Life, 1920-02-19 · page 8 of 48
Life — February 19, 1920 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **commercial advertisement** for White Trucks, a Cleveland-based vehicle manufacturer. The ad emphasizes White Trucks' superiority in retail delivery service for department stores. The illustration shows a delivery truck at night with uniformed delivery personnel and customers. The text highlights that major department store chains nationwide—including 431 trucks in New York alone—rely on White Trucks for their operations. The ad references specific mileage records (trucks with over 100,000-300,000 miles still in service) as proof of reliability. The key sales pitch appears in italics: "White Trucks **do the most work for the least money**." This is a straightforward product advertisement rather than satire or political commentary—typical of Life magazine's commercial content from this era (appears to be 1920s-1930s based on the vehicle style).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
FIRST in Retail Delivery EPARTMENT store service is the laboratory of D retail delivery. Not only is it the most searching test to which a delivery truck can be put, it is also the most sensitive recorder of results. ¢ The operations are constant and exacting. To keep a stream of merchandise flowing from railway terminal to warehouse, from warehouse to delivery depot, from depot to the customer's doorstep, requires unfailing performance daily, hourly, in all kinds of weather. Astlight interruption might throw the whole system out of gear. A small saving in cost or time of delivery is a big item, when applied to millions of packages. Department stores must have the best delivery equip- ment. Competition compels it. testing out all grades and makes in search of the most But steadily and surely White Trucks are being standardized For years they have been efficient truck. The weeding-out process is still on. in the largest and most important retail fleets. In metro- politan centres they are the very backbone of department store service. In New York, cighteen Department Stores operate 431 White Trucks; in Pittsburgh, ten stores operate 291; in Cleveland, eight stores operate 120. In all, 224 Dry Goods and Department Stores operate 1639 White Trucks. Many stores report mileage records for their White Trucks of 100,000, 200,000 and 300,000 miles. Gimbel Brothers say: “Our White Trucks (25) purchased in 1911 and 1912 have run over 100,000 miles each and are still in service. We have compared them with three other standard trucks and have decided they are best suited to our use." Gimbel Brothers now own 78 Whites. In the White fleet owned by The Higbee Company, Cleveland, one truck has covered 265,000 miles, another 225,000 and another 100,000 miles. White Truck performance in department store service is so widely and favorably known that it has become the standard for the whole retail delivery field. Com- parative records everywhere show that White Trucks do the most work for the least money. THE WHITE COMPANY, Cleveland WHITE TRUCKS comicbooks.com