Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-05-25 | Page 43 | Renaissance of Auto Game

OF AUTO GAME War Brings to World Higher High-er Ideals in Motor Car Industry. Doom of Selfish 'Dealer Is , Predicted by Prominent 1 Detroit Man Tie war has developed new and higher high-er ideals of houor and justioe and service serv-ice in the automobile industry. The prosperity of peace, apparently looming within easy reach, will prove a mere phantom to those who fail to take into ; consideration this important moral i phase of their business. George C. Hubbs of Detroit, who has been prominently identified for a number or years with big manufacturing manufactur-ing interests, fathers the foregoing idea of the "automobilo renaissance. He expounded it in a forcible and interesting interest-ing address to a recent gathering of the Ohio Auto Trade association in Akron. "It is my candid opinion that four years of war conditions have resulted in putting the motor car business in a healthier state than it has been at any time in its history," said Mr. Hubbs. "These years of trial have been highly high-ly beneficial in proviug what was sound and what unsound in both principle prin-ciple and practice. That which was not basically right has been subjected to needed alteration. The predominating predominat-ing strength of the business has been finely emphasized. "The industry as a whole has had an opportunity to express itself iu new and splendid terms; and as a result of thcso testiugs there has evolved a character char-acter to the business which is certain to have an important bearing upon future fu-ture manufacturing and sales methods. "Just as the war has uplifted our individual in-dividual ideals of honor and justice and service, so all organized bodies discover that the self-acting of yesterday will not meet the higher standards which have universally been set up by the close associations and mutual dependencies dependen-cies of war times. "J these- experiences have made us more certain that only that, which is fundamentally right will stand a test, and that Tightness is quite as much an industry concern as it is an individual or company concern, then the future of the motor car business has been made that much more secure and promising. Future Bright. "The immediate future cnuld hardly be more encouraging. Anyone who can think straight enough to add two and two can prophesy safely that the coming com-ing year 13 going to be one of the best years the motor car has had. " Wages and crop prices have never been as high in this or any other country coun-try as they have been in the United fcitatcs during the past two or three years. In spite of the high cost, of living, liv-ing, tens of thousands of pen pin to whom the purchase of a car was formerly for-merly more of a wish than a hope are now in a position to buy practically any car they choose. Incidentally, I am proud of the fact that there are proportionately fewer pooplc in this country than in any other country on earth who have 9U cents of the first dollar they ever earned. Americans are easy spenders and this national tendency is responsible for the staggering annual business turnover which makes the country the envy of the commercial world. "But we must not make the mistake of believing that the future is without its problems or its big responsibilities merely because the prosperity stage is att ractively sot. "Nowhere in the motor car business, so far us 1 know, can a man attain oven a fair measu ro of huctsh wit h out t he most painstaking, intelligent aggressive efforts. Kverv year the j nd 11 si ry is getting morn into the control of thiH t vpo of business men and u ay from those whose chief interest in the business busi-ness is for the purpose of exploiting it. Attain Higher Ideals. Thanks to t hat large major i ty of dealers and man uf antu rrs who have given charact t and prcst ign to the business, tlmre is something bigger, and finer, and more substantial to thr motor car industry than he mere selling of cars. "The public rstinwHo of motor far palesmen as Mint nir, blue sky artista' is, happily, fast, passing a way -if , indeed, in-deed, it has not cut i rely passed a way. In its stead t Iwrn has developed a othT estimate which regards the methods meth-ods employed in the motor nr business, the rlass of sa h'snif'n ;i1 1 ached to it, and ils yftirral altitude toward the buyer buy-er as being of a distinctly efficieut and creditable character. "And I want to say to you, gentlemen, gentle-men, that the influences that have brought about these inner changes in. the business have been an expression of the ideals that are in the minds of the manufacturers and dealers who have wrought this transformation, and these ideals are precisely the forces that will be the determining factors for tho future. fu-ture. "For. after all, futures are shaped by men and not by machines nor by tho market for them. Nothing can be more certain than that eaeh dealer's business, regardless of his annual turnover or his physical equipment, will chiefly reflect his personal attitude toward honest dealing and his willingness to co-operate for the improvement of the industry indus-try as a whole. ' '