Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 28, 1909, Page 17

THE OMAHA SUNDAY il I 1 it g Along Auto Row Work on Garages is Progressing Rapidly—Preparations for the Show Are to Be Made Barly The Auto Sales company, at 1824 Farnam Stieet, Is one of the new a on Auto Fow. B. H. Goodman Is manager. He | an enterprising young business man and | an automobile enthusiast, He will handle the Galth. This is one of the higher priced ears and comes in the tourabout four passenger and sever nger model with 40 and 4-horse power motor, and sells for $3,500. | Work on the garages is progressing rapidiy despite the bad weather. The Max well people, sald Manager Doty, will not be able to get in their new home as early as expected, but they will be comfortably quartered there before February. Aulabaugh, the furrler, has equipped him- self to provide everything necessary for automobiles. His stock embodies caps, robes, coats and many fine things for those who are able to have the luxuries. Wallgce. Automobile company will re celve a seventy horsepower Stearns this week. €. R. Shaffer, representing the Prest-O- Lite company, sald yesterday that it was not a Prest-O-Lite tank that exploded at the police station when the automobile was | burned. He sald that the Prest-O-Lite which was attached to the car went through the fire without being affected at all, It was another manufacture of tank | which exploded, he #aid, and which was not near the car. | H. C. Barber, traveling salesman for the | Columbus Electric, spent Saturday in Omaha. He sald that the demand for elec- | trics i Improving evety day. “For ladies,” Jhe sald, "It Is the only car.” | Edholm & Peters have recently nrr:ured\ the agency for the Chase motor wagon and will begin pushing it vigorously at once. | This car Is popular In other sections of | the country. | Bome years ago, when it was apparent that electric vehicles would have a wide use, the Studebaker Automoblle company + engaged Hayden Eames, then chief en- glneer of the Elcotric Vehicle company, to ufidertake the task of designing and mar- keting a class of electric vehicles such as would add to Studebaker prestige. Mr. | Eames, following out his Invariable plan, undertook the large task in a quiet way, | preferring (o do the work and let others | do the talking. By a systematic process and a proper display of skill the plan has prospered, and 1t will come as a news item of more than & little purport to most people that the Btudebaker Automobile company will now &0 into the building of electric vehicles on a large scale, and In view of the other efforts, in the shape of gasoline automo- biles, now well under way, It has been de- to mdke a separate department of the ‘electric vehicle work. C. H. Tyler, one of the able men of the Studebaker ataff, formerly connected with the Stude- that the present bolt from a clear sky; on ry, the amount of electric ve- hicle work already done by the Stude- bakers might be classed as large. The now idea Is to take advantage of experience gained, bulld cars In accord- ance with the dictates of this same expe rience and place the whole matter on an independent footing, holding a department head of wide experience responsible - for the result. Mr. Tyler Is in the saddle the work I8 being pressed In all directions and Studebaker electrics are being turned | out at a rapid rate C. H. Tyler has been appointed man- JQeer of the electric pleasure vehicle de- Partment of the S(udebaker Automobile company and will represent this company in_all mal relating to the electric pleasure vehicles, to act under and counsel of General Mam i aker branches In the distrisu- tion of the electric pleasure cars. | Following a week of most successful rac- | Ing at Atlanta, the Chalmers-Detroit rac- ing team, consisting of Joe Matson, Lee Lorimer, Billy Knipper and Bert Dingley, gave thelr contest manager, H L. Bill, a dinner and presented him with a very handsome gold walch. | In presenting the watch Bill wam In- foried that It was given him because he | “was such a grouch all season ' Probably Bill was a grouch, but he has made himself one of the most successful | contest managers In the country. The of- ficlals of the Chalmers-Detroit company give him much credit for the success, | which followed the “Blue Birds" all 200, and the racing drivers are equally un- | stinted in their praise. But they like to| tell Bill he's a grouch, chiefly because it| takes hard luck to bring out the best In Bl When he's winning his men don't need cheering up, and there isn‘t s) much to do. Bl hates idleness, and so hn' drivers have given him & watch In ap-| preciation of his grouchiness. No car ever received 1n Omaha has created so much talk or attracted so much Attention as the six-eylinder seventy horse | power. Thomas Toursbout seen in Omaha now days. This fs & short coupled touring car with (n mechaniclan's seat at the rear. Under this seat, and properly enclosed, Is a white enameled receptacle prov with a drain and intended as an after 8 p. m. convenl- ence. The Beautiful appearance of the eir is| greatly enriched by the gun metal finish, | no polished brass being visible, Some of the size of the car is convey d In t statément that the wheel bas Inches, and the rim is encircled by largest casing made N America, enorinous rubber shoe 38x5 Inches This wonderful car Is capable five to seventy miles an lour gear. the an ¢ trom| on high _— | The popular Oakland cdr is handied by | the Melntyre Auto company. This car has wlways been an attractive appesring, fast, reliable oar, and the Improvements in the | 1910 models make it better than ever before, | the finishings being finer and the ear | Approved throughout, The Thirty runabout | s for §1.000 and the touring ear for ,30. The Forty, in runabout or touring car, sells for $L,790. All of the cars come Wiy equipped with magneto