Evening star., 1925-08-30
BY WILLIAM ULLNIAN.

Despite the fact that every one seems
10 own q motor car, production and
sales of automobiles continue un-
abated. and the question naturally
arises:
who's buying them?"
An analysis of the situation indi-
Gates the automobile industry has un-
covered an entirely new buying fever
which promises to make the conserva-
tive statements of the day seem as
1udicrous as the predictions of the sat
uration point so widely discussed but
yesterday.
Since the saturation point was dis
cussed in 1920 approximately 100000
automobiles have been produced in
America and sold here and abroad. 1t
probably is more significant to record
that since the wiseacres pictured the
nation as having absorbed all the mo-
tor vehicles it was capable of, approx
mately 100000 automobiles have been
junked.
Where does all the buying power
originate? Or, which is more peril
nent, where do they get the money?
The general impression is that while
salaries and wages are high living
costs are proportionally high, which
would naturally leave no more than
the pre-war margin of income to be
applied to the purchase of motor cars.
That this impression is q far cry from
the facts, however, is merely a matter
of consulting the figures from the
United States Bureau of Labor statis-
tics.
Wage Average Gain Great.
Since 1913 the average union wage
rate per hour has increased 12S per
I cent, while the corresponding increase
in miscellaneous commodities is only
IL per cent. Fuel and lighting, while
increasing 20 per cent, have not as
Yet matched the increase in wages.
Even clothing prices, which represent
one Of the greatest increases. are still
below wages at 81 per cent.
Wage earners, however, have not
enjoyed this margin of income over ex-
penseS through the entire war and
postwar period, which accounts for
the new and somewhat unexpected
buying power just now coming into
evidence. The American wage earn
er has fought to obtain wage that
would be in keeping with living costs,
and now that income Is safely above
expenditures he finds he has some
thing to spend for the things he al
ways has wanted and needed, in ad-
dltion to setting something aside for
a rainy day.
Wage earners are, therefore. either
buying their first cars or are buying
new and better cars to take the place
of those they are discarding. Added
to this natural impulse is the con-
Nenlence of the timepayment system.
not to mention the extremely low
prices and high values of cars.
Among business executives much
the same situation exists The man
who formerly earned $4,000 or S15.-
600 year has forced his salary up
TO $4,000 and $4,000. There has
been recent and extensive gradu-
alton Of the f1ve-thousand-a-year men
Into the salary group just under the
five-f1gure class. These people have
money to invest, as the long continued
bull market" of the stock exchanges
will show, and they are ready to in
vest in more modern motor transpor-
tation.
Are Keeping Spare" Car.
1 These are the people who are keep
ing a spare" car. These are the peo-
pie who prefer a new car each year
to the annoyance of repairing and re-
painting. These are the people who
buy new models in order to stimulate e
and enjoy the advance in engineering
principles.
In between the wage Garner and the
executive comes the avarage salaried
man and the American farmer. They
are both buying cars freely, though
Investigations show that they are buy
ing for different reasons. Their rea-
sons also differ materially from those
behind the purchasing power and de-
StreS of the wage Garner or the
executive and pros porous merchant