Evening star., 1938-02-13

remain . mysterious sort Of a thing
to many.
Be careful and save time and money.
Go to . place where by past expert
ence you know their work can be
trusted. Stick there, even II it Is in
convenient to your residence. 1t will
be worth while.
Many and varied are the ways in
which the States decide who shall get
the much-coveted license plate No. l,
but Fl Of the States solve the prob
lem by assigning it 70 the Governor,
while many others leave the matter
to the discretion Of county authori-
ties. In the District Of Columbia. Il
goes to the ranking Commissioner.
This was one Of the findings in 4
study just completed by the American
Automobile Association, In co-opera-
ton with the Oregon State Motor As
sociation. Of the State practices in
distributing the ace license tags. Other
findings included:
Eighteen Of the States issue more
than one No. / license plate-usually
combining the numeral with letter Of
the alphabet. Ohio, with an in
genuous arrangement of letters, man.
ages to issue 1,778 plates bearing the
numeral and all of these are issued
to persons who have had permanent
reservations since 1885.
-Four of the States-New Hampshire,
Pennsylvania, South Dakota and
Utah do not issue any No. plates,
all tags Of these States starting with
three or four digits. Wyomings low
est number is hyphenated: "1-1," and
the county treasurer gets this one.
One State-Oregon-leaves the Sc
lection up to chance. All early appli-
cations for license plates, which run
over 10000 yearly, are mixed in q big
box and there is . public drawing to
determine priority of numbers.
Iowa and South Carolina follow a
"frst-come first served procedure;
the first motorist to apply in each Of
the counties gets the coveted number.
The makers Of motor cars still be-
lieve the Introduction OF new models
should come in the final quarter OF the
year instead Of in January, according
to an Associated Press report from De-
troit. This was definitely demon
strated when, despite considerable
dealer pressure, they decided to hold
the annual national show in New York
next November to introduce 1899
types.
The manufacturers made a slight
concession to those of the dealers who
sought to have the January introduc-
ton date restored: they agreed not to
stage the national show in October as
some trade authorities expected.
In selecting November IL as the
opening date for the New York pres
entation members Of the Automobile
Manufacturers Association have re-
iterated their belief that the autumn
Introduction policy, adopted in 1885
as a step designed to spread produc-
tion activity over . greater period,
would in the long run prove more
profitable for the worker, the dealer
and the industry generally.
The automobile industry has begun
to modify earlier promises of an up
turn in production during the month
OF February, according to the North
American Newspaper Alliance.
Continued inactivity in new-car
sales has dssipated the likelihood of
more than nominal increases any
where along the line. Factories are
expected to maintain present oper-
ating schedules Of only two to three
days q week. since dealer demands
show no signs of calling for more
than meager shipments.
Instead of . much anticipated rise,
particularly for the second half of
the month, February production,
therefore, will probably be within q
few thousand Of the 100000 units the
factories produced last month. A year
ago the output for the same month
was 399,634 units.
This difference Of 40 per cent was
felt about equally by all the manu-
fscturers. If there was a lone ex-
ception, 1t may have been Ford, for
whom the 1898 sales year began later
than it did for others.
Men within the industry believe q
solid basis is being laid now, how
ever, for an expansion Of retail sales
IN the spring. They see in the i'm
;-