Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-03-09 | Page 33 | Motor Industry doing its Part

MOTOR INDUSTRY1 DOING ITS PART Reconstruction Period oi Nation Immeasurably Relieved Re-lieved by Car Makers. Reconstruction is a big -word. It means much. It covers the rehabilitation rehabilita-tion of the war-stricken territory in Europe; the demobilization of American soldiers and their return to civil pursuits; pur-suits; the transition of this country's industry in-dustry froni war work to peace work; the upbuilding of both domestic and foreign commerce, which has been seri- ously interrupted by the war; and v many other problems vitally affecting V the economic welfare of the masses in V the good old U. S. A. .' In all of this work, no matter where (,' or what it may be, the motor car and A. the wonderful industrial organization to 'J; which it awes its rapid development, i will play an important part. When the ,.. United States entered the world war j. the automobile industry was the third Si largest in tho commerce, of the country. SjWith the coming of war this huge or-Sjjganization or-Sjjganization of capital, labor and brains tj-ivas placed at the disposal of tho gov-giScrnmcnt. gov-giScrnmcnt. How well it served the companion com-panion cause is well known to all. By gfconverting its immense plants from the Pproiluctiou of passenger motor cars over '-to war work, and by furnishing thousands thou-sands upon thousands of skilled mechanics me-chanics for the important work of the motor transport not to mention the -immense wealth of the business which was placed cheerfully at the disposal of the government this third largest in-" in-" dustry served in tlio war for world democracy de-mocracy as only a live, successful business busi-ness could serve. Much is heard right now of prices and price reduction. This is a problem which time alone will solve. But from the present outlook the present scale of i prices must be maintained for a long time to come. The basis of all prices the world over is gauged by the products prod-ucts of the soil. Just so long as high prices fer foodstuffs are kept up by the demand, high prices will be the rule rather than the exception. America must feed practically all of starving Europe, so it looks as though there would be a good healthy demand for the crops from American farmers for a long time to come. ' The reflection of this is found in the motor car business. The prices at which automobiles are selling at present must be maintained. There can be no appreciable reduction on the part of reliable manufactures, because any substantial reduction would mean a loss. Many rumors are floating around concerning the reduction in motor mo-tor car prices. Any reliable manufacturer manufac-turer will tell you that thero is not any likelihood of a reduction from present prices for a long time to come. This is due not only to the extremely high cost of labor, but also to tho demand for materials causing its cost to remain high, and tho necessarily limited production pro-duction of cars. Kight here it might be well to say that the output of motor cars, restricted as it will be by the problems arisijig out of the work of reconstruction, re-construction, will not come anywhere near meeting tho demand. So if you are figuring on a new car this spring you had better get your order in early. One thing we will find during the months ahead of us, is that tho manufactured manu-factured car is going to supplant the assembled ear in popularity. The buyer in these times upon which we are entering, en-tering, is going to favor the. motor car which is biult throughout, from motor to rear axle, in the one plant. Thus are the problems of service from the owner's standpoint reduced to a minimum, mini-mum, as he only has the one company to deal with. some hinds of materials were obtain- i able, others were not and, while those that are unobtainable . may constitute only 1 per cent of tho automobile, nevertheless we . have to have 100 per cent parts before we can turn out a car. Production in Maze. "That, by the way, is a phase of the problom that the average person does not seem to understand. 1 might even accuse some supposedly intelligent writers of the same shortcoming. We constantly hear it said that 'steel will now be available.' as if that were the only thing necessary. ''These writers never even think of the fraction of an ounce of platinum that is necessary to complete an automobile, auto-mobile, not to mention the fact that, not merely steel, but certain special alloys of steel are necenry if v.c would maintain the quulity on which our reputation in the past has been based. 'Before we can start on quantity production nt all, it is necessary for the steel mills to completely rehabilitate rehabili-tate many departmeuto and in a good many cases your L'nelo farn has not yet canceled the orders he gave the steel mills. "Rubber, aluminum, copper, cotton and many other necessary ingredients constitute serious problems for us. with the result that, much as we would like to do so, we cannot hope to supply more than a fraction of the dem-nd "f the coming year at any price. All talli of reductions, therefore, is futile save in a few isolated cases, such as whre a manufacturer had either set a fictitious fic-titious value on his product or where, for some other Tcason, the price in any event would have had to come down. "However, as I said before, it is a pood thing that Enme buyers found a reason for withholding their orders, eise the automobile business would be swamped with orders we could not fill, and, while that may sound Tike a pleasant pleas-ant condition, I can assure you, from past experience, that it is anything but an enviable one to occupy."