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Show A FUTURE FOR THE JEEP? j One forgets that it was only a very few years ago that; "jeep" was the name of a mythical comic creature, invented ' by E. C. Sugar, the cartoonist who originated. Popeye the Sailorman. The "jeep" was a winsome little beast who seemed seem-ed to be neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring no one knew what he was, exactly. Today we know what a jeep is and virtually everybody, from six-year-old boys to Guadalcanal heroes, knows what a jeep can do. The effort in congress to amend the surplus property bill so as to enable returning servicemen to buy the tough little battle-buggies at a low price after the war brings up the question, What is the future of the jeep? Unquestionably, it has a place ready and waiting for it on the ranch and farm. But when people only want to get about ordinary macadam highways again, what then? Will it become the college boys' darling and take over the honored position of the ancient Model T? Or wOl suburban families use it instead of the increasingly popular beach-wagon for marketing, getting the children to school, etc.? Undoubtedly, the jeep has captured the imagination of youth in advance. The jive set may make it a postwar craze. But we doubt if any great number of people will long submit to the pounding handed out by the jeep. Even spring seats will hardly fit it for anything but short trips and the most rugged owners. Americans have never taken to the small car; they have always demanded comfort. Our guess would be that before the jeep wins a lasting place 'in civilian life it will have to be so reformed and dressed, up that a G. I. won't relognize it. Christian Science Monitor. |
