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THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: JANUARY 21, 1917.
FUTURE OF AUTO
INDUSTRY BRIGHT
One-Half of Machines in Use!
Today Aie Being Used for j
Business Purposes. j
OVERPRODUCTION FAR OFF i
So much has been written relative
to the development of the motor car
industry and so many prophesies have
been ventured without proper consid
eration of vital and controlling fac
tors, that a clear and simple analysis
of the subject may serve to dissipate
much of the unfounded conjecture.
The automobile market . is divided
into two brbad fields. First the rural
class, which includes all persons en
gaged in farming and others in vari
ous businesses who lite in towns of ,
;ess than 500 population. 'Second, the
r.-i an class, which comprises all peo-
" in any but farming pursuits, who
" e in towns of 500 or more popula
tion. In the ' rural or farming market
there are 6.500,000 families. One mil
lion of these now own motor cars
and one and one-half millions are
poor, illiterate or negroes, who for
the purpose of this study may be ex
cluded from the prospective bnving
class. There remains, t!nH, -4.000.000
farm families who arc possible auto
mobile buyers. !
Home Owners.
In the urban class, covered by
11.000 towns and cities of more than
500 population, there are about 5.000.
000 home owners, of wiiich number
only 2.000,000 now own cars. Accord
ingly, there remain 3.p0O,iOO prospec
tive buyers in this class, or a total
actual unsold market, in bo'.h rural
and urban classes, of 7,000,000 possible
automobile buyers. ...
The accepted ,average life of an
automobile is about five years in the
hands of the original owner, and as
the mail who once owns a car will
not thereafter be without one. we
must include the re-order market
which in the calendar year of 1917
will be about 600,000. this being 20
per cent of the 3,000,000 now in use.
For the year 1917, therefore, the
automobile business will face a mar
ket of about 7,600.000 possible buy
ers. Not more than 1,600,000 cars will
be built in the coming year, leaving
a possible excess market of 6,000,000
buyers at the beginning of 1918.
These figures are decidedly con
servative because they take no con
sideration of (I) any export outlet,
(2) the people who have or will have
two or more machines, (J) increased
population, (4) increased prosperity,
(5) a million or more town and city
families who do not own the homes
in which they live, but are well able
to buy and maintain a motor car, (6)'
the business houses, retail and whole
sale merchants who use thousands of
roadsters for salesmen .and many
thousands more of delivery , cars
(regular automobile chassis with com
mctciar body), (7) taxicabs and other
tars fof public hire.
' i An Important Fact.
An important and noteworthy fact
is vouched for by the editorial depart
ment of Automobile Topics, a well
known trade authority, which has
been making a careful analysis of the
comparative nature of automobile
service. . They state that of the 3,000,
000 motor cars Of all kinds in service
in the United States today, they can
conservatively say from their investi
gation that over One-half of the mile
age -of the 3,000,000 cars is used for
business purposes. - Literally this
means that of the 3,000,000 automo
biles running in this country today
one-half, or 1,500.000, are used for bus
iness purposes. This leaves only 1,500,
000 in use for pleasure or social
transportation purposes.
lit considering the 1,500,000 auto
mobiles in use today, which may
legitimately be classed as "pleasure
cars," an important fact should be
borne in mind, namely: the so-called
pleasure car of today has a distinct
economic use, it being only reasonable
to deduce that the time and money
spent in motoring for pleasure or so
cial intercourse almost invariably
takes the place of some other form of
expenditure of less actual economic
value.
If production increases at, the aver
age rate maintained for the last five
years which is unlikely, due to great
er manufacturing problems and to in
ability of the selling and distributive
branches to keep pace with greatly
augmented manufacturing volume
the point of saturation will not be
reached for five, six or even seven
years. And some of the leaders in
the industry predict that it will be a
matter of ten or twelve years. .
