The Washington herald., 1921-03-13
CESPURCHASE
OF MOTOR CARS
BEFORE SPRING
Westcott Company Points
Out Impending Shortage
OF Automobiles.

individuals and business houses
have been quite right in limiting
their expenditures during the past
few months. 1t goes without say
ing. however, that this condu:cn
cannot go on forever.
Unless the business structure of
America is to suffer harm tina. wi:i
take years to repair, we snail al
have TO get back as soon as pos
sible to a basis of normal buying
| and selling. When A won't oay
from B, then b can't buy from =.
and C can't buy from A.
The period of slow business has
been a necessary penalty Tor the
orgy of spending that just pr--
ceded II. No one wants to go back
to the unhealthy times OF eNtraNa-
gance and. wild spending. but We
must swing back very soon to natu-
raj buying. How is this to be ac-
complished? In one way only. dhd
that is for each of us to loosen up
cautiously and gradually on his own
personal purse strings.
Now. has the time actually ar
rived when the individual or hrm
that intends to buy an automoelie
l should decide to make the purchase
| For four reasons we believe the
| time has come" says the Wes.s0.t
Hub.
Car storage This Year.
"FIrst-There will be a shortage
Of cars in 1921. So great student
Of the automobile market as COL
lier's Weekly is authority for this
statement, and other authorities
agree. BY taking the number Of
cars and trucks built up to a given
year. and deducting from this figure
the total car registrations for that
year, you find how many cars have
been scrapped.
For instance. up to and includ-
| ing 1915, 100000 automobiles and
trucks have been built. In 1915
/ there were not quite 100000 cars
and trucks in use. as shown by reg
| istrations, which means that more
than 100000 had gone out of serv-
ice. On this basis of figuring IL can
/ be shown that between 100000 cars
/ and trucks will be scrapped in 1921
and will have to be replaced. In ad-
dition, there Is a normal expectation
| Of at least 1000. 900 new buyers. The
/ fact is. even IL you discount these
figures. the automobile industry
! probably has not facilities enough
! to manufacture all the cars that
/ will be actually needed, even IL the
industry were running on a full pro-
! duction basis, which il is not.
''Second-The shortage will be felt
| this coming spring. The automobile.
| like many other articles, Is grad
| ually used up Extra care will
! make 1t live somewhat past its nor
NAL period of usefulness. but 1t must
| be discarded sooner or later. You
can not make 100000 automobiles
run beyond their allotted life
periods without suddenly. at the end
of that time, having demand for
100000 new automobiles.
Reserve stocks Very Low.
This spring. at the latest. the
demand will begin to arrive in a
noticeable degrce-and then what
will happen? The reserve stock of
rev cars in the country is not half
as large as the public thinks. and
under any real demand this stock
| will melt away like snow under a
hot sun. Then there will follow a
| scramble on the part of manufac-
turers to get into production again.
That does not sound alarming. but
do you know that after an automo-
bile plant is reopened it takes az
least thirty days to produce the first
car, sixty days to get regular pro-
| duction established, and ninety days
to build production up to the plants
full capacity? These are conserva-
tive statements. and they indicate
not only a shortage Of cars in 1921,