Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-14
DEFINITE FIELD
FOR $1,000 CARS
BY Hugh Chalmers

! Probably the most important de-
velopment of the automobile industry
during the past few :-ears has been
the gradual defining of price classifi-
cation among those manufacturers
turning out a large volume of cars
annually 1t has been fairly veil set
tied, for instance. that the four-cyl-
| inder car is destined to lead in the
lowest priced fields. And the skies,
/ eighths and twelves have their mar
kets almost as sharply defined.
Because the 1000 field offers the
/ automobile manufacturer an oppor-
tunity to incorporate improved fea-
/ lures of construction with quantity
| production, l believe the future of
the car selling near that price to be
| already assured. When we pay S25
/ or $50 for a suit of clothes, we do
I not expect to obtain the quality of
| goods for which we pay $50 or $50.
| But as our worldly prospects increase,
we gladly pay the difference to OBJ
tain long wearing qualities in our ap-
parel. For exactly the same reason,
, we know that the buyers of cars in
| the $1,000 field are recruited to a
great extent, each year, from former
| owners of cheap cars.
From time to time we hear the
pessimists haul out and dust off their
| little talk on the point of Satura-
tion" in the automobile industry. To
/ the men who have followed the au-
tomobile industry from its inception,
this view point appears ridiculous. In
the first place we must remember
! that the industry has been passing
through steady process of evolu-
| ton for over ten years. Hundreds of
| thousands of automobiles have been
| turned out in that time, but [ will
n Inn h fer to- -
cars now on the road are products of
the past four years. Each succeeding
year sees thousands of cars relocated
to the scrap-heap. Which answers
concisely the question, What be-
comes of the old cars?"
We were not familiar in the early
| days with the heat-treating processes
| or the metal combinations which
make for long life. If we had been,
| our first models would still be doing
yeoman duty on city streets and coun-
| try roads. This natural process of
| elimination has made room each sea-
| son for fresh crop of better motor
| cars, and the probabilities of over
production, it seems to me, are large
| ly confined to the cheap car field,
Briefly, the most difficult problems
! IN the automobile industry are what
kind of car of cars to build, at what
, prices and how many. Due to the
rapid development of the engineering
I end, changes in the automobile in
dustry have been Kaleidoscope in the
| past. Severity of competition and
| caprices of public demand have
caused changes of policy not always
for the best.
| There was time when automo-
biles had but one cylinder, then two,
three and four: When fours first came
| out we often heard the remark that
O. four simply multiplied your trou-
| bles by four. Yet when fours were
| perfected, the old types were thrown
away. To-day the four is practically
relegated to the very low priced cars
or to racing creations. In the field
! selling around $1,000, the six-cylin-
der car is pre-eminent. This is so not
! because manufacturers artificially
stimulated a desire for this type of
| car, but because the demand for a
| smoother, more flexible motor al
ready existed and the six demonstrat-
ed that it filed that demand.
Havink decided upon the type and
| price car he intends to build, the
manufacturer is at once confronted
with cost of manufacture. The Chal-
mers Company was one of the first
| concerns to realize that manufactur-
ing from the raw material was the
only plan by which the middlemen's s
profits could be eliminated from the
We have for a long time manu-
factured the big majority of parts
for the Chalmers cars under our own
roof. But during the coming year
1--WE plan to still further increase our
activities along this line. Operations
are under way whereby we will oper-
ate our own drop-forge shop, paink-
Ing and trimming departments and
several other important branches of
our business now being taken care OF
by outside concerns.
With S5,OO0,000 recently added to
our working capital, We are planning
production of $4,000 to sc, 600 ears
for 1917 on basis that keen our
big Detroit plant working ut full
speed for the next twelve months.
We have Just achieved n record
years business entirely independent
of war profits or other outside con
siderationa and our manufacturing
schedule will go through regardiess
Of whether tho European war Is set
tied next month or next year.