The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1922-08-22
EBB TIDE PASSED,
AUTO TRADE SEES
GREAT PROSPECTS
indianapolis Makers and Deal
ers More Optimistic Now
Than In Many Months.
STAFFS BEING REMADE
Popular Priced Car Features
Comeback After Period
of Depression.
Of Depression.

| structive nature and unlimited posi-
bilities that Indianapolis manufao-
turers and dealers are more optimistic
today than at any other time in the
past two years. The acute business
depression which visited local plants
during the slump in 1921, laying sew
eral idle and making itself felt in all,
is rapidly clearing away and resump-
ton Of activities is beginning on a
new scale.
August IS the month in which most
plants reorganize their STATS, checking
up their inventories and taking &C
count of the facts at hand that will
be the basis Of their business guild
ance for the future year. New mod.
els are being turned over by the eng:
neering departments for official o. K
before the purchasing agent calls his
staff together to let the yearly con-
tracts.
Season Of Getting Ready.
Schedules and budgets are being
for1nulated-and IN many cases dis
carded and replaced as rapidly as
formulated-for beginning OF opera
lions. New stock Is to be received,
service parts are to be turned over to
the service departments and new
costs, both material and labor, are to
be reckoned with before the sales
manager blazes forth into print with
the announcement that the company's
most signal achievement IS TO be
placed on the market IN few days.
A canvass Of the wholesale and re-
tail automobile section along Meridian
ST. and Capitol Ave. discloses that
dealers have experienced their best
sales year since the after-war boom
OF 1890. Prospects have been more
plentiful and buying has been greater,
fact that IS probably partly induced
/ by tho modern funding or financing
methods offered by private companies
/ or corporations, representing the au-
tomoble concerns.
Comeback Noted
/ The popular.priced car that was
struck the hardest blow in the de-
preston, due TO the fact that those,
who buy IN that class are salaried men
whose salaries were reduced or elm
mated IN the after-war housekeeping
IN industry, is steadily regaining It's
own. The salaried man seems to be
/ creeping back to his pre-war status
and to be investing in cars. Mean
while the high-priced as we'll as the
} low-priced cars are keeping pace.
/ Expansions in the industry as we'll
as improvements In the buildings and
/ salesrooms so frequently made during
( the war boom are not to be found. re-
/ trenchu1ent having taken place.
/ A search Of Marion County records
with the State automobile licensing
/ department at the Statehouse reveals
/ the fact that this county possesses
/ ,066 passenger cars and 1887 motor
/ trucks. The State boasts S54.002 pas
senger cars and 47,T00 motor trucks.
/ Twelve and one-half per cent Of the
automobiles Of the State are driven
| by Marion County owners, and ap-
proxlmately fifteen per cent Of the
trucks are owned by Marion County
residents.
In view Of these figures little CUES
ton OF importance Of the city Of In
dianapolis to the automotive indus
try as a whole, ensues. It takes its
placs among the consumers and is
taking, and will maintain. it's place
among the manufacturers, as one of
the industry's oenters.
Right Placs to Manufacture
AS J. J. Cole, president Of the Cole
Motor Car Company, said a few
months ago. at is easier to bufld an
automobile IN Indianapolis than In
any other city in the United States.
because Of the clty's unequalled trans
portation facilities" Automobile parts
are not made IN any one city or com
monwealth. but are manufactured In
practically every Eastern and Middle
western State, a fact that attaches
great Importance to the matter OF
transportation Indianapolis Is the
greatest traction and inland railroad
center in the world and no Industrial
vein Of the whole Nation but Is tapped
by the fabrication OF railways that
PASS through the city.
schwab Shows Confidence
Charles NJ. Schwab, steel rnagnate
OF the East, displayed his confidence
in the city of Indianapolis and local
business men when he recently pur-
chased the controlling stock OF the
stut5 Motor Car Company. Mr..
Schwab came to Indianapolis, IN
speoted the plant and conferred with
the company's officials and returned +
to New York with a emile. That
smile Is registering on the boards Of .
every stock exchange brokerage (
house today and is being reflected by
an increase in the company's stock
value, an almost indisputable barome-
ter ar forecast Of operations yet I'M
announced.
If the automobiles Of Marion Coun-
ty. fully ninety per cent Of which be-
long in the corporate limits of Indian
apolts, we're Of an average length of .
ten feet and were placed end-to-end,
they would reach a distance OF seven
ty-nine and one-haf miles, or Il It
were possible to drive them tweHvo
abreast, would reach from the Cirole 1
along Meridian st. to the Canal Blvd.
It is estimated that the trucks with
their tonnage capacities could carry
the Indiana State Capitol building
away in one load. If the structure
could be reduced to convenient NOR
sells.
Local Race Greatesb