transportation costs by 15-40 percent. For modern readers: this reflects America's early-1900s industrial shift. The advertisement essentially asks businessmen to abandon their horses for newfangled trucks—a revolutionary proposal when horses were standard. The "scientific cost analysis" pitch represents early industrial management thinking and marketing strategy during this transitional era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The truck illustrated above is one of five Alcor in the service 0 Joseph Stern & Sons, New York City “ALCO Motor Trucks What Do Your Horses Cost? A Scientific Cost Analysis May Save You Annually From 15 to 40 Per Cent situation. The figures will tell their HERE are 30,000,000 horses in use in the United States, representing in money value something like $3,000,000,000. Few owners know what their horses are costing them—probably less than one per cent of horse owners know. In other departments of a com- pany’s business costs are known to a penny—manufacturing costs, selling costs, and so on, Should not horse costs be known? The possible saving may run all the way from 15 to 40 per cent. The way to find out is to put expert transportation cost accountants to work, The best of them, as every one in the business knows, is Wm. P. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy is head of the new Transportation Cost Bureau of the American Locomotive Company, motor truck department. He has a corps of assistants— cost accountants, transportation engineers, expert horse men. This Bureau will blue print your horse transportation system—zithout cost to you. It will supply you with facts and figures. It will tell you how much your horses are act- ually costing you. It will dingram your routes, time schedule the movements of your wagons, record how much time each day your horses are standing still, figure out the average life of them, and so on. On your desk it will place a picture of your whole horse system. At a glance you will see your horse AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY, - - Boston Branch: 567 Boylston Street Movers of the World’e Goods since 1835 own unvarnished story. This Bureau will go further. It will determine if you can use motor trucks profitably. It will operate motor trucks in your service, re- route your hauls, climinate waste of time loading and unloading. It will improve your method of handling merchandise or freight. It will chart your transportation system with motor equipment. In one composite picture, this bureau will display before you the saving of motor over horses—in dol- lars and cents—in figures and facts. If you are interested in an analy- sis of your transportation system— no matter how large or how small it may be—write today for information. The service rendered by this bureau is without charge to you. 1882 Broadway, NEW YORK Builders also of Alco 6-cylinder and 4-cylinder Motor Cars and Alco Taxicabs Chicago Branch: 2401 Michigan Avenue Kio Canadian } quarte 596 St. Catherine Street, West, Montreal Capital, $50,000,000