Evening star., 1924-09-10
ARTICLE III.

When lives are threatened by a
flood nothing is gained by discussing
what caused the water to rise or the
rate at which it is rising. Neverthe-
less. II the United States is facing
crisis in the traffic problem. and If
that crisis has been brought about by
the rapid increase in the use of the
motor vehicle, few facts about the
motor industry itself are necessary to
a proper perspective.
In 1899, which Is just twenty five
years ago, there were manufactured
in the United States 1900 passenger
cars. with a wholesale value of $4,-
10000. In the year 1923 there were
manufactured 3.ss4.237 passenger cars,
with a retail value in excess of two
billion dollars. The people Of the
United States are actually spending
this amount each year for passenger
cars.
What is two billion dollars? 1t
Is $3.50 more than the American peo-
pie spend annually on the education
of their children. 1t is twice the
value Of all the horses In the United
States. 1t Is. more than one-half of
the total gold production of the
world for ten years. 1t would buy
all the farms, with their houses and
buildings, in the States Of Virginia
and West Virginia, leaving over five
hundred million dollars for operat-
ing expenses. 1t would pay all the
expenses of the District of Columbia
for 60 years.
In addition to these passenger cars
there were manufactured last year
392.760 trucks. worth at least half
billion dollars. A manufacturing &
;o1, of h
ing to an annual output worth two
and one-half billion dollars, requiring
43,5sS dealers to dispose of it, has
had fairly prosperous growth The
United States today has 8S per cent
of all the motor vehicles in the
world. and scraps over a million cars
each year.
The automobile industry has made
one person in every seven, including
men, women and children, a motor
car owner. The manufacturer tells
US that he is going to make one per-
son in every three or four an owner
He has discovered that the cars in the
United States are owned by approx
mately thirteen and one-half million
persons and that this number is only
one-third of the number of persons
gainfully employed. In his mind every
one of the remaining two-thirds is a
prospect. When that time comes we
can expect to see pedestrianism a
misdemeanor and parking on a foot
a violation OF the traffic regulations
For the past 10 years the gain in
motor car production each year over
the preceding year has ranged all the
way from II per cent to 43 per cent
The gain in 1923 over 1922 was 23 per
cent, and If these gains continue we
can expect over 100000 new cars to
be manufactured this year. The
American market may not have
reached the saturation point finan-
cially, but how soon will our cities
and even our rural highways reach
the physical saturation point? If we
build three or four million more cars
a year than we scrap, now long will
it be before the elasticity of our
streets and highways reaches itf
limit?
It is refreshing to note that this
steady increase in buying of motor
vehicles has not interfered with home
building, life insurance or savings
bank deposits. Comparative tables
show that these latter have increased
in approximately the same proper
tions as the production of automo-
biles. Curiously enough, the buyer
of car gets more for his dollar than
he does in clothes, shoes, food prod
ucts. buildings, furniture and a va
riety of other commodities. That is,
the 1924 automobile dollar actually
purchases more than the 1913 auto
mobile dollar. This is also true of
the gasoline dollar and the tire dollar.
AS long as this is true we can expect
the automobile purchasing power of
the nation to keep up and the steady
nf fha industry c0nfinnp
until stopped, IL it is stopped, by
physical traffic limitations.
Motor vehicles and automotive
products paid S157 in special Federal
excise taxes last year. The tax bill
of the motorists exceeded S471 ,O00. 900.