Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-23
AUTOMOBILES.
III-THEIR SOCIAL INFLUENCE.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

sands of people. In the second place it
would remove the stable, the favorite and
principal breeding place Of the house
fly, and would be the greatest swat
that insect has ever received How eff
fectfve this would be in abating the fly
nuisance has been demonstrated on the
famous old newspaper row in Washing
ton. Years ago there were a number of
stables across Pennsylvania avenue. The
Avenue and the adjacent hotels were
overrun with flies. Later the District
government formulated strict rules gov
erping stables, and DR.. L.. o. Howard,
chief Of the bureau of entomology Of the
Department of Agriculture, had his in
spectors go round and see that these
rules were observed. The result was that
the fly was all but banislled from the re-
gion of the Mall and upper Pennsyl-
vania avenue
The use of the automobile has hit the
theaters blow whose severity has been
exceeded only by
Severe Blow that struck at them
to the Theaters t by the s moving p %51
theatrical people have felt the crimp in
the financial side of the show business
put into it by the absence of those who
travel in automobiles. OF course, these
people still go to the theater, but they
go much less frequently than formerly,
because the automobile has opened new
channels of entertainment and diversion
The people who are absent because of
their automobiles are usually those who
take the higher-priced seats, and with
the automobile robbing the orchestra of
its patrons and the moving picture show
depriving the gallery Of it's frequenters.
the combined effect has been one which
has made serious inroads on the net
profits of the theatrical business. These
declining receipts have been the source
OF serious concern among theatrical
financiers. For while they regarded
automobiling and picture shows both as
fads and crazes. but that time is past,
and many plans have been proposed to
bring return Of the good old-time rich
harvests at the box Offices But, to date
no solution OF the situation has been
found.
Another class Of people who have suf-
fered immensely from the popularity of
the automobile are the summer resort
proprietors and the people who profit with
who leave the cities for stays of varying
lengths during the hot summer weather.
With the automobile providing a ready,
pleasant, and altogether satisfactory
method OF getting out into the country
during the hot summer evenings. thou
sands of business men and their families
prefer their own homes to the mountain
resorts and the seaside hotels. and their
accompanying inconvenience Of living in
trunks and often putting up with dis
comforts that nothing but hot weather
could induce them to endure.
= x
II the automobile hits the summer hotel
proprietor hard, it also strikes the SER
wants who former
Servants Also ~ left their winter
A.. ry.-l rr:x employment for
AS' two or three
months in the mountains or at the sea-
side. While it is true that the city hotels
are aided somewhat in the. summer by
the number of people kept in town by
the automobile, at the same time the SER
wants who stay do not get the good wages
and tips they commanded before the rise
Of the automobile.
And the most discouraging thing about
the whole situation of those who have
suffered from the rise of the automobile
is the fact that they cannot see any rain
bow Of promise. The coming Of the we'll
built car which sells for less than a thou
SdnQ QOllaIS mas put IL Wltilln reach OIL
in every city to whom the two
car of five years ago was
out of the question. 1t has tended to make
Of the automobile a necessity for the
many instead Of luxury for the few.
The rise of this era means a somewhat
wholesale realignment Of conditions of
city life.
On the whole, no one change in urban
life in a generation or more has been as
great as the change wrought by the auto
mobile. And it generally is agreed that
the changes which already have come
about are small in comparison to those
promised for the future, when AUTOMOBILE
ing Is brought within the reach of the
man with an income OF two thousand
year The tradesman is alive to it, wheth-
Ell it be in catering TO the demands of
clothes fashions, or in trans
livery stables into garages;
whether it be in laying out suburban sub
divisions, reached only by autos. or in
printing automobile literature to supply
the seemingly Unsuitable demand for in
formation about the automobile business.