Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-01

will be dirt cheap for Americans
who care to bother with them.
The production motor car is an
American procuct. which eventually
will be highly priced in all of the great
foreign markets. Just as coffee is
plentiful in Brazil. and toys cheap III
Germany. SO Will the production auto.
mobile be in abundance in America.
Keeping the price of automobiles
low in America Is closely linked up
With motorIztng the world, according
to the new view
Another interesting angle TO this new
conception of motordom Is that Amer
ica has been tho laboratory for eX.
Fermentation in motor transport.
Now that the automobile has been de.
veloped to a point where 1t can be
operated successfully by unframed
persons of all ages, where it can be
manufactured in such quantities as
to sell at q price within the pocket.
book of tho workingman, the next step
is to seu the world.
There iS enough wo I'd composition
for American manufacturers in the
motor field to prevent any stagna ton
in engine or chassis design. This is
being demonstrated clearly at present,
American car builders to European
designerA
Meet Competitive Demand
It Is pointed out by those in close
touch with this new trend that Eu-
ropeantype cars are not being offered
because or any American demand for
them The American is delighted with
American design. The adoption of
European ideas is believed 20 be a
competitive move on the part of Amer
lean manufacturers, who sense this
world demand for their products. but
who recognize that this demand can
not be met by an industry that Is not
alive to tbs peculiarities of world
taste"
On the theory that Americans will
not buy European goods. except with
American rnodlficatics S. our industrial
leaders are revampr the American
car to meet a more world wide taste.
Dress goods and laees from the Con-
tinent fin6 a ready market in America
but they are sold to Americans in
American cuts and styles.
Not SO long ago the owner of a
Faithful Four car was pleased to find
that his friends and relatives at other
points Of the country were also Faith.
full Four boosters. Now he counts
among fellow boosters the so-called
wild men of Borneo. and the folk who
live and motor on oceanic islands, that
were not even known TO exist several
hundred years ago.
The demand for the modern auto
mobile is enormously believed 10 have
dated from the beginning of the era of
trustworthy cars. Our automobile
producer has startled the automobile
world by declaring that the demand
has been accommodating for the past
1000 years. Releasing this demand
through proof that the automobile is
now an accepted and desired form of
transportation for the average person,
the automobile industry finds itself on
the threshold of an enormous world
wide demand.
Quantity Americas Speciality.
It will be a business in which all
nations will play part, it is generally
agreed, but the business of producing
cars in quantity is Americas spec
ialty. America is on the point of
cashing in on her natural resources:
mechanical ingenuity. sales ability
and manufacturing skill
Because the automobile industry in
this country has decided to keep its
eye on the foreign market for its
wares, automobiles should be better
than they ever have been. There is
less opportunity for narrow-minded-
ness in design. and particularly in
body styles. Domestic automobilists
should benefit materially through this
trend.
Just as the motorist is protected
against an era of sameness in car
design, because a market cannot be
cornered where there is involved an
element of style. so the American
car buyer, as we'll as his foreign fell
lows of the road, will be protected
against too much Americanism in de-
sign. A new style set by a small for
eign producer will have a. marked in-
fluence on this great production to
meet worldwide demand, If that style
Is appealing enough to the interna-
uonal taste.
May Extend Far.
The benefits from the world con-
seriousness as applied to motordom
should not be limited to mere pro-.
duction and design of motor vehicles,
but doubtless will extend to legiSla-
ton, safety work and organization.
The world slant already has been DEM
onstrated in the great road building
campaigns. notably the construction
of the highway to run the length of
Cuba.
Members of American motor club
organizations some day viii find them,
selves automatically members of the
Automobile Association of the World
II is inevitable, in the opinion OF
organizers.
Ideas of safety, originating in the
far corners of the earth, will go
through the clearing house of trial
and experiment. and in time win be-
come part of the worldwide code of
accident prevention. Legislation will
follow the same process, for law fol-
lows the automobile. and the auto
mobile of the future viii be a world
car"
The automobile has changed the
world. and now the world is about
to change the automobile, improving
it and making il fit the needs of the
population of both hemispheTes,
tCopyright. 1920