Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-27
FIVE FACTORS SEEN
IN AUTOS future
Development of Motor Indus
try Outlined by Head of
Jordan Company.

Five facts will characterize the devel-
opment of the automobile industry dur
ing the next five years, according to
Edward S. Jordan, president of the Jor-
dan Motor Car Co.
First: The recent trip of Herbert
Hoover, the best salesman we have in
the United States, who is just fore
runner of worldwide selling campaign
to establish the American automobile at
the forefront of transportation in every
nook and corner of the globe.
This means that any excess produc-
ton which the domestic market will not
take will find a ready market in other
countries of the world where the build
ing of good roads has become a political
necessity, as it did a few years ago in
the United States.
Second: The developments of the past
few years have demonstrated the neces-
sity for rapid changes in models. This
is proving the argument that the
smaller production manufacturers have
always made. It gives him chance
for definite survival. He can turn style
wise over night, while the volume pro-
Queer must spend millions and take
many months time to meet the chang
ing trend. It is the same trend which
made the shoe manufacturers abandon
standard production and produce one
hundred different styles for women
the same trend which made the clothing
manufacturers recognize the demand Tor
varying styles.
Third The cost of engineering changes
are not mechanical in these days, but
have to do with bodies, and little details
III lNn rYr0YO
The production manager is no longer i'll
the saddle in the automobile factory.
The process is quite simple. The sales
manager and the advertising man have
come to the fore. Today it is cost or
distribution which the automobile
manufacturer must face. So we may
look for an acceptance of the automo-
bile from the engineering standpoint,
and less boaStful statements about the
volume of production, with more ad-
vertising and selling effort concentrated
upon the little details.
Changing Styles.
Fourth: Styles will change with every
season, as in women's gowns ana Woh-
ems hats, The days of volume produc-
tion of uninteresting standard models
are no longer with us. The daughter
from Tulsa, Okla, who visited the
Louvre last Summer will choose the au-
tornobile from now on. That will erect
the economies of the industry from
stem to stern.
Fifth: The banker has become most
important factor in the automoplIe
business. His point of view is changing
somewhat. There was time Wnen ne
chose to support the dealer because OF
the number of automobiles that the
dealer could deliver from his back door.
Now he is getting wise to the automo-
bile business. He is inclined TO support
the dealer who sells more limited
number of cars at a profit to more
desirable class of people; and wnne ne
may do less volume, he VIII nave more
money in the bank at the END OF the
year.
When Herbert Hoover, whom we rec
opnize as the new general sales man
ager of the United States, left for South
America, he took the first step toward
selling the excess output Of every great
American industry to the people OF the
outside world.
Since the productive capacity OF the
factories of the United States Is well
over 80 per cent i'll excess OF our nor
NAL consumptive demand, and every
industry has endured the peaks and
curves of rising and falling sales, the
automobile industry has been watching
with real interest Mr.. HooverS eflortS
to relieve the problem of excess output.
Last year we built nearly 4,500, 900 au-
tomobiles and shipped perhaps 1,Uoo,oUu
units abroad. With every selling Or
ganization in the industry concentrating
upon foreign sales, and the Parls ana
London shows highly colored with Amer
abroad
should show very marked increase.
However, the ambitions OF American
producers are always quite in excess OF
the consumptive possibilities OF the
world market. Therefore, we may not
expect to sell all of the 100000 cars
that the American manufacturers nave
scheduled for 1929.
But since China is even employing
schoolgirls to build roads, and Germany
is out best foreign market, and even
India is buying Chicago gum. we may
have hopes that the world market Will
open to American products in sur
prising way.
Trend of Design.
What is going to be the trend of
automobile design and production In
| the next few years?
Engineers have done nearly every
thing they could without being radical.
| No startling changes are looked for in
| this department
The productive capacity of a small
group of the larger plants is beyond
the consumptive capacity OF the world
| at present
The problem today is merchandising
| problem. The difficulty lies in the
cost of delivering the finished product
| from the factory to the consumer, since
| for every new car delivered, three or
| four old ones must be taken in and
sold.
There was a time was new motor
| was sufficient. Finally bodies came to
! the fore-then colors occupied the CEN
| ter of the stage. Now the woman is
| deciding on the basis Of little things,
while the husband buys the car upon
careful consideration of what he Is al
| lowed for his old car.
Traffic conditions in the cities will
| substantially reduce the sales of new
cars. Merchandising costs will elimi-
nate inefficient dealers. The rapidity
of changes in models will greatly re-
duce the profits of the volume produc-
ers, but the great fundamental necessi-
| ty of transportation will provide for an
| annual output of several millions cars
throughout the world.
Today the automobile manufacturer
is concentrating upon the foreign mar
ket because there he faces a situation
much more favorable than the domes-
! tic outlook. While we have in this
| country an average of one car to every
four or five people, the average abroad
| over all the countries is more nearly
| one car to every 60 DeOrle