The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-08
THE GASOLINE PsYCHOLOGIST.
He Considers the symptoms Of the New
Moral Disease. NecessItItIs.

To THE EDITOR OF THE SuN-Sir. The
retail price Of gasolene seems to be a
very uncertain thing nowadays, but no
one who has followed the subject, as /
have done. and who remembers the range
of prices the past four years could pos
sbly say that II is longer to be classed
among the luxuries of the day. Fifteen
cents n gallon was the ruling retail price
at all well regulated garages four or Ave
years ago when first began to take OBJ
servations. and Is cents seems to be the
ruling price now. with lots of price cut
tiers selling 1t ut 10 and IA cents.
1t is true that there was little excite
ment over on Hudson Boulevard a week
or two ago, where I saw signs reading IL
cents, then IL cents and at last II cents
for retail supply. but that was probably
only local furry.
The wholesale price to consumers like
myself, who have tanks In their back
yards or elsewhere OF sufficient capacity
TO take II in barrel lots has dropped an
other cent and n half from my last report,
and that Ia as near as you can get me to
a categorical disclosure of the mystery.
The professor who demonstrated that IL
was going to 40 cents gallon Is doubt
less still teaching his classes and Presi-
dent Wilson Is still on his Job OF teaching
the infant idea how to shoot
But gasolene no longer interests me-
I have other things on my mind nowadays.
My wife recently bought one OF those tin
ponies, sometimes called automobiles,
which are made in enormous quantities
All my spare time In now taken up with
what my automobile Journal, the one in
which read about the professor and his
demonstration OF 40 cent gaSolene, calls
Necessities"
will not speak OF the things that
prompted my wife to buy that little tin
horse. Suffice II to say she got II and has
learned to run 1t and she is well pleased
with Il too.
But our name is on the list now and
we are swamped with the avalanche OF
necessity" literature, which think takes
I the place of patent medicine literature of
former generation. ] remember how
my good old father-in-law used to carry
line or stock OF bottled goods for the
things that allied him. lie read every
| patent medicine circular that came to his
house and discovered or recognized some
new symptom in every one of them.
So 1t is with this newer literature
Magnetos. carbureters. oling systems
! electric lights. shock absorbers, anti-rat
| tiers. radiators. wire wheels can't beg1f
to enumerate them. one reads the stun
with fascination II he owns one OF tn,
little machines.
All our neighbors have these cars
every single one OF them. and I am cred
]
/ eyes, that they are all victims OF this new
disease. which for lack OF "A better nam,
/ | will call necessities.
oh. the money that is spent on them ant
the time that Ia spent putting the thing
on. and taking them off too 1t is some
thing awful.
could tell YOU more interesting thing
about this business. but fear you vii
not have time to listen longer.
And | see that Professor, | mean Presi
dent. Wilson is going to have the cause
Of all this revolution down to Washington
to consul, about what the country shall
do to he saved
OF course the gentleman will say tina
so far as he is concerned II Is all right
but II he knew OF the vast sums that ar
being wasted by people who have bough
his cars. thrown away on useless "neces
sities' he might see "A new light.
Perhaps he would tell President Wilso,
that what tho country needs IL n Law
compelling people who buy his cars to lie
them alone after they get them instead o
wasting their money on useless addition
to them.
am firmly convinced that the troubl
with this country to-day is too many o
those necessities" in other words neces
sitltis. GAzzALEEN.
BLOOMFIELD. n. j.. July T.