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Show TIE MOTOR CAR A NECESSITY A potent Factor in the Transaction Trans-action of Business Quite Indispensible at This Time. By JOHN N. WltLYS. Do you know that right now there aro 5,000,000 motor vehicles in use, or one to every twenty persons in tho United States? In these cars, twenty-five million people, one-fourth of tho population, could bo transported 100 miles or more in a single day. Only the first filling of gasoline would be needed for the purpose. Before the war produced unheard-of conditions, it is not astonishing that people had paid little attention to these matters and had not analyzed the usefulness of the automobile. The manufacturers themselves believed their splendid sales organizations to have been responsible for their marked sales Increases, when, as a matter of fact, the motor car had come to fill a demand which had existed for centuries. centur-ies. But now we have stopped to analyze the food wo eat, tho clothes we wear and the timo wo can "VQ- 1 How, then, does the automobile fit into this big plan? Who uses it? There was only ono way to find out definitely, definite-ly, and that was to ask the people who owned and operated cars. This was accomplished by getting an expression from every man who purchased an Ov-orlaud Ov-orlaud car in 1017, showing the occupation occupa-tion in which he was engaged. This Information has been tabulated in classifications by trade to conform with the census figures. The result of this investigation, when charted, showed some interesting interest-ing figures. The first one is that this survey Indicates In-dicates that over SO per cent of automobile auto-mobile uso is for business purposes. The next great fact, gained at a glance, was that the men whose business busi-ness depended upon covering a great deal of ground in a short space of time were its largest purchases. While these figures, apply only to tho 1917 productipn of Overland cars, we feel that wo may safely assume that approximately tho same divisions by trade are applicable to ' automobilo ownership in general. Wo have, therefore, there-fore, assumed this to be the case in our conclusions. Shall we expect to find automobltes in the city alone? ra Look at the first occupational divi- 18 sion of the chart. The great Amori- ttfi can farmer, representing 33.2 per cent , of the population of the country, Kj bought 53.1 per cent of the automobiles 0 ; last year. Tho farmer is buying auto- mobiles because they have done more to lighten labor and change his entire plane of living and doing business j than any other invention since the jjj harvesting machine. If Mileage Compared. a The estimated possible annual pas- senger mile service of motor cars is about 60.000.000,000 as compared with H 35,000,000,000 passenger miles attrib- uted to our railroads. These multi- . pliers of energy are traveling 40,000,- j 000 miles a day, the equivalent of 1600 1J times around tho world. Many a na- H tion has been conquered, not for lack j I of bravery or men, but for the lack of I 1 transportation. Wo are farther from I our bases of supply than any warring jj nation. K This nation must devote every ounce j 3a of energy to produce more food, more j munitions, .but with the enormous in- j creases must come more trnnsporta- (Continued on Next Page) 1 tion; more done tn less time. We can-j can-j not go back to the days of the army I mule and the "one hoss shay.'' Speed, speed and more speed is the cry. And j America answers with her 5,000,000 au-I au-I tomoblles and the greatest transportation transpor-tation tool, the greatest aid ao person-I person-I al effiicency in the "world. ' The total horsepower used to turn J the wheels of America's Industrial i I plants is only 11,000.000. Balance this against the 100,000,000 horsepower of time-saving energy represented by the passenger cars of this country alon. For the busy man, the automobile practically makes the whole conimu nity his office building where he may go from one business engagement or meeting tp another in his motor car almost as easily as he steps across the hall. . Under the heading, "Transportation," "Transporta-tion," are Included all of the manage-ers, manage-ers, superintendents, foremen and employes em-ployes of the many public service corporations cor-porations of the country. Here we find tho railroads, telephone and tele graph companies and many like occu pations. Thoy represent 6.9 percent of the population and own but 3 per cent of the automobiles. The reason for this small percentage or car owners is at once apparont as Xho bulk of the business of those men is over various carriers of the country, and hero the automobile is not so much an essential to the conduct or their duties. You need only to refer to any gov ernment report covering the Increase of land values to see that the total amounts to million of dollars on both farm and suburban properly |