Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-04-30
ARE WE MOTOR-MAD?

That is one of the most oftenheard charges against this
generation: Everybody has to have a car, whether his house
is paid for or his family has enough to eat of the life insur-
ance premiums get paid. The car 10 o necessity. As a result Of
such a widespread epidemic of II .SSs-Aadness, we are soberly
and solemnly assured that the whole eountry is headed straight
for perdition, and pretty soon tasre will be no such thing as
the American home.
Stuff and nonsensei CT course we all spend too much
money-we ought to be saving it up for our heirs to quarrel
over, or to squander in wildcat investments or to pay in to
somebody for an inheritance tax. We are making the fright
ttl mistake of getting a lot of enjoyment ourselves out of our
ne0ne as we 60 along.
One has only to look at the thousands of cars on any high
way on Sunday to realize that the automobile is the holiday of
he great American family. Some day when l can think to
begin in-time, l am going to count all the cars I meet with
iabies inside. And another Sunday | am going to count
il4t the Fords that carry infant passengers.
1t makes me rather happy to see mothers exploring the
.engtI and breadth of New Jersey surrounded completely by
slaal children and sandwiches, when their own mothers never
saw anything outside Mlddlesex county during their whole
lifetime! And that's no slam at Middlesex county, either. I
mention it to show that it is rather a fine thing for a home
loving mother to find out, before she lies down under her
epitaph, that there is some more to the universe beyond New
ark and New Brunswick.
It gives her something to dream about when she is doing
the washing on Monday. And know the washing is done bet
ter for those newly acquired impressions.
What if we are motormad? There aren't many of us
who have cars that we can't afford to have-if we do, we don't
keep them long. We can always go without something else,
If we can only have a car. I have heard certain women jeered
at because they could have a car, but couldn't afford a maid.
Now, who wouldn't prefer a car to a maid? Can a maid
take you to the mountains or to the s~eashore? Can she fill
your life full of romance and your mind full of geography?
Can she provide picnics or even do the marketing? She can
not. So a lot of very sensible housewives prefer to do their
own work and have the car instead. Everybody IS happier
about that solution, mother most of all. That little trip each
week~to look forward to and plan for, and to remember af-
forwards, when it turned out so differently from what the fam
lily expected, adds no end of interest to the life of the family.
And father loves it, too, it gives him such a sense of
powerl Just think of him at the wheel, controlling that en-
CINE and holding the lives of his trustful family in his hands!
The god of the machine, that's what he is. Of course all that
power may be a mixed pleasure, but father doesn't tell that.
The fun of controlling the thing makes up for the draw
backs.
Are we motor-madg We are. But we're also proud to be
motor-mad. We live in the age of motors. We're glad we do.
All you good people who prefer to live in the past, go and
do it. But we who are motor-mad, will keep on, I hope, living
in the present, accepting with joy the new things that are
good, and keeping friendly in mind toward all that means
progress. You who see good only in the past may grow musty
and dusty and useless, if you like, like an old coat hanging in a
forgotten closet.