and lamps, An advertising expert whoread the proof LEST THE PUBLIC TAKE TOO SERIOUSLY the re- ports diligently circulated by our esteemed competitors and swamp us with orders for immediate delivery of E-M- F-“30" cars, we deem it advisable to make a definite state- ment on this subject—thereby adopting a course different from that of other concerns who have raised the price of their cars without giving prospective buyers due notice. IT MAY BE WELL TO EXPLAIN at the outset the con- ditions which obtain and the results that must accrue— that have, in several cases, already appeared. Fortunately we are in a position to do this without injury to ourselves —while others are, for reasons that will be obvious, just as anxious to keep to themselves some things they know. DURING THE PAST SIXTY DAYS prices of several makes of cars have been increased $50 to $200 over prev- iously advertised prices, Some of these have been publicly announced—more have not. It's rather a difficult situation to handle and some of them don't know just how to do it without admitting a deplorable lack of foresight or limited financial backing. WE ARE NOT, CRITICISING those makers who have raised the pricéyof their cars—in most cases they had no choice in tfie mattes, Tried to compete with our match- less organization aed facilities—set their price to try and meet ours—and simply couldn’t, that’s all. OUR FACILITIES ARE NOT EQUALED by any others in the industry. Nor our distributing organization which places a car in the hands of the user for about half what it costs other makers to make the transfer from factory to ultimate user. IT'S RATHER SURPRISING, BY THE WAY, that just when the wiseacres were predicting lower prices for automobiles, lo! up they go. Fact is, there was no foun- dation for those predictions and the wiseacres weren’t wise to the true situation. Based their predictions on the fact that E-M-F-30” had set a pace and, of course, others must follow it. Well, you can’t follow, you know, unless you have just as fast a conveyance—that is, you may follow, but you can't keep up, THAT'S WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW to most of them. It will happen to more—better bear that in mind before buy- ing a car with less financial backing, less stability and less reputation than Studebaker’s, which goes with E-M-F-"30". Your “guaranty” will be worth the paper it's printed on, you know, when the concern that “assembled” your car is no more. But we are anticipating. THERE ARE SEVERAL REASONS for the increase of prices and, so you will be able to apply your own judg- ment to the matter, we'll tell you the more important ones —one of which may even force us, about February 1st, to add $100 to the price of Studebaker-E-M-F-“30.” FIRST: THERE'S A BIGGER SHORTAGE of automo- biles of all kinds this year than ever before. Last year's shortage was as nothing by comparison. And every day it grows greater. Perhaps you haven't noticed it yet. You will when you go to buy a car—that is to say a car with any reputation back of it, and as a sensible business man you'll hardly consider any other, COULD YOU READ OUR CORRESPONDENCE of the last month—applications from over ten thousand dealers anxious to handle the Studebaker line you'd appre- ciate that there exists today a condition almost un- paralleled in commercial history. And the condition grows more acute daily., WON'T BE ONE CAR FOR EVERY FOUR prospective buyers. That's the estimate of the best informed-—it's our estimate also since General Manager Lames’ tour, just finished, during which he traveled 22,000 miles and visited every important centre in’ every state in the Union. Con- dition is unprecedented. SHORTAGE ALONE WOULD BE SUFFICIENT grounds for increasing the price of a car like E-M-F-“30"—only it doesn’t fit in with our policy. On the same grounds we could have sold all the E-M-F-“30" cars at $1,600 from the first—always has been four times as great demand as supply for this car. But our entire plan is based on quan- thty production of a quality car with margin so small as to place the price where it will create its own quantity demand. SECOND REASON IS MORE IMPORTANT—in brief as follows: Eight-tenths of the automobiles built in this country are what are known in the trade as “assembled cars.” That is to s the various parts, as motor, trans- mission, frame, axles, steering gears, bodies, etc., are made in small machine shops all over the country and assembled by the concern whose name-plate appears on the car. Only investment the so-called “manufacturer” has is a big assembling building—or shed. He can “pull out” of the automobile business at short notice, take his “cream” with him and—well, where the buyers of his cars get off at is the unanswerable question. DEMAND FOR “PARTS” EXCEEDS SUPPLY several times over. As-a result these “assemblers” have for months rast been bidding against each other for parts, Think of that—and trying at the same time to compete with facilities such as we have! What's bound to happen is easy to predict Slglel2lef ST =7 THAT DOESN'T TOUCH US AT ALL. We have almost as many millions invested in factories for making every part of our cars, as ethers have thousands invested in assembling plants—many of which they do not even own, but merely lease. THEY'LL ALL SELL ALL THEY MAKE—No doubt about that this season. Competition—real competition—is a thing unknown in this business today. Three or five years hence—that's another question, BUT THE THIRD REASON DOES AFFECT US—And that is why other makers are predicting a rise in price of E-M-F-“30"—predictions so diligently circulated they threaten to swamp us with orders for immediate delivery— a condition which, while enviable in some respects, is not one to be invited to as great a degree as we have had it during the past year, THE TIRE SITUATION IS ACUTE—Most acute it has ever been. Crude rubber has been soaring for the past sixty days and now is quoted at $2.22 a pound! And not from artificial causes but because there is a tremendous shortage of rubber. SOME MAKERS ARE HARD HIT by this—those makers especially who were “foxy” as they thought, in making tire contracts at fixed prices when rubber was quoted at 65 to 67 cents. When rubber prices quadrupled there was great glee in the camps of our Friends the Enemy—for they thought the tire maker would be the only loser. But soon it appeared the shoe was on the other foot. Real shortage of rubber meant there wasn't enough to go round and those who had bought tires low must accept “compounded” tires—or none. “Compounded” is the trade term for shoddy tires. Made from discarded O’Sullivan rubber heels and other refuse. WHERE DO WE GET OFF AT is your natural question. Well, we ‘are in the position of the man who finds himself with his elevator full in a season of shortage in the wheat crop. Our tires will cost us more—but we are “covered” for all the tires we will need and our cars will be equipped with rubber tires—made from the best Para rubber the world produces and by the best tire makers we know— Morgan & Wright. HERE ARE SOME INSIDE FACTS—gratuitous asser- tions are worth face value, no more, and you are entitled to facts on which to base your own judgment. WALTER E. FLANDERS ANTICIPATED the rubber situation as he has anticipated every other move in this industry with an accuracy that has been the marvel of the trade. He “covered” for tires for five years, just as he “covered” for every other kind of material that goes into the making of a motor car. NOW FLANDERS HAS A SUPERSTITION to the effect that a contract cannot be a good contract unless it is so made that both parties will be satisfied with it, not only at first, but to its very end. SO HE MADE HIS TIRE CONTRACT, not at a fixed price per tire, but in such a way that the price of our tires . fluctuates with the markets for crude rubber, Sea Island cotton, labor and other items. See the point? He guar- anteed himself good tires and left no incentive for the tire maker to skimp on the quality should rubber unex- pectedly advance—as it has. NOT THAT ANY REPUTABLE TIRE MAKER WOULD, you understand. We wouldn’t accuse them of anything like that. But—well to fill some of the tire con- tracts made four months ago, at present prices of crude rubber, would break Standard Oil more effectually than Kellogg of Minnesota. Besides, it's now a question of which makers will get tires at all and beggars can't be choosers. They are begging for tires—any old kind of tires—and since the rubber won't go round there's only one thing left the tire makenr—compound as best he can. FLANDERS WAS ABLE BY HIS PLAN to not only ensure the quality of tires with which all Studebaker cars will be equipped, but to so make the contract that we get first call on the output, not only of Morgan & Wright fac- tory, but of the two other big plants that constitute the Rubber Goods Company of America—which gets 60% of all the crude rubber that comes to America. THAT'S WHAT WE CALL “FOXY"—making contracts that are two-sided; which provide for any change that may occur and at the same time guarantee always the highest quality of materials, We are covered, as we said before, for five years on all materials and on contracts such as that above described. What other concern had either the foresight or the capital to apticipate that far ahead ? WE MANUFACTURE EVERY PART from, the Pig Iron and the Steel Plate to the finished car—not only motors, axles and all other mechanical parts, but bodies, and tops and storm fronts. All are sold with the Studebaker label car and its equipment. Magnetos, tirés and radiators are made by specialists—and. we are secured against all contingencies in the same way . as on tires. We get our requirements and we get the ‘best, PRICES OF ALL MATERIALS—Steel, aluminum, copper, bearing-alloys, etc., have advanced comsiderably over the prices we paid for those which we are still working up in the first 12,000 cars—bought, you'll remember, at panic prices in the panic times of 1907, Nearly 9,000 now in hands of users. Balance will be finished about Februar $1250 == F. O. B. Detroit of this ‘Ad’ said folks wouldn’t read it —too long. We said one million prospective Automobile buyers will read every iine of it—because it is full of facts of vital importance to every man who contemplatesbuying a car. It’s one of the most important announce ments Studebakers have ever made Price of E-M-F-“30” Will Not Be Increased Before February First TG'_::Z,!_ 1st. Mark that. That's what sets the date. After that we will be working on materials bought in the higher market—and still going up. NOW YOU UNDERSTAND-If you have read the fore- going carefully and thoughtfully—why our competitors so confidently predict that the price of E-M-F-“30" will surely have to be advanced—and why we are just a trifle doubtful about it ourselves, E-M-F-“30” PRICE WAS BASED ON AN 8% margin over cost of making and distributing. On the quantities we manufacture and the rapid turn-over of the invested capital that satisfies us. Just to show you, the E-M-F Company has invested over three millions of dollars in factories and additions during the last year—all made from the sale of E-M-F-“30” cars and on the small margin quoted above. BUT THAT MARGIN WILL BE CUT INTO and seriously if rubber and other raw materials keep advancing as they have. In that event, it may be absolutely imperative that the price advance—and February 1st will tell the story. “WHY $100” YOU ASK. It's a natural question. Answer is: because we are determined, so long as there is any of that eight per cent left we will hold the price where it is. Never mind just why—suffice it to say it is a very essential part of our policy of building for