Evening star., 1936-11-29

has been rapid, If one is to consider
that few stages of motor vehicle trans
portation was developed since the
hero of Alexandria built the first
steam engine In 130 BIC.
What might have been more diff
cult to conceive is that the auto OF
today has It's description In the
American Magazine of Art, the organ
of the American Federation Of Arts,
published here.
In 1900 the auto was ugly in de-
sign, laborious to operate, unsafe ana
uneconomic. Today the automobile
is thing of beauty and ought to
be q Joy forever. Its far-reaching
improvements also include safety,
comfort, speed and stamina. Its
operation is cheap and its low cost
of purchase places it where almost
every one can afford ownership.
Egmont Arens, industrial designer,
writing in the November issue OF
the art magazine, describes modern
styeamlining. Here" he says, rs
term out of aerodynamics, invented
by engineers to describe solid shape
that moves easily through fluid me-
diums, as the wings and fuselage OF
an airplane. The human eye re-
sponded gratefully to the flow OF line
prescribed by the laws of physics,
and thus streamlining became syn
onymous with modern beauty.
"Yet streamlining is nothing new.
It was probably invented by a f1sh
in some historic sea. Birds took 1t
out of the water and into the air.
ANY bodies in nature that have to
move with speed through gas or fluid
must have it. Note the line along
the back of a greyhound or race
horse or girl doing the swan dive.
To this day judges of good form at
horse show or a dog show or a diving
exhibit withhold points if that SER
pentine line is missing. 1t is the line
that the eye of man has loved since
the first primitive made a drawing
on mastodon tusk."
Thus it would appear that the mo-
tor vehicle at last has come into its
own.
The motor car industry. now we'll
into the production of its 1887 models,
Is beginning again to accumulate
considerable number of used cars, but
its distributing executives seemingly
are not as much worried at the mo-
ment at least, as they were year
ago, according to the Associated Press.
The perennial problem of the used
ear was handled during the last year
with much greater success than at
any other time in the industry's his
tory, largely, some authorities say, be-
cause dealers concentrated as much
effort upon the movement Of old We
hicles as they did upon the sale of new
models.
The campaign for the disposal of
secondhand cars will be carried on
as vigorously during 1887 as it was
during the present year. If the deal
ers generally follow the advice of the
producers they will exercise great cau-
ton in appraising secondhand We
hicles and discourage the acceptance
Of cars more than three years old, ex-
cepting on junk-value basis.
A survey of the trade indicates no
disposition to reduce the trade-in
allowance on cars one, two and three
years old, but a number Of dealer Or
ganizations are making 1t clear to
would-be bargain hunters that cars
purchased at the height of the 1929
boom period have considerably less
down-payment value on new models
than their owners believe.
The distributing executives explain
that every retailer is eager to sell as
many new models as possible, particu-
larly under the program adopted by
some producers of increasing dis
counts for volume sales. At the same
time they point out that unless it has
some immediate resale value the Sec
ond-hand vehicle represents frozen
capital.
Exorbitant allowances dealers felt
obliged to make in 1929 to aid in the
movement Of factory shipments played
. large part in the dealer distress
that developed in that year and imme-
diately afterward. The practice of
dealers outbidding each other in the
effort to make a new-car sale was
termed by the head of the Automobile
Manufacturers Association "one of
the worst evils confronting the in
dustry" and one that needed to be
corrected" without delay.
More than $50 radio stations have
scheduled series of three broadcasts
devoted to building safety into the
American highway system" in ma
tionally organized campaign to ex-
pand the highway safety cooperation
that the American Road Builders As
sociation has extended during recent
years to newspapers and other pub
ucations.
The radio programs, plus the con-
tinuous campaigns conducted by hun
dreds of newspapers in the interest
Of safety, will compose the most con-
eerted attack that has been made
upon the highway-accident menace
that is claiming an average of 100
lives every "a hours in the United
States.
All Of the $50 stations have pre-
sented the first of the broadcasts, and
the program calls for completion of
the series before the opening of the
convention and exhibit of the Ameri-
can Road Builders Association in
New Orleans January IL.
Highway safety will be one of the
major subjects on the 1887 convention
program.
Causes of highway accidents and
conditions contributing to them are
to be thoroughly studied by the Bu-
reau Of Public Roads of the United
States Department OF Agriculture and
the Highway Research Board Of the
National Research Council. These
organizations announced today an
agreement for joint study of the
subject from several angles in which
the services of nationally known traf-
Ill s-k- iii