AMERICA'S "TIN CAN" HOLIDAY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3138, 9 October 1922, Page 8

AMERICA'S "TIN CAN" HOLIDAY.

(Bv J. W. T. Mason). They are calling this season in America the "tin can summer." .More than a million citizens of the republic have boon continuously on tho road since the holiday season began, in their "Lizzies" and other makes of motor vary. Since the average car in the United States is a poor man's affair, you thereby have the origin of the term "tin can summer." All tourist records have been broken the past two months by the motor car fanatics. The American, in the language of the day, is becoming a "petrol hobo." A "hobo" is a tramp, and the term describes, without too much inaccuracy, the characteristics of the tin fan holiday makers. There are more than 0,01)0.000 motor cars in use in the United States. One in ten is fitted with camp equipment l . The owners of these vehicles do not have to depend on hotel accommodation during their summer tours. Whenever tho night falls, camp is made by the roadside, and the next day's coming is awaited. In this way, the Lizzies breakeven with the high cost of petrol, and make a tin can summer cost no more than a holiday at an hotel. Railway rates are high in America, and thai fact contributes to the economy of taking lo the road with motor cars. Steamship fares to Furope also are extortionate, and remain nearly three hundred 1 per cent, above [ire-war levels. Many thousands of Americans are taking their revenge with their motor cars. The American Government litis not been slow to encourage this movement away from Europe, with the cry "See America first!'' The National Park Service, lor instance, has laid out great numbers of model camp-sites. with water, fuel and sanitary arrangements, where the petrol "hoboes" can stop overnight with the maximum of convenience. Numerous cities, especially in the west where visitors are encouraged. an- doing flic same. Indeed, for the first time. Americans are now beginning to know their own country. Before the motoring craze swept all America be-fore it. there wvrv. not many people in the United Slates who knew more than a small area of the republic. But. now. an average holiday of a fortnight moans a round tour of some two thousand miles. The tin can summer litis thus led to Americans knowing one another better, and understanding from first-hand examination the problems of the nation at. large. There is a tremendous increa.se in tho number of good roads being constructed in all parts of the country. for the motorists' benefit. Previously, good road movements seldom got far in America. People objected to the taxes. But now that one person in four in tho United States is a member of a family that possesses a car. the demand for good roads litis become overwhelming, and the heavy taxpayers do not complain, for they have the best cars. The summer resorts are not feeling tho changed system of holiday-making miles they tire far off the beaten path. Instead of getting guests for lengthy slay during the season, they fill their rooms with overnight visitors, winy are off the next day. or who remain at. most forty-eight hours. The charges by the day tiro much higher than tho weekly'rates. This fact makes up for the campers-out, who give tho hotels the .no by.