Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-16
-FOUR MAKERS OF AUTOS
SAY PRICES REASONABLE
Tendency Is Toward Betterment
of Cars Rather Than Use
ofCheap Material

Following the announcement of cut
in prices by one of the Detroit, Mich,
factories, the Detroit Free Press print
ed an interview with the manager of
the factory In question leaving the in
ference that there will be a general re-
duction in automobile prices.
Four of the largest concerns in De-
troit have protested vigorously against
this view, declaring that the reduction
was merely an individual matter which
did not and would not affect other au-
tomobile manufacturers. The Free
Press prints the following interview
with the head of one of the four facto-
ries, with this premise:
Instead of a tendency downward, all
four plants report stiff maintenance
of prices on cars of established make,
with leaning toward higher figures;
and this disposition they justify not
only by citations from the actual mar
ket prices, but on the score of supply
and demand.
"The Free Press story erred in that
it ascribed to motor car manufacturers
in general exorbitant profits which
have existed only in the exceptional
cases. 1t was further in fault in that
It did not discriminate between motor
cars which have always been mediocre
and have stood still in that respect, and
tiously and continuously improved in
value.
"There is not a car in the country
which is keeping up to the mark in
quality-I do not make a single excep-
tion-which is not costing more to pro-
duce today than 1t did year ago.
THAT there have been cars of excel
lent and of dubious quality which en-
oil 1nDo MARGIN M
profit there is not a shadow of doubt
The former have given better and bet
ter value every year. The latter have
continued to maintain an unfair margin
by ignoring the universal demand for,
and the universal tendency toward,
betterment in materials, in the quality
of labor engaged, and in the machin-
cry and the manufacturing methods
employed.
I'm other words, these cars, during
the most feverish period of the motor
car demand, were able to sell medioc-
rity at an outrageously long profit
Wherever such cars exist, it is ture, the
price must come down; because the
very existence of these cars is being
threatened by the genuine excellence of
cars which have steadfastly refined and
improved.
'I repeat, there is not a car in the
country today, manufactured with the
imperative necessity of Improvement
continuously IN mind, which does not
cost more to build today that year
ago.
MATERIALS COST HIGHER
'Materials-good materials-instead
of lessening in cost have increased; be-
cause of the betterment that has been
demanded in these materials by the
conscientious manufacturer.
akax1
element of economy, the alleged reduc-
tion in the price Of rubber. =
This is surely misrepresentation.
"The average increase for 1911 in the
cost to the manufacturer (who uses
standard sized tires), runs from $50 to
$50 a car.
Some manufacturers are, it is true,
buying tires on a sliding scale--gamb-
ling on a possible fall in the price of
rubber. If rubber does not fall the
porfits of these manufacturers will
your story cites only one other ma
terial which has presumably declined,
to wit, pig iron.
even the uninitiated will realize
that the saving on the amount of pig
iron now used in motor car would
not represent very substantial re-
duction in the price of the car.
''Pig iron, it Is true, is low this year.
But the more essential metals-steel
and iron and brass and aluminium
are precisely where they have been,
and are$hot to be materially affected,
at any time, by any enormous buying
capacity such as was described in
your story.
"Skilled labor on cars of real quail
ity, on the other hand, is consider
ably higher than it was a year ago.
INCREASE IN FIRST COST
"Tires. bodies, upholstery, leather,
radiators-all these and a score of
other essentials show a marINed in
crease in first cost, provided they are
not of the cheapest and shoddiest
kind.
ut is absolutely safe to say that
the conscientious manufacturer is put
ting from per cent to 10 per cent
more cost into his good materials and
more cost into his labor on 1911 cars.
"The chief injustice of your story,
however is its manifest disposition to
shuttle UP together the good, the in
different and the bad in motor cars
and establish a common level for them
all.
"There is no more logic or reason