The Crittenden Automotive Library

DRESS AND THE MOTOR CAR.

Publication: The New York Times
Date: 31 October 1909

English tailors complain that the motor car has made men careless in their dress. We had fancied that motoring had greatly increased the revenues of the tailors, as the pastime demands special clothes. But it seems that the influence of motoring has inclined men toward comfort in dress rather than style. Therefore the tailoring trade is depressed. This is a new and grave charge against the automobile. Already it had been accused of injuring the theatrical business, decreasing the sales of books, and depriving Summer hotels of their profits.

Wherefore, the motor car must be a destructive engine in many ways. We are bound to accept expert testimony until equally good testimony is offered to disprove it. If it could be proved that the theatrical business in New York and London is not quite so profitable as it used to be because of overcompetition and an excess of poor plays; if some one could show that many books are not bought because too many are published and they are not all readable; if we could show that the Summer resort business had suffered because of the extravagant prices charged, we might be in a position partly to exonerate the motor car.

But it is surely a powerful innovator. It is bound to conduct men's minds, as it conducts their bodies, in new directions. It has its faults, but its merits exceed them. It has come to be developed, to multiply, and to stay. Trade and society must adapt themselves to the changed conditions it creates.