The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-01-24
Seasoned Vets
 Carry on Fight
Motor Car Dealers Pre-. pared for Selling Canl-
 paign, Says Chrysler
By WALTER F. CHRYSLER Chairman of the Board, Chryslcr
 Corporation,

Now Is the time for all Of us to tako stock of what we have learned during the years of loanness and struggle. learned that we can live and have a lot of enjoyment In life with q lot less "sconery" and extrav- agancc. And while we have been learning that, we have found out, too, that the motor car Is not m extravagance, but an absolute ne- costly of our civilization. Do not forget that we have gone on to new yearly records in the con- sumption of gasoline and oil even while automobile purchases were dropping to all-time lows.
 For another thing, we have learned that. under high prosper. ity, nobody was working ct ms peak capacity. It Is amazing how many folks have learned that they can get up earlier In the morning, work harder all day and stick at 1t longer without hurting themselves. In fact, 1t does them good; for sta- tisties show that all kinds of sick ness and tho death rate have stead- fly declined since 1929. I could go on to dozen addi- tlonal lessons of value that have come out of the depression; but these two are the most important in considering tho business future.
 Business probably is now on the up- grade. do not want to say positively that 1t Is, for l have nev- CT set up as a prophet; am just a manufacturer. But facts do show that wo have worn out and exhausted our supplies of many Of tho absolute necessities Of life, and that we are rapidly approaching tho end of our stocks of other es- sontiais. That means somo stimus Iation in buying. No one can say lust how much, for we cannot tell just how badly people have been scnred, SO we cannot know just how cautiously they will buy.
 We know tho public has been pretty badly scared and mighty hard hit. We would be fools to anticipate any flood of buying. even of necessities; 70 even # it turns out we arc on the upgrade, we have got to expect q slow move- mont forward, 0 long climb back to anything itko the security we felt previous to tho depression.
 Hut having fought our way through tho past three years, we can at least square our shoulders, take Q deep breath and say, "Well, that's THAT!
 Of course, we arc going on; we have only just begun to fight. we only have to look around the world to- know that only 0 fool would sell America short at this stage Of the game. It may have been tough going, but VIC aro still the iuckiest nation on earth; and the motor industry has proved that does not know the moaning Of the word, "Quit."
 Dut if we have not slept through the depression, we have learned that from now on we VIII fight with new methods ana new weapons. Conditions have forced most of us to curtailmentS and close watching Of tho expenses oi our business. The necessity for such scrutiny still exists. Even as business improves we must not let ourselves get back Into tho old careless habits. We cannot afs ford to do it now, and as matter of business sense, we can't ever afs ford to do 1t again.
 There is more profit in conduct ing q business on the most ec0s non,lcai basis than there is in sell. ing twice as much merchandise on an oxtravagant and wastcful basis 1 advise every motor car dealer to watch hfs expenses and curtaH wheroycr he can without lesseninR tho effectiveness of his selling and his service. .
 Under depression conditions, everyone has had to work harder. And motor car dealers have como to the dawn of 1888 with tho best personnel in the history of the in' dustry because they have worked. But how they have como through! There have been some casualties-there never was q fight without them-but Lam more proud of anything else in our struggle with the conditions of the i past three years, of the strength and courage and loyalty of the Chrysier distributor and dealer or- gafiizations.
 To-day they are trained down trimmed down, some of them may say; to-day they are hard, even if they are lean; to-day they know how to take oil of the corners closely; to-day they have proved they are fit, because they have gur- yived the toughest business strug- gic in seventy years.