Evening star., 1933-08-13
T ATIONAL recovery will mean
much to the automotive indus
try, and by the same token
proper cooperation Of auto
ofnrorc will mean much

manufacturers will mean much
20 the success of national recovery.
From many indications the spirit OF
national partnership is prevailing al
ready
Motor-car makers have entered into
the trade agreement calling for fixed
maximum work week and a minimum
wage scale with certain reservations
reservations designed to retain the
"open-shop" principle in the industry.
But they are counting on the code and
. combination of other circumstances
to further expand the Improvement in
the consumer demand for automoblles
that began last Spring.
One of the leading manufacturers,
according to the Associated Press, who
was among the members of the Ma
tional Automobile Chamber of Com
merce attending the conference at
which the agreement was signed, be-
lieves the additional leisure to be given
the wage-earner under the code will
result In an increased demand for
motor cars as we'll as other manufac-
tured articles.
Buying Stimulation Seen.
The two-day week end holiday. such
as is contemplated under the 35-hour
five-day week, he said. will stimulate
buying and travel. We are migra-
tory people," he said, rand get around
q lot as it Is. With full two days
we'll move even more"
Other circumstances which heads of
the various producing units of the in
dustry are counting upon for q sus-
tanned upward trend in motor-car de-
mand, the Associated Press states, in
clude the fact that many millions of
cars still on the road are ready for the
scrap heap. Authoritative figures place
1881 to 1888, inclusive, the latter year
estimated, at 7.304,181 vehicles.
For the same period, the replace
ment. it is estimated, will have been
but 4304, 500, leaving potential un-
satisfied demand by former owners of
approximately 5000 900 cars. The cars
still to be scrapped, sales executives
say, include 100000 manufactured
prior to 1925, all past the average car
life of IA years.
From these figures the industry's
sales directors see a steady market
about to be opened up for the con-
sumption of new automobiles.
What the cooe will mean in the
actual increase in employment the pro-
ducers generally prefer to let remain
for the future to determine. Wages
in the industry generally are well above
the minimum 40 to 43 cents an hour
provided in the code. The hours of
labor, however, will require a marked
revision, particularly because the in
dustry currently has been at higher
point of activity than has been expert
enced for many months past.
With the expected maintenance Of
production schedules and the switch
over before long to new model output,
heavy increases in the working per-
sonnel are looked for
Job Increase Is Objective.
To step up employment in the motor
car industry closet o the 1929 level is
one of the main objectiveS of the recov-
cry program. To reach this level, motor
car manufacturers point out, will re-
quire a tremendous increase in con-
sumer demand.
The 427. .459 persons directly employed
in automobile plants in 1929 produced
$500 900 motor cars. It was a pro-
duction that far exceeded the demand
and resulted in the adoption by the
industry of a policy Of producing only
as many cars as the retail market
could absorb. The adoption of this
policy, leading executives say, enabled
the industry to come through the more
than three years of declining demand
with so little factory mortality.
Last years automobile factory en-
ployment averaged around 100000
workers These figures, however. have
been sharply augmented by the in
creased demand that developed this
year, and given the expected enlarged
demand to come from the release of
long overdue replacement orders, not
a few of the industry's executives be-
1ieve the employment rolls can be
boosted to where they will make a
creditable comparison with the figures
Of 1929.
The purchase of new cars or the