Evening star., 1940-01-07
NEWS OF THE MOTORING WORLD
of the Include Outlines of A. A. Clubs Dealers
.s-t&~ Petroleum and Taxi Activities

tribution by the dealers to the In
crease Of employment and buying
power.
while some progress was made IN
1889 toward more stable merchan-
dising conditions. dealers will con-
tinue to press their objectives In
1910. These will form the theme Of
the 23d Annual Convention of the
N. A. D. A.. when the new program
will be launched in the first month
of the year-January 1925 in WASH
ington, D. c."
And a few notes from the oil men.
The following was given out by AK
tell j. Byles, president, American
Petroleum Institute.
Nearly every manufacturing and
consumption record of the Pc
troleum industy was broken in 1889,
but early estimates indicate that the
industry's net earnings will be be-
low even the reduced profits of
1888. Consumer prices generally
slipped to near-record lows.
Several new catalytic, chemical,
and thermal refining processes, fur
ther assuring ore-than-adeq
supplies of super aviation fuel and
also advancing the development Of
host of synthetic basic industrial
chemicals, were announced in 1899.
These are only few among many
chronological advances made in all
branches of the industry during the
year.
Discovery of oil in commercial
quantities in Mississippi and Ne
braska in the last quarter brings to
% the number of United States oil
producing States and, with the new
fields and new producing strata
opened up in other States during the
year, adds substantial quantities Of
crude oil to the Nations proved re.
serves. These developments re-em-
phasize that United States consum-
ers need fear no exhaustion of Pc
troleum.
Incidence of European war had
little effect on the industry. Ex.
ports of motor fuel, for example,
declined in October, the month Of
latest available statistics. Industry
economists make no predictions for
1910, however, but point to the un-
usual nature of the war, the loss Of
the Central European countries as
customers. the substantial Asian and
South American sources of supply
now open to England and France,
and to the rationing of petroleum
products throughout Europe, as evi-
dence that the war may continue to
have little effect on United States
petroleum trade in 1910.
Last, but not least is the senti-
ment of the taxicab industry, also
a very important one. These state
ments are presented by the Research
Bureau of World Wide Advertising
Corp.
The gasoline operated taxicab as
major transportation factor In
large cities had it's final triumph
over the horse-drawn hacks exactly
a quarter-century ago in 1915, when
the first built-for- the purpose,
popular-pric cabs with taximeters
made their appearance as an organ
lied service in Chicago. Almost i'm
mediately they replaced electric
hacks and converted passenger autos
in New York which were operated
at prohibitive rates.
A rapidly changing panorama Of
city transportation facilities during
the following years, with the wild
cat jitney era, finally brought the
taxicab into a semi luxury door-to-
door service and lessening as a
factor competing in price with mass
transportation as exemplified in the
jitney type.
Taxicab service is now recognized
as a public utility in many States
and regulated as such. and in others
as semi-public utility with local
regulation and restriction. In near
ly all cities, both large and small,
the police are an important factor
in regulation and restriction,
For a number of years, since the
depression, there has been am over
supply OF labor, caffsihg "a large
turnover in driver employment and
caused many cab operators to make
tests to find out if, lowef<rates Of
fare would increase volume. Some
rates were..so low that the increased
volume of business was secured at
the expense Of the street railways
and buses and caused a boss not
only to the cab operators, but to the
other forms of transportation and
meagerly paid men.