Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 44, Number 119, 29 March 1919 — Page 19

T RICHMOND PAT-T.AHDITTM: Automobile Section A VCil. XT,IV NO 119 Palladium an Sun-Telegram RICHMOND, IND., SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 29, 1919 SINGLE COPY 3 CENTS

Section Two

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OW the war is over; peace and victory once more spread their quieting wings over the land. The drill press is no longer used in shrapnel-making, and like equipment once more finds itself fash

ioning out pleasure cars for all mankind. That the automobile may come back from its service at the front, and have its service star replaced by a silver bar, is the purpose of this editon. Everyone has suffered the distress brought on by the war, with its many disquieting angles. Worry had almost become chronic. Everyone needs amusements; everyone outdoor recreation, and the automobile comes in the springtime, ready to serve in this double capacity. It was patriotic in those war days to forego the pleasures of motoring; it was proper for the manufacturer to change his great plant into a war-producing agency, and now the government says it is equally patriotic to buy a new car, not alone for the pleasure, happiness and health it brings to the owner, but also because it starts the country's greatest industry and gives employment to thousands of skilled mechanics, both soldiers and civilians. The war has developed new and higher ideals of honor and justice and service in the automobile industry. The posperity of peace, apparently looming within easy reach, will prove a mere phantom to those manufacturers who fail to take into consideration this important moal phase of their business. The four years of war have resulted in putting the motor car business in a healthier state than it has been at any time in Its history. These years of trial have been highly beneficial in proving what was sound and what unsound in both principle and practice. That which was not basically right, has been subjected to needed alteration. The predominating strength of the business has been finely emphasized. The industry as a whole has had an opportunity to express itself in new and splendid terms; and as a result of these testings there has evolved a character to the business which is certain to have an important bearing upon future manufacturing and sales methods. Just as the war has uplifted our individual ideals of honor and justice and service, so all organized bodies discover that the self-acting of yesterday will not meet the higher standards which were universally set up by close associations and mutual dependencies of war times. If these experiences have made, us more certain that only that which is fundamentally right will stand a test, and that rightness is quite as much an industry concern as it is an individual concern, then the future of the motor car business has been made that much more secure and promising. . . . . . , The immediate future could hardly be more encouraging. Anyone who can think straight enough to add two and two can prophesy safely that the coming year is going to be one of the best years the motor car has had. That 1919 would be the most prosperous year in the history of the automobile industry has been apparent for some time. It was not until the New Yok, Chicago, Indianapolis and other big automobile shows passed into history, however, that the full extent of this unprecedented era of posperity was realized. For years the New York show especially has been the barometer by which trade conditions for the coming year were forecast. Held in the nation's greatest buying center, its result this year was more eagerly waited than ever before. In a bygone age when questions regarding the future were put to the oracle of Delphi, the answers were always susceptible of two meanings. The answer of the New York show, however, was unequivocable. As in Chicago, the attendance and actual sales in New York mirrored an undreamed of era of general prosperity. One reason for this phenominal demand is in the relatively small production of the last two years. According to government figures there is a shortage at the present time of 700,000 cars in the United States. To make up this shortage would require the production of 3,000,000 cars this year. But because of the slowness of the return to normal production it is estimated that scarcely half of this number can be built. Thus, while there is more money in ciculation and wages are higher than ever before in history, the demand for good automobiles has far outstripped poduction. Even good used cars are disappearing at an unprecedented speed. Automobilists who had to be content with their old cars during the past year are now flocking into the market with hundreds of thousands of those who never before have been able to afford even a "flivver". The result will be an actual automobile famine this spring.