Storage Battery or Auto '
- Must Not Be Overworked
"Don't overwork your storage bat
tery," is a maxim that could be- adopt
ed b,y 'a large number of those who
drive electrically equipped cars. At
least that is the opinion of Elmer
Kosengren, manager of the Nebraska
Storage Battery company, who con
ducts one of the battery service sta
tions of the Willard Storage Battery
company. -, . '
"It very often happens," said he
TRA0I MAftK
Side-stepping Trouble
The surest wajf of;
1 ' We know how.
Nebraska Storage
Battery Co.
2203 Farnam St., Omaha. Phone Douglas S102.
W art glad to teit your battery at any tim
MEMBERS OF WESTERN MOTOR CAR COMPANY
These three men are all well known in local automobile cir
cles, and they will handle the Chalmers car, one of the best
known cars on the market.
(I ('" T )
r -ki -
I
E.V. Abbott
t ' f; ' J
S I
mat a man nas a generator mm uai-
tery .on his car which are intended Uv I
the manufacturer to do work under)
certain conditions. Now the owner
changes those conditions either bw-j
adding to the electrical equipment ot
his car or by not driving enough to
recharge the battery in the daytime
when nis litrhts are turned off. You
can see, of course, if you let your car
stand at night or make many stops
while. you are burning the lamps all
the time, it may happen that the gen
erator won't be able to take care of
the lamps and' at the same time keep
the batteries fully charged, so that a
certain amount of driving in the day
is necessary to make up. . ,
Savage Tire Co. Opens v
Up a Branch in Omaha
The Savage Tire company of-45an
Diego, Cal., has recently opened a
branch in Omaha, which will be
known as the Omaha Savage Sales
company, the location being 1612 Chi
cago street. The new concern will he
operated under the direction of E. E.
Wilson, who conies here from Des
Moines, at which point lie built up a
very successful Savage business.
The Savage tire is a product of
California, and, although new to Oma
ha, is quite a favorite in other local
ities where it has been introduced.
Prof. Nicholl Will Teach
At University of Indiana
Prof. William E. Nicholl, formerly
head of the department of education
and acting president of Bellevue col
lege, who has been pursuing gradu
uatc work at Columbia university,
has accepted a position in the depart
ment of education at the University
of Indiana at Bloomington, Ind. lie
will take up his new duties February
1 at the beginning of the second
semester.
Prof. Nicholl was graduated from
Bellevue in the class of 1904. After
three years' graduate work at Prince
ton university and a year at the Uni
versity of Edinburgh, he accepted a
position on the Bellevue faculty. He
was appointed acting president of
Bellevue upon the resignation of
President Stephen W. Stookey, in
February, 1914, . which position he
held until last June, when he was
granted a year's leave of absence to
do advanced work in education at
Columbia.
Lar
IIUIITUM.
side-stepping battery ;
troubles is to let us
help you look after your
battery.
O r-f.l
0
v s
sssa HtrN photo assssssssssi
Charles RHAimAtrJn .
Stage Workers to Give
Benefit Dance Tuesday
The annual dance of the Interna
tional Lodge of the Theatrical Stage
employes will be given at Washing
ton hall, Tuesday evening, the dame
to he a benefit to replenish the sick
and death fund. The stage hands say
that they have always stood ready to
help all charitable organizations and
THE
now put on a benefit of their own.
Specialties will be presented by the
leading theatrical folks from the var
ious theaters, who happen to be in
Omaha this week. Kaggy Rubin's
orchestra will furnish the music for
I New Tire Firm Will
! Locate On Auto Row
Arrangements were concluded Fri
day which will add to the ever-growing
Omaha automobile row. Tle lat
est arrival is the Swinehart tire,
which is to be handled by the Wheel
er Tire company, which will locate
at 2064 Famain street.
1 The "Swinehart' is an Akron (Q.)
: product reputed to be of very good
quality. The line consists of pneu
matic and solid tires.
According to Arthur E. Wheeler,
who has taken on the line, the Swine
hart people are, about April 1, com
ing out with a ' cord" tire which gives
promise of being a great favorite.
