Evening star., 1916-01-09
Force of Habit Tells.

FINALLY, the time arrives when the
innovation is accepted in a grumbiinS
spirit as another evil which the human
race has to bear. till eventually the
force of habit begins to tell and toler-
ance begins to appear. Many of the
former critics and detractors begin to
fade away most of them having be-
come users of the invention or at least
friendly to it, and these naturally de-
velop into enthusiastic converts. Thus
the human race benefits at last against
it's will and thus has been the history
of the fight made by the pioneers OF
autom obilism.
The last enemy of progress to sur
render is, of course, the law. For here
tradition and custom are all powerful
In automobilisrn. as in some other mat
| ters. the law is still contrary TO com
mon sense, and behind the needs OF the
times The government has not time
to attend to all reforms and this much
is plain in the history of automobilisnl
1t is almost forgotten that the require
ment calling for persons to advance
one-half mile ahead of every traction
engine on our public highways to give
signal of warning is still upon our
statute books and that even now no
| car may exceed thirty miles per hou'
even on the loneliest and straightest
road without infringing the statute no
( matter whether the road be deserteI
or crowded.
ITO recall the position of motorists
( in 1901, when the first motor vehic!e
law of this state or country was enact
ed is more effective than the enumera-
ton of changes since that time. The
maximum speed has grown from ff-
teen to thirty miles an hour, while, on
l the other hand, drivers licenses. num-
I Der plates and taxes were unknown fif-
teen years ago. With regards to the
mechanical changes, those are almost
too numerous to mention. The. steer
ing wheel had hardly come into exist
ence. pneumatic tires were also Just be-
ginning to be used, and solid tires were
in vogue for certainly half the vehicles
on the road.
Beginning of Electric Equipment.
Electric ignition had in only few
( cases come into use, and in consequence
of the starting handles being made de-
| tacha BILE, they were sometimes left be-
hind by the needless driver, and the
engines had then to be started by run
ming the car down hill or by getting a
| tow from another vehicle. There are
other alterations in the motor car of
! 1915, too numerous to mention. arising
from new designs in construction.
But looking back fifteen years. il is
wonderful to recall what was done by
the skilled and intelligent driver with
Tue very UNI eIidDlt CARS III tio>t I'd
/ One reason was that hardly any one
owned a motor car who was not the
driver himself and understood the
mechanism. This was an absolutely
necessary accomplishment then. For
constant adjustments had to be made,
often on the roadside, and mechanical
breakdowns were quite common. In
deed, century run without stopping
was cons dered then as an unusually good
| performance, and few cars could boast
| of having covered more than a few
thousand miles on the road without re-
| turning to the shops.
| From the financial point of view, the
change that has come over the industry
is equally startling. Some five or six
American firms. struggling against
heavy odds and handicapped by want
of capital. constituted the whole of the
motor car industry of 1900. and a few