Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-08-18 | Page 25 | Millions Dependent on Motor Industry

MILLIONS DEPENDENT!! ON MOTOR INDUSTRY I i H Employees and Families Would Populate City Size of Chicago. i VAST SUM IS INVESTED Active Capita! Is Greater Than That of All the , National Banks. While ft ts -well -understood, in a general j way that the automobile industry JS America ranks extremely high, who won!d suppose offhand that it gives employment . to $30,000 people ? Or that those em- ' ployed in the industry, together with thei? , dependents, would populate the city ot Chicago? Tet these are but two of the least impressive facts concerning tho giant industry that has in the past two decades become a vital factor, an inte . gral part, of the complicated fabric ot our national existence. For that reason, many of the facts arhl comparison below will prove as enlightening enlight-ening as they are startling. During the year 1917 the wages paid by the automobile automo-bile industry amounted to the enormous figure of $747,000,000, more than two and! one-fourth times gross revenue of tho United States postofrice department. One billion, two hundred ninety-seven million dollars of active capital are invested in the automobile business. This sum is greater by a quarter billion dollars than the combined capitalization of all national banks. The wholesale value of America's 1917 output of automobiles was $t17,470,-9SS, $t17,470,-9SS, or approximately twice the total receipts re-ceipts of twelve of the largest insurance companies. Forty-fivs Billion Miles. That sounds like the distance to some extremely remote planet, doesn't it? On an earth whose circumference is but 25,000 miles, .000, 000,000 is beyond conception- ' Nevertheless, that represents a very conservative con-servative estimate of America's annual automobile mileage. This is easily com- i puted. There are in regular use In the United States more than five million automobiles. au-tomobiles. Surely, t hree passengers to' , each car is a very fair average, and 3000 ,, ; miles per car each year is absurdly low. ; But multiply these figures: the result,; ' 45,000,000,000. In terms of passenger , miles this exceeds the railroads by ten : billions. At tho rate of 3 cents per mile, . the value of automobile transportation ., reaches the stupendous figure of $1,- i i 350,000,000 annually. ;j; How Farmer Profits. "v ' j As a class the farmer has derived by fai ! the greater benefit through the advent of; j the autoinobite, and it is significant that. ' the prosperity experienced by our agri-; j culturists during the past twenty years j has been in direct proportion to the de- ... velopmcnt of the automobile. i :j, It has ben shown statistically that ! about 2.0fK),000 automobiles are in the ev-; j eryday use of farmers. Suppose each car ;! is driven the short distance of ten miles j: dailv and carries but one passenger. Sub-i stitufe horses and the loss In production! would exceed $20,000,000. The disap-i , pearance of the automobile would make It, necessary t" incrense the horse popula-. tion by ab(nit 25,000,000. The land re-l quired" for feeding these horses would! raise enough wheat In a single year to, pay the national debt, including the Lib- , erty bond Issues to date. Helping Win War. . ' Aside from what the automobile ha already done to conserve time, labor and transportation aside from the enormous resources and manufacturing facilities the Industry has placed at tho disposal of the nation, the revenue turned over to the government in the few months sine the war tax on passenger automobiles was In-j augurated amounts to approximately $19,000,000.