Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-12-23

M Mt 1Ses in the United States have
@gSsSSS38!Xorders. Some of them are
making motor trucks, some armored cars
and others rapid automobiles for carrying
dispatches. Many of the shops are making
ambulances and some | doubt not, al
though l cannot tell where are manufac-
turing the mighty tanks forts upon
wheels, which roll over the country crush
ing down everything in their way.
Long before we entered the war De
trot was making automobiles and motor
trucks for the French and the English. One
Of its firms supplied 5000 cars to the ar
mics of France and another exported ST.
100000 worth OF war ambulances. One OF
the makers of high-priced cars has already
shipped 5000 trucks to Europe, and an
other, which makes a $500 automobile,
has sent 5000 of his vehicles across the
ocean An establishment making well
known cheap machine recently completed
one order for 10000 ambulances and an
other company is turning out $50 airplane
motors every day. The government IS
having the machinery of many OF the fac
tories adapted to special war work. Some
are making munitions, Others are construct
ing gas engines for the use of the army and
navy. and in fact, the whole motor car IN
dustrv has been brought to the aid of the
nation in our fight with the Germans.
TO show YOU what this industry
amounts to as war asset will give some
Of the latest figures concerning it. 1t
grows SO fast that it is almost impossible to
overestimate it. 1t amounted to nothing
25 wears ago, and 10 years since it was
baeatelle, in comparison with others of our
great industrial forces Today the govern
ment officials admit that it stands next to
steel and ships in Importance and they are
rapidly modifying its machine shops and
men.
The automobile and motor car estab-
lishments of the United States now
scattered over 80 states of the Union.
There are 455 of them. There are over so
in Michigan, so in Illinois, "a in Ohio and 45
in New York. Pennsylvania has 33, Min
nesota, 20 Massachusetts, Is, and Caifor-
MIA 10, with less numbers scattered
throughout other parts of the country. In
addition there are perhaps three times as
manv plants making automobile bodies, &C
cessories and parts.
These establishments have in their en-
pov the most skilled army of machinists
ever gotten together. There are 100000 OF
them, and added to this number are double
as many men connected with the subordi-
nate industries, which make parts, tires and
other things dependent upon the automo-
bile trade. There a vast number making
gas engines which can be used on airplanes,
boats and vehicles of other kinds and the
whole force is almost as important to our
army as the men in the field
Our motor cars now number more than
100000. This mlane one car to every
five families in the United States, and it is
estimated by Logan Waller Page, the head
OF the bureau OF public roads that we have a
motor vehicle of one kind or another
almost every mile of public and country
road in the Union The statisticians of the
World almanac say that our automobiles
ran last wear the enormous distance of l5,-
OOO.OO0,OO0 miles, which is equal to 100000
times around the earth, or loo times the
distance between the earth and the sun.
The figures seem incredible, but | take
them from the almanac which lies before
me- During that year we burned more
than 1OO0,000,000 gallons of gasoline in
cd al,