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Show PACKARD CIS ARE 0 DVERSEAFAV0R1TES; Western Division Sales Manager Tells of Obser- Lnt vations in France. Is j Declares French Cars Are Tar Behind American in Late Improvements. idea t r;r inip "Thero were upwards of 8000 Pack- 'ri ards in France, in uao by the allied Uo armies at tho timo tho armistice was signed," says Charles E. Morton, sales '-n manager oi' tho western division of the United States for tho Packard Motor et I company. Mr. Morton arrived in the P city a week ago and spent several days fu with the Sims company, exclusive local !,rr'j distributors for Packard. He was acini ac-ini companicd by It. K. Chamberlain, man-v.r, man-v.r, ugcr of the freight transportation de-ir de-ir partment for Packard in the western on division. i'.p Mr. Morton is qualified to speak with " certainty concerning conditions of the f i auto business in Europe last year, as J ho was in Franco at tho timo the arm-idtiee arm-idtiee was signed, having served for a "'l considerable period as motor technical 'l advisor in tho A. E. P., a government ip appointment that came to hirn by rea- n boa of his expert knowledge of motor 3 ' bcience. 1 v J; All Sizes Used. .1; "The 8000 Packards that I mon-rn mon-rn tioned," said Mr. Morton, "ranged ai : from the small high speed cars used by '," the officers to the great five and six-,J! six-,J! ton trucks. Of course thoro were many 'e, othor makes of cars in use by tho gov-ic gov-ic ernment during its period of action overseas, but it is absolutely tnio that ( the Packards greatly predominated over any other make. This was due, not alone to the excellence of tho Packard Pack-ard car, but also to tho fact that the Packard company was 100 per cent h plus in war work almost from the time 11 America entered into the conflict. ri Packard was one of the very first com-, com-, panics to turn its plant over in entirety ,a' to tho government for war work pur-1 pur-1 poses. Naturally it meant some sacrifices sacri-fices from a monetary standpoint, but it was a patriotic duty, gladly done for 1 the sake of doing our part in a nob that had to be done, the sooner the better." Kegarding growth in recent years of the Packard business, Mr. Morton said that in threo years the output of the truck department had increased 50 per j cent and the output of the carriage de-; de-; partment at least 30 per cent. "There is every indication that our growth will 1 1 be even greater than this ratio in 1920 i and 1921," ho said, "and we are mak-i mak-i ing extensive plans to keep pace with the demands made on us." Now Building Airplanes. , In addition to its great production , of carriages and trucks the Packard ! company is now building the Packard- j LePere airplane, of the .type that was ; used by Captain O. P. Smith in his rec- j i ord-broaking flight from San Francisco j to San Diego only a short time ago. Mr. j Morton said that the company had only ; las'; week, received an order for one of ; tho most 'expensive planes from a Sun Fraicisco millionaire, that ho looked 1 for a demand of from twelve to four- j teen airplanes a year from California j alone, and, in another year, a demand : of at least 1000 per year in the United j States. "However,' he said, "the air- j plane business is not yet stabilized, and I we are devoting our attention primarily ' to our trucks and carriages." As to business conditions' in the entire en-tire western part of the United States, Mr. Morton said that almost without j exception they "were stablo and excellent." excel-lent." Here and thero, he said, one could find a few spots where all was ! 1 rot satisfactory, but in general the Packard business was showing a rapid and steady progress, this being especially espe-cially the case in Salt Lake, where the Sims company, under tho management of Alex S. Sims, is Packard's exclusive distributor for Utah, Idaho and Nevada. Ne-vada. French Cars Behind. Regarding the relative merits of the I merican and French cars and trucks, j Mr. Morton said that the American j makers were so far ahead of the French manufacturers that when the products ! were placed side by side tho contrast I was almost painful. Ho said that the j very latest French cars he saw on the ' market last year had the old-style ace- i tyleno lights and were also without a ' , self-starter. "The demand for the American-made auto in Prance is bound to increase steadily," declared the expert. ex-pert. "Even at the present timo a' JYenchman who manufactures tho most popular medium-priced car in France, has secured the Packard agency in Paris and will push Packard cars us I well as those of his own make." |