Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-11
AUTO WILL
BE CHANGED
IN FEW YEARS 1T MAY BECOME
MODE OF CONVEYANCE
AT PRESENT MOTOR CARS ARE
MAINLY FOR PLEASURE
Business Man Cares but Little for
Brass Trimmings and Gaudy
Colors-Factories May
Specialize
m HAINEs w. REED

The sooner the automobile comes to be
used as a mode of conveyance, rather
than a pleasure wagon, the better 1t Will
be for the public. the dealer and the
owner. As a rich mans luxury, that
flashes along the road with pollshed orasS
appendages and half dozen shrieking
Missing horns and whistles TO startle ana
carry fear to the slow plodding pedes-
trian. the automobile is soon destined TO
disappear. AS a business car OF somoer
color. which carries Jones and smith 10
and from their work. the automoolIe Is
bound to be one of the most important
means of future transportation.
As a sporting machine the auto meets
with antogonism from every quarter
From the pedestrian, who is kept busy
skurrying out of the way of the fussy'
putting gas wagons on the down town
street; from the teamster. who joggles
along chewing the dust of as many auto
mobiles as choose to pass him; from the
farmers, who object to having their
horses frightened off the country high
ways. and from a dozen other sources
come complaints. AS a commercial car,
carving freight from depots TO the
wholesale houses; as delivery wagon
distributing the days purchases to thou
sands of homes; as an emergency vehi-
Gle. CARRYING help and relief at lightning
speed to where it is needed; as convey
ance that will take the family to church
on Sunday or 10 the theater of an even
ing. the automobile will meet the hearty
support of all elements in society.
The 1915 and 1920 cars will not be heard
of. Machines will be standardized long
before that time. Revolutionary changes
in construction will not take place each
year as at present. Changes will be made
NJ what
of year.
Factories Will Specialize
The factories of the near future will
not manufacture a dozen different mod
els. They will confine themselves to one
or two models, will specialize their plants
to manufacture the parts for these par
ticular models and thus will lessen the
cost of construction. Already many of
the leading manufacturers are finding 1t
profitable to turn out only one or per-
haps two models.
When a man purchases machine for
pleasure purposes it may or may not con-
tain the value of the coin which he lays
out or it, Pleasure seekers with money
to spend are not noted for close calcula-
ton. But when a firm, after careful in
vestigation. purchases a machine for
business use it is because the purchaser
has figured that he can get value re-
ceiVed out of it. 1t is up TO the dealer
to show where that value exists
The business man cares little for brass
gausy enameling and rakish
appearance. These superfluities mean
additional expense of maintenance. Ca
pacity and durability are the things that
count in the machine that is to be used
for business purposes.
The automobile industry is in the in |
fancy of it's development. The strides |
which have been made during the last ten |
years of automobile construction are mar |
velous when one considers how long it |
took the railroad to reach its present |
state of perfection.
AS machines become standardized con-
is bound to take place in the
just as it has in every other
fixed line of business. At present the
number of automobile factories reach in
to the thousands, and new factories are
being opened every day, each basng it's
claim to existence on some new feature
which it proposes to develop. These fea-
lures may be good or bad; the public is
not yet educated to appreciate them and
customers can be found for any kind of
machine that is flung on the market.
The advent of the business car, the car
made for comfort and convenience the
car which will be used as a mode of con-
veyance is inevitable and will be an i'm 1
portant factor in the development of our
Industrial civilization.