Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-12-15
AUTO INDUSTRY
AMPLE FOR NEEDS
Local Dealer Predicts That
No Great Curtailment of
Production Is Necessary

Further talk in automobile circles
of a cutting down of the output of
factories is having a bad effect
among the dealers and garagemen of
this city. The publication frequently
of contemplated action by the War
Industries Board is having a disturb
ing effect that is regarded as not
beneficial.
The dealers believe 1t is not neces-
sary that factory outputs be cut
down beyond certain very reasonable
limits and regret that the public has
been given the impression that the
entire car industry might be sup
pressed as non-essential.
One factor in the situation is con-
sidered by the dealers to be the COM
parison by officials of the situations
here and In England, but without a
suff1cient analysis of the two situa-
tions.
In England" says II. w. Miller,
OK the Miller Auto Co, ''the motor
car industry has been shut Up en-
tirely. and the fact that it was shut
up is considered by many as rea-
son why the same industry should
be put up in America.
"But-the shutting up in each case
should be founded upon the same
reasons, and unless the same neces-
stiles exist in America the industry
should not be suppressed here as it
was in England.
I'm England the industry was sup
pressed because the entire factory
capacities were required for muni-
tions work. Americas motor car in
dustry is SO much larger than
England's that a part of it is able,
say men who know. to handle all the
munitions work that is necessary.
Factory capacity therefore is not a
great factor.
I'm England there were coal and
steel shortages. which made it neces-
sary that everything except NUM-
tions give way. But in America the
big men in coal and steel say there
is no shortage, and just a few days
ago the government issued q state
ment that there is plenty of gaso-
line for both war and peace activi-
ties If car owners economize and cut
out waste.
Labor is, of course, n big prob
lem. In England 1t was met by the
employment of women-but at men s
| wages. This may have to be done
in America. Transportation is n vital
| factor here, but the industry hopes
to solve much of this problem by
driving cars overland and by estab-
| fishing intercity truck services.
Furthermore. the motor car is
not the essential in England that it
is in America. There distances are
short. Between London and Edin-
burgh it is $50 miles in a direct line,
between London and Manchester
only 40. The air line between Lon
| don and Paris is only. about 210
miles, about as far as from New
York to Boston.
| 1T is S,1S2 miles from New York
to San Francisco. 1t is nights ride
| between almost any two principal
American cities. and sometimes
more. Our wide country area makes
America a land of distances. Take
North Dakota with it's $1,000 cars
and 100000 people. mostly farmers.
| Nearly all the cars are owned by
farmers, who have to have them.
Why
Because the railroads simply
| don't exist. The biggest city in the
state has less than 10000 people
Railroads run with infrequent stops
through town after town of handfuls
of houses and no officially listed pop
! ulation. Cars run across the
prairies.
Between Grand Forks and Minot
| it is 200 miles and only one real
stop. Between Minot and Bismark
the state capital-with populations
of 5000 or 5000 each-it is $50
miles by rail, and the one train a day
leaves at 9.15 and arrives at $50
p. m, eight hours and thirty-five
miles, making all stops. The man
in Minot can reach the state capital
| in a motor car ahead of the train,
| for his route is much shorter and
he can go faster And there are
| thousands of miles of country, popu-
lated by thousands of farmers, whose
only means of travel is the car.
Imagine covering an 10000 acre
ranch without cars.
Farmers buy eighty per cent. of
all cars bought in America and use
them for business purposes. The re-
naming twenty per cent. is used for
goodly per cent. of business work.
why is the motor car then a nom
essential?. And why does the gov
ernment rate the piano as q neces-
sity? A hitherto unthinking public
much change it's views. 1t must not
let itself believe that its third great
est industry is in the perfumed soap
and cosmetics class.
The farmers who own eighty per
cent. of our cars and the thousands
of businessmen who make their cars
work every day might be able to
get along without perfumed soap,
but could they do without their cars
and maintain that collective national
efficiency which is needed for the
winning of the war;"