Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-02
ORGANIZATION
BENEFITS MOTOR
CAR DIVINE
NATIONAL GOOD ACHIEVED BY
STRENGTH OF NUMBERS
IMPROVED TOURING FACILITIES
AND EoUABLE LEGISLATION
National Idea Proven to Work Well
by Great Increase Of Membership,
Which Now Totals Twenty-
six Thousand

II has been estimated that Americas
automobile output for 1910 will be close
to. if not fully 100000 cars. A reflection
of this truth is already being shown
in the elaborate preparations and the
large number of exhibitors for the two
great annual and national shows in
New York city running through the
two weeks from December 81 10 jan
uary 10. Close observers of the busi-
hess interests that make possible an
output of 100000 cars see the truth of
the statement in the bustling activity
everywhere apparent among makers
of cars and accessories. In scores OF
cases the product OF 1909 is being in
creased for the coming year from
25 to so per cent. New factories have
been built, others enlarged, great com
binations for economy and improve
ments have been effected, and the great
series of shows which, beginning in
New York, will be continued for the
next four months or so in all parts OF
the country, promise to be most sue
cessful both from the manufacturers
point of view and that of the public
ever held in the United States.
This enormous output of new cars
demonstrates at the outset two things;
first. the stability of the manufacturers
and the excellence of their product and
second. the increasing popularity of the
motor vehicle. And it is because of
this latter fact that the ever widen
ing influence of the automobile upon
the economic and even the political
welfare of the country deserves to be
carefully noted. In other words what
effect for good or for i'll will these
thousands of new cars exert upon the
national life and conditions?
TO properly answer this question
it will be we'll to make a brief survey
of the automobile influence within re-
cent years OF prime Importance
comes the zest for touring, then
growing appreciation for good roads.
AS extensive touring means travelling
from one state to another. there natu-
rally arises the demand for reasonable
municipal ordinances and uniform state
legislation to protect the rights not only
of the motorists but other users of the
highway: allied with these arises the
necessity for proper signboards mark
ing the distances from place to place.
as well as dangerous curves, railroad
crossings and hills, and, further, proper
maps and route cards. In all these the
automobile has scored victories. not
always accomplished without battling
against prejudice, but how readily this
has been disarmed when the ability of
the motor car for various uses has been
discovered and when the owners of
machines have been careful to eXer-
else courtesy and discrimination for
the rights of others.
No longer does the farmer menace
the motor car as in former days. The
farmer in many parts of the country is
now one of the most ardent advocates
of automobile use and no longer de-
cries the movement for good roads. In
deed the National Grange and the far
mers' clubs are now the strongest al
lies Of automobilists toward securing
beneficial measures.
Still another point. and perhaps the
most prominent of all that has been
accomplished year by year by the
steadily increasing demand for more
cars thereby meaning new owners,
new users and a wider distribution of
service every season, is the organizing
strength that has developed. The gov
erning body of the United States, the
American Automobile association, de
pends upon the automobile users of the
country for the ability to secure these
very benefits that have been enumer-
ated This national organization is the
representative of the automObilists Of
the country through their hundreds of
clubs. Again, it is the representatives.
of these clubs into their respective
state bodiesf The national idea was
well expressed in a monthly bulletin
of the Automobile Club of Philadelphia,
and which was quoted by President