Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-21
PROGRESS IS KEYNOTE
OF SOCIETY PROGRAM
Semi-Annual Meeting of Automobile
Engineers at Cape May
June %.

Evidences are not wanting that the
semi-annual meeting of the Society of
Automobile Engineers. which opens at
Cape May. n. J.. Wednesday. June p,
will be one of the most progressive and
cause of the many changes of production
policy in the automobile industry from
year to year, the greatest interest at
taches to engineering development. and
for that reason the professional sessions
of the S. A. E. have attained consider
able prominence, The summer meetings,
coming just at a time when designers are
pondering details for forthcoming models
and while manufacturing departments are
engaged in the early stages of production
for the year to come. provide not only a
forum for criticism of present practice
but common meeting ground for debate
on details practically two years in adj
vance.
Features of Program.
The program of the Cape May meeting,
besides embodying unusually attractive
features in the way of relaxation and
amusement in the intervals, has been
prepared with special reference to the
leading problems with which the industry
is now engaged. While ample considera-
ton is given to detail consideration of
purely engineering matters, the broader
and more constructive portions of the pro-
gram deal directly with vital points that
are involved in the evolution of improved
and better types of car. The paper by
A Ludlow Clayden, editor of the Auto
mobile Engineer of London. Suggested
Specifications for Highest Possible Quail
ity Six-Cylnder Chassis for America, :
is remarkably pertinent. Mr.. Clayden is
a shrewd and well posted observer OF
automobile affairs throughout the world,
and his ideas of Americas needs in this
respect possess the perspective of the
outsiders attitude coupled with the cold
analysis of the British mind. y COM
panion analysis. Modern European Ten
dencies," by Robert w. A. Brewer, who
is a British consulting engineer Of high
standing, will be especially valued as
yielding early information on foreign
trends that may be useful to the engineer
having the export market in mind.
Suggestion to American Industry.
The ever-present suggestion that the
American industry should develop a
lighter and more flexible type of motor,
inclining to what are now considered
very high speeds. will be thoroughly di-
gested in the discussion of the paper by
A. P. Brush, who will contribute his
ideas on Possible Weight Reduction of
Cars and will add materially to the
same general subject, while the discus
sion on the Ideal Car" to which a num-
Der of engineers will contribute. will in
dictate definitely what lines of develop
| ment are considered desirable, quite
apart from what is being planned for
the immediate future.
Whine the society is not qualified to
participate in legislative affairs. its in
terest in the engineering questions that
| underlie the matter of taxation and H.
censing are of vital importance to its
members and directly pertinent to its
deliberations. The paper. "a Proper
Basis for Road Vehicle Taxation by
c. o. Egerton and S. l. Fekete. goes di-
rectly to the root of this most important
problem and is declared to be classic.
Bearing on the same general problem, in
way, the standards committee is con-
sidering the possibility of standardizing