Evening star., 1922-12-18
AUTOMOBILE BOOM
|. IS NOW EXPLAINED
Medium Priced Closed Cars
Cause of Greatest Year
in This Industry.
BY J. C. ROYLE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December iS.-The
production of the medium priced
closed car is responsible for the
greatest year in the history Of the
automobile industry in America. Auto
motive experts and engineers in wide
ly separated sections agreed on that
opinion.
The closed car always has bern
popular, the experts said today, but
up to this year it's use had been
restricted to purchasers with long
pocketbooks. Hence when one COM
pany came out last spring with
model combining all the comforts and
conveniences of the regular closed
car. but of light construction and
priced at a figure only slightly ao9Ss
open car levels, the public proceeded
to put in orders. This satisfied manu-
facturers this was virgin field for
business.
Big Jump in Output.
Formerly the closed-car output
amounted to about 10 per cent of the
number of cars produced. but this
year it has reached so per cent of the
output of many factories. For this
cars is 25 per cent of the total OF
the Ford factories. The Hupp closed
car production was about 80 per cent
and Hudson so per cent of the total.
Another factor which contributed
to making 1922 banner year. ac-'
cording to the engineer and sales
managers. was the successive price
reductions by different companies,
Each new cut by the Ford company
added thousands Of potential auto,
| mobile purchasers. Persons who had
set the limit of the amount they could
spend for an automobile at about
| $500 abandoned the Ford and became
purchasers of Chevrolet. Overland
and other light cars. Owners Of
Chevrolets and Overlands who had
! paid from $500 to $3.50 for their auto
! mobiles a year previous moved w
| into the Dodge, Maxwell and light
Buick class.
Drive Higher Priced Cars.
This process continued antil today
| thousands of people are driving Cadii-
| lacs and Packards. who never thought
| their pock etbooks would permit Their
\ to do so.
| AS a consequence. demand for skill
ed help in the automobile industry il
| acute even at A period when there
/ usually was a slackening of produo.
! ton The Ford Company continueI
| to pay minimum of s6 a day f"i
unskilled labor. but prices skilled
| mechanics much more. The industry
| therefore. presents an anomaly
| Wages are about 10 per cent und.i
| the high mark of 1920. while living
| costs in automobile centers are dowt
from % to 40 per cent. Automobile
| prices are approximately 23 to 80 pei
| cent lower than two years ago and
yet volume of production and i'm.
provement in management have beer
! such that profits to automobile corr.
panies in general are fully as goot
. as in the past
F.! Notes Of Other Markets.
| Quiet may be expected TO reign II
| the wool markets and in the manu-.
| facture Of wooden cloths until jar
heavy weight season shortly after til,
turn of the year will go far to deter
mine the requirements of manufac
| turers for the next six months.
There has been no let-up in the de
| mand for calcium arsenate. the chem.
tcal most generally employed in fighu.
! ing the boil weevil. As result al
! the ravaGes of the weevil in csrtail
sections of Texas. farmers are abaI.
! doning their fields and moving to IL.
west section of the state. where ih'
weevil has not yet made its appear
ance.
| Leather Demand Light
l pohdhu ioi S'HAiuutS S'liis
and hide prices are somewhat wea k-r
| but footwear manufacturers are max.
ing purchases with extreme caution!
| Five rubber manufacturers now have
| advanced their prices. and other firm,
have new price lists prepared. but are
hesitating in the belief that the frs
! of the year will be a more propitioui
| time for announcement of increase;
i than the present
Copper buying has been fair recent.
! ly. and the market is in a better con.
| dition than for some time back. I'll,
| move of the Calumet and Hecls TO.
! ward entering the manufacturing
/ field as well as the mining end of th,
| business is regarded as signiTican;.