Wheeler is quite well known to
the motor trade of Omaha and vicin
ity, having been connected with Guy
L. Smith and the Co well Supply.
Wheeler came here from Syracuse, N.
V., four years ago after having a
schooling of eight years in the Frank
lin factory.
The proposed location will be re
modeled to include a complete serv
ice station and a service car will he
maintained.
The new firm will act as distribut
ing agents and will control the state
of Nebraska and the western half of
Iowa.
Empress Celebrates Its
Fourth Year in Business
The Empress theater this week be
gins ' its fourth year of continuous
vaudeville and photoplay entertain
ments. The management reports that
the last year has been the best, fi
nancially, since the play house opened.
During the entire time the Empress
has been open not a single perform
ance has ibeen missed week day or
Sunday, winter or summer. Only
Everywhere Ford cars are building small business into
"Bigger Business." Whatever your transportation cost
may be the Ford will lessen it-with a greater measure
of usefulness. It multiplies salesmen wherever they
travel, and costs about two cents a mile to operate and
maintain. With more than 1,750,000 Fords' in active
daily service you don't experiment with Ford value.
Runabout . . $345
Touring Car, $360
Couplet . . . .$505
Be sure your order is registered for immediate delivery
Authorized Sales and Service Stations:
Temporary Location
CO AD-MARSH MOTOR CO., 20th and Harney
HOLMES-ADKIS CO., 4917 South 24th St.
McCAFFREY MOTOR CO.. 10th and Howard
NICHOLS-RICE MOTOR CO., 4303 Florence Blvd.
SAMPLE-HART MOTOR CO., 2018 Harney St.
UNIVERSAL MOTOR CO., 2562 Leavenworth St.
once in the entire time has the thea-1
I ter been closed and that was in the
; second year, when for two weeks,
while the theater was being deco-1
; rated, the Empress sign, house crew :
; and the acts were moved up to the
American, now the strand, and the
; show continued there. During the i
lour years the policy of the Empress
i has not changed, the management
finding it popular to present both
vaudeville and photoplays on the
1 same bill.
Company Incorporates to
Manufacture Some Autos
The Bowen Transit company, which
will manufacture gasoline and electric
driven freight and passenger cars, un
der patents acquired from A. D.
Bowen, has filed articles of incorpora
tion with the county clerk. The capi
tal is $50,000. Charles A. Bennett and
Mr. Bowen are the incorporators.
Persistent Advertising Is the
Road to Success.
TIRE PRICES ADVANCING,
BUT WE KEEP THE COST DOWN.
Bring utt yoar old tire. Special 10 pr
cent reduction for repairing same dur
ing the alack winter monthg.
BLOW-OUTS repaired from $2.75 to
14.00, depending on ante.
TUBES repaired Puncturea, 26c; Blow-
outa, 60c.
ZWIEBEL BROS..
25 IS Farnam St. Phone Doug. 4S7S.
Town Car
Sedan , . .
All f . o. b.
UNIVERSAL CAR
JFigAt Cylinder
i rjA Em tr--i ei v w
The World's Leading Popular
Priced 8-Cylinder Motor Car
PROVEN BY TESTS
Wheelbale, 120 inchi Equipment, Complete Horsepower,
60 Bore, 3 inches Stroke, 5 inches Springs (rear) King
Cantilever Unit power plant.
7-Passenger Touring Car, $1585
3- Passenger Roadster, $1585
4- Passenger Foursome, $1585
7-Passenger Sedan, $2150
Wire Wheels, $100 Extra.
(All price, f. o. b. Detroit)
Wa Cannot Guarantee That Theie Pricea Will Not Change.
NOYES-KILLY MOTOR CO.,
2066-68 Farnam St.
Bee Want Ads Are
. . $595
. ,$645
Detroit.
Permanent Location
35th Ave. and Farnam
4917 South 24th St.
10th and Howard
20th and Ames Aye.
18th and Burt Sts.
2562 Leavenworth St.
Omaha Distributors.
Buslnees Boosters
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