East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1920-02-07
OPTIMISM SHOULD Be
ATTITUDE OF INDUSTRY
(By W, o. Rutherford, Of the b, f,
Goodrich Rubber Cob

1t has always seemed to me that
there is good deal Of sound philoso-
ply in Benjamin Franklin's statement
I that we should be aware of croallers.
4 This advice is as sound today as IT was
hundred years ago. All industry has
I been confronted with menaeing condi-
tlons during the months and years
just past but | am optimistic enough
to believe that every major Develop
u,ent in our international growth. in
o'r civic reforms and in our economic
re-adjustments will lead us to bigger
and better things for the future.
Every one OF us should be an optimist'
there Is no room for pessimism.
By referring TO one of my charts,
Notice that in 1905 there were 10000
automobiles in the country; fifteen
Years later we have passed the seven
million mark. Now hear much
about the "Saturation point and that
other Indefinite period when we shall
have diminishing returns" Automo-
hiles come in the consumption class
Of commodities: i. G.. they are used
worn out and replaced as an essential
part of life just es clothing is. l fore
cast that we shall he able TO absorb
not cnly the present automobile pro-
, duction hut we shall even sustain the
greater growth which ambitions
manufacturers are meditating.
Hence it is a problem of production
. and every citizen. from the manage
ment to the worker at the bench,
, should do his share toward keeping
: an uninterrupted flow of raw mater
ials and finished goods going through
the mills. warehouses and stores OF
/. ,sr.,r o. N
to share in the fruits thereof. In no
, other line OF industry are the rela-
tions between capital aud labor on a
friendlier or sounder footing then in
, the automobile field. hence there
should be no cause for apprehension.
1920 Production 5000 600 Cars
So far as passenger vehicles are con
7 cerned We are now at the crest of buy
! ing market Production does not
equal demand and personally expect
this condition to exist for some time
10 come. recall being told at one OF
the New York shows way back in 1907
that the ten annual production of So
0o0 cays marked the peak point in
automobile manufacture and that the
number of cars to be made annually
would lessen rather than increase
Just as that prophet of gloom was sur
ferinc from brainstorm so Will | alst
classify these who today are refusing
to advance with the times. The pro
posed ear production for 1920 is g..
600, ,0O0 cars An analysis of the mar
ket. at home and abroad. shows an
ehilitv to absorb even greater produc-
tion, hence the possibility of short
age of cars is imminent.
The average reader may say We'll
this growth of the automobile indus
try is all verv nice. but wherein does
Il affect me?" Anything relating to
the third largest industry in the coun-
try affects everyone. Thus within the
past ten years our cities have under
gone a. wonderful transformation.
decade ago Chicago boasted that i
was forty miles from one side of thu
citv to the other. We marvelled. But
tday cities have a population of only
tive or three hundred thousand spreac
themselves over as large an area. Ir
Some of our states the country is nc
lnnger rural. it is mterurban. Think
v-l7-t this means for helath and cul-
trrr~. AN .N'ak what it means for
real s-+nte voipn.
uiliyay Building Essential.
a certain authority estimates that
for every million dollars worth OF
automobiles produced there is produc-
ed another million dollars worth oil
property values. Now consider nom
irportant it is that we should have
net work of hishwavs in every commu-
nity for freight and passenger trafflc
Someone has said that highways are