Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-26
.STUDEBAKER HEAD
REPLIES TO HILL
CLAIMS GREAT RAILWAY KING
is MISINFORMED
Automobiles Bring Farmers to Doors
Of Neiahbors and Make Coun-
try Life All the More\
Enjoyable

]. ]. Hills address before the meet
ing of the Bankers association of Chi
cago is most refreshing and gives the
ordinary business man considerably
more confidence in the mental grasp
of those who control our financial af-
fairs than is usually derived from con-
tact with that class. A little acquaint-
ance usually shows up The great
financiers in the light of pursuing
methods and entertaining mental points
of view varying, according to circum-
stances, from those of a pawnbroker to
those of a professional gambler
There is one point, however, in re-
gard to which Mr.. Hill seems to be mis-
informed, namely, the favorable in
fluence of the automobile upon the
very conditions which he would like
to bring about, namely, an increase OF
agricultural as compared with urban
population.
1t looks as though the vast affairs
with which he is concerned have COM
PEELED him to view the farmer col
| lectively rather than individually, and
he seems to be correspondingly I'M
familiar with the change the last six
or seven years and the advent of the
automobile have made in the details of
the farmers life. Nor does he seem
to recognize the large part which the
automobile has and can be made to
play in justifying the extension of his
own railroads and in the preliminary
work of opening UP new territory with
that ultimate object in view.
We wonder If he recognizes the ex-
tent to which the individual farmer is
beginning to specialize in the apparatus
which he employs on his farm. No
small number of agricultural imple-
ments now used by the farmer have
their functions SO combined with those
of other implements which have here
tofore been of general application as to
supersede the latter and consequently
materially specialize the type of ap-
paratus and vehicles which he uses for
other purposes.
The advent of the automobile, while
not directly responsible for 1t, has
tended to facilitate this process.
At one time there were a dozen uses
for a certain kind of wagon which
might be described today as an un-
agricultural implements accomplish in
themselves a part of the service which
was heretofore accomplished by such
wagons; and, with one exception, the
remainder of the services performed by
that wagon are now found to be better
performed by a more specialized type;
that exception is the transportation
of the farmer and his people from one
point to another. The new specialized
type is not convenient for this purpose,
and the farmer resorts to the automo-
bile. He goes to town every day per-
haps and spends very little time in
doing so, instead of every week at the
expense of an entire day and service
of "a team"
The automobile makes the quarter
section farmers near neighbors and
develops a sense of community in agri-
cultural districts which was utterly i'm
possible with the former methods of
transportation. 1t makes the farmers
life and surroundings much more
attractive even to the young people
than the life of the city.
As an example of the part the auto
mobile is playing and can be made to