AUTOMOBILE GROWTH.

The New York Times
August 31, 1916

There have been many attempts to smuggle rubber from this country to Germany. Not long ago British Inspectors found chunks of rubber in every one of 250 sacks of coffee which a Norwegian ship had carried across the ocean from New York. Every chunk was dotted over with coffee beans which the smugglers had attached to the rubber in order that examiners might be misled. Why must Germany have rubber? It is needed for the tires of automobile trucks used in war, and Germany's synthetic or artificial rubber is not a satisfactory substitute.

We need and use here great quantities of rubber. Our imports last year were $159,000,000 worth, and in the last three years they have amounted to $332,000,000. It goes into motor vehicles, many of which we have sold to the Allies, who paid us $97,000,000 for them last year.

This leads up to some consideration of the remarkable growth of our automobile industry, and the recent great increase of the number of cars in use in the United States. Many Americans do not realize how extraordinary and important this growth and this increase are. They are like some New Yorkers who do not know that the skyline of their city, as seen from the harbor, is one of the wonders of the world. Registration records show that almost 3,000,000 automobiles (2,932,455) are now in use here, and that the fees paid into State treasuries in the first half of the present year were $14,261,000. But the rate of growth shows that there may be 6,000,000 cars going about in this country three or four years hence, with a proportionate increase of fee receipts.

There are trustworthy and exact reports about this growth. The number of cars produced at the ninety-nine factories in the first half of this year was 754,902, having a retail price value of $481,000,000. Probably the number made in the entire year will not be less than 1,500,000. But only 892,000 were manufactured in 1915, and about 500,000 in the preceding year. Here are increases of more than 75 per cent. in the first of these years, and, probably, 68 per cent. in the second. While exports have been exceptionally large, in the last twelve months they were less than one-fifteenth of our output. Horses might look at the figures with dismay.

In them there is much suggestive material for essayist and economist. Perhaps what the automobile does for farm life comes first, with the use of trucks in trade second. In Iowa there may be seen a motor vehicle for every thirteen inhabitants; in Nebraska one for every sixteen. While the subject has not been ignored, much remains to be said about the results of inquiries as to the effect socially, industrially, and otherwise of automobile output growth.