The San Francisco call., 1910-08-22

AUTOS KEPT IN
EYES OF PUBLIC
K. A. Palmer of the CarferCar
Company Tells Results of
advertising
By R. R. L'HoMMEDIEU

One of the greatest evidences of the
power and force of advertising to
mold the public mind that has been
exemplified in this century" says r.
A. Palmer, secretary and general man
ager of the Cartercar company, lis
the attention which is being given the
automobile and allied industries right
at the present moment. Everybody is
interesting themselves in the welfare of
the business, and whether or not they
are connected with and dependent upon
1t, they are predicting what is going
to happen. And why Is it? The public
as whole does not seem to care as
much about other business interests.
am firmly convinced that it is because
of the great force of advertising, which
has grown greater and greater all the
time No other interests have ever
recognized and attempted az much with
this force as have automobile manufac-
turers.
Much is said about the 'extrava-
gance' of the public in buying automo-
biles, and about the calamity which
Will result if a halt is not called. Yet
these same persons have never taken
the trouble to investigate how much
is spent annually in some other lines.
For instance, no one would think of
saying a word about a lady or a child
they wish it. They would be considered
deranged if they talked that every
thing was going to pieces and the pub
lie would be broke because of the soda
ter of statistics that there was three,
yes. four times as much spent for soda
water in the United States last year
as the entire value of the automobiles
produced.
Five hundred millions of dollars was
spent for soda water by the American
public in 1909. All of the automobiles
built last year were worth only $135,-
100000. Where is the extravag gance? =?
On the top of this a few other lines
might be referred to, but it is hardly
necessary to point to more than one
just one. One billion, fourteen hun
dred million dollars was spent last year
for alcoholic liquors alone. We will
not say anything about chewing gum
1T is generally conceded that a man
whose income is $4,000 a year can af-
ford to buy and maintain a moderate
priced automobile. There are 10000
families in this country which draw be-
tween $4,000 and s6. 900 yearly To date
there have been only about 100000 au-
tomobifes built, and the first of these
are not running at present. There are
still 200, 900 families to be supplied in
this class. But there are 250,000 fami
lies whose incomes range between $4,000
lies whose incomes are more than this.
Can't these people have automobiles if
they want them without doing any
serious harm to their purses?
1T is a simple plain fact that there
are about 100000 families in the
United States who earn enough annu-
ally so that they can easily afford an
automobile If they wish 1t. This is
one family in every 81. If the one
family does buy car the other 81
begin talking about it and say the man
is going broke l have heard a great
deal of talk about people 'mortga ging
their homes to buy automobiles. The
first of these has yet to come to my
personal knowledge. Others have men
toned it to me and | have always
asked them if they knew personally
of a particular case, but none has.
Public attention is certainly CEN
tered on the automobile industry and
l believe it is for no other reason than
the vast amount of advertising which
has been done in this line"