The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1922-03-20
HEED UTILITY
FUNCTION Of
AUTOMOBILE
Men Make Mistake in Think
ing Of Automobile Merely
as Pleasure Car
By GEORGE NJ. GRAHAM

ice Pres. The Chandler Motor Co.
There are still in this country
many millions of persons who think
of highways and automobiles as hav-
ing to do alone with pleasure.
We do not apologize for the fact
that the automobile is an importan [
medium Of diversion. This is quite
legitimate. but it is important that
its utility function be properly rec
ognized.
Those VINO think of ehe automobile
merely as a pleasure car have per-
haps never contemplated what a
would DC If the passenger carrying
and the freight carrying truck
should suddenly be withdrawn.
The evil consequences resulting
would eject both city and rural
populationl
Within the last twenty years,
farmers have found it possible to
80 beyond unproductive or unprofi-
able and. purchased originally merely
because it was contiguous 10 steam
railways
They have penetrated further and
further into remote rural sections,
because in the motor truck they have
a connecting link between the point
Of marketing.
Records of the United States Bur-
eau OF Roads show that the farmers $
haul to market has Increased from
e.9 mile sto 17.6 miles, an expansion
based entirely on motor truck haul
age
II the motor truck should be eli
minated what would happen to farm
land values can be readily imagined.
Similar would be the baneful effect
on city dwellers. The city man no
longer lives in the city. He has
gone far into the suburbs.
IT Will be found by analysis of
conditions in any great city that its
central portion is more and more
given over to commerce and manu-
featuring. and that the residence
section constantly moves farther into
the suburbs
The man of wealth. the man of
only reasonable means, finds that the
automobile gives him ready touch
with the heart of the city.
He ever has at hand a medium OF
individual transportation. In this
one point alone is the assurance of
the permanency of the automobile
business.
Therefore. the automobile and the
motor truck actually contitute a kind
Of real estate insurance.
/ have used the term Individual
transportation.' should like to
analyze that term to some extent.
and undertake TO show a most inter-
esting reversion of method
Generally speaking. the impulse of
our life has been to progress from
individualism to centraliza ton. Our
county began as an association of
individual states. but their boundary
lines seem constantly to become less
important and the Federal idea more
dominant.
The experience of the workman and
manufacturing processes affords an
other example
Formerly the workman's produc-
tWeness depended upon and was re-
presented by his possession of the
tools of his craft The carpenter
With his saw. the shoemaker with
his awl. the blacksmith his hammer.
the printer with his stick. carried
his trade with him wherever he went
That was individualism.
Then came a great modern devel-
opment Hugh machines supplanted
the tool. They enormously increased
the ratio OF production.
You illustrate the tendency of CEN
tralization in your own home every
day.
You don't so down to tn pump or
70 the well for water. You don't
light the kersene lamp. In many
cases you don't even produce your
own heat. All these come from cen
trsl power plants. This is centrali-
zation
At one period. for centruics. in
fact. individualism dominated trans
portation. The man with horse
and wagon. the man with a boat,
both are instances.
Then great steamships, steam rail-
ways and electric trolleys took the
nsportation medium from the in
divIduals.
This was combination, improved
public service, mad these great med
iums will always be with us in a
place of commanding Importance.
But transportation has always been
a return to the individual facilities,
a most unusual development.
In both freight haulage and pas
sepger transportation the motor We
hicle has turned back the hands on
the face OF the clock of time, mad we
now supplement centralized transpor-
tation with an individual medium,
subject entirely TO your own Whit,
preference or need.
This is great economic develop
naent. 1t is potent no wand destined
to be still more so.
AS background ] should like to
draw you rapid picture Of trans
portation development.
We. IN this country. are great ad
mirers of the pioneer.
CONTINUED on page seyen)