Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1913-09-12
OPEN SEASON FOR
SUMMER TOURIST
New York Mecca for Thousands
who Want 10 See all N
Short Time
FEELING EFFECT IF AUTOMOBILE BUYING
BY Carlton Ten Eyck.
written for the United Press.1

for summer tourists is upon US, the
time of the year when the railroads
from the fer, neal and middle West
make enticingly low excursion rates to
New York and return. On the streets
may be seen q lot OF hurrying visitors
anxious TO see all they can In their
limited time, and the hotels, report a
brisk business, but the most careless
observer can see hat there are not SO
many strangers In our midst as former
ly. The shop keepers also contribute
mournfully to the evidence that things
are not as they used to be.
The man on Broadway was wonder
ing In a helpless sort of way what has
become of the August visitors. The
Man Who Travels undertook to tell
him.
Automobiles he said laconically,
and the M. O. B., looked around to see
If any brand new make of car was in
sight to provoke the remark. II mean
/ automobiles are the cause Of the falling
off OF fall tourists" patiently explained
the M. w. T. 1.-THE automobile is the
menace OF the West. I mean the COIN
mercial menace. Maybe 1t is the moral
menace too; some folk say It is, but
I'm willing to leave that to the sky
pilots. However, / do know what 1
am talking about when 1 say that the
gasoline wagon is the rock on which
the West Is liable to get q jolt II the
people are not CAREFUL
The M. w. T. then proceeded to Illus
trate what he meant. As just one IL
lustration he told his friend of one
small farming community outin West
ern Missouri, and / can vouch for the
truth of what he said. This town is
within fifty miles of Kansas City, in
the middle of a remarkable rich river
bottom farming district. 1t has 5000
Inhabitants and they are prosperous.
So are the farmers living in the towns
trading district. They have brick
paved streets, electric light. water and
sewer systems, handsome and costly
homes, rock roads and all the modern
Improvements that make the present
day Western farm and small town
life so pleasant.
The farms there this year produced
bumper wheat and corn crops, and the
merchants of the town look for great
prosperity. But what has happened !?
The people of that one Missouri town
this year spent $500, 900 for automobiles.
Everybody who could raise the money
Lboughfla car. Those who d1An>
the ready cash mortgaged their homes
and their land. Those who could not
do that, gave notes for their machines.
That $500, 900 passed out OF the county
and the State for all time. Except for
the agents commissions, not a cent Of
it remained in the county that produce
ed the wealth and not q penny of it
will find its way back into its COM
munity. But the financial loss to the
Missouri county and omall town goes
farther. Those people who have bought
automobiles, moot Of them, piDched aud
saved TO do it. They are now econo-
MIXING In every possible and impossible
manner. Women who have cars are
not buying gowns. They do not need
them. Riding in the machines over
the roads they need nothing but old
clothes and linen busters for the rain
and dust would ruin fine gowns II
they had them.
The men who have automobiles to
pay for are not buying new refrigera-
tors and cook stoves. They are making
the old ones do. The broken coffee
pots and kitchen utensils are being
mended. The old family clock will
have to serve another year. No farm
machinery is being bought-they are
making the old plows, cnltivators and
reapers last a while longer.
There is absolutely nothing doing in
the piano and organ line and none of
the car owners ever think of entering
the town jewelry store. There Is little
or no trade In luxuries. People are
not building new homes nor painting
the old ones, as is usually done every
summer in such a town.
In short, the automobile took out Of
the town aud county all the surplus
wealth that the tremendous crops pro-
duced, and the retrenchment felt neces-
sary by the purchase and upkeep of
the automobiles Is felt in every line Of
business that is boosted by the little
town.
But business Is not all that feels the
effect Of the automobile wave that 10
sweeping the Middle Western country.
The am usement people are feeling 1t.
Towns that formerly supported sum
mer stock companies in airdomes, now
have only iye-cent moving picture