Evening star., 1927-10-27
PART MAKERS
AUTO TRADE WAR
Accessory Manufacturers
Think Diversified Line OF
Customers Best Policy.
BY j. {. ROYLE.

Special Dispatch to The star.
NEW YORK. October 27.-OWners
Of manufacturing plants in a score
of lines are commencing to Indicate
plainly that they intend to remain
on the side lines in any competitive
battle that may develop in the auto
mobile industry in the next lew
months They are determined not
To put all their eggs into one bask'''
and. while they want business 'ntN
realize thai they may be led into pay
ing too high for it. ,,.
The wide variety of fields INTO Nh'u
this feeling penetrates is lndlcatcu
by the fact that one iocalemahutact.u,i- W
or of tents. awnings and similar
products declined today to submit
price on n large quantity of tarpauslhs
for one of the largest of the autoillo
bile manufacturers.
This manufacturer assigned no re"
son to the company Whlch fequtS'to
that he bid on the contract, nut ne
let il he known to his business lflelius
that he felt he could not take the
business without losing some OIL ms
old customers, whose business ne
might have to pass up. ana 'hat ne
considered n diversified line OF Gus
contract, no matter how DIG.
Depends on Parts.
Manufacturers all over the country
arc commencing to realize thdl any
connection in the automobiie manu-,
featuring and sales industries VIII
denend less on the price at Whlch
the machines are SOLD 'han
on the price at which Paats
and materials arc hongnt' S"l"e
fear to place the future of their plah's
almost entirely at the mercy OIL one
big automobile customer.
Tho little sidelne manufacturers
exnlain their attitude by saying that
they fear if they accept contracts
from the hig motor makers, even at
an attractive price which leaves
safe profit margin, the orders may pe
increased to such point that theE
must throw over their old customers
in order to fill them. In that way
instead of being a general factory
serving the public, the plant in erect
becomes a subsidiary unit of the great
motor manufacturing corpofatlon.'
When there are no longer OUTSIDE
customers, the automobile manufac-
turer can then practically name MS
own price.
Dispatches from the main automo-
bile manufacturing centers indicate
there will be no marked speeding up
of passenger car production in general
in the next two months. For one
thing. the big automobile shows, with
their new models, will be awaited be-
fore the heavy factory output becomes
effective. This is a general trend,
but there are exceptions. Some FAC
tories will hang up records for pro
duction this month.
Few Technical Changes.
Automotive engineers in many cases
feel that there will not be many tech.
nical changes in the cars for the next
year. The developments TO be shown,
they say, will be along the lines OF i'm
provement for each small detail TO
decrease the cost of operation and up
keep. John II. Hunt of General Mo-
tors says the problem for engineers
at present is to produce a car that
will not have to be touched for the
first 10000 miles.
1t now seems likely that the truck
end of the automobile industry will
do better so far as percentage Of out
put Is concerned, than the passenger
division. The production Of trucks is
expected to approximate that of 1925,
but profits in many cases will not be
so satisfactory. This was indicated
by the report today Of the Yellow
Truck and Coach Manufacturing Co.,
which showed a net loss, after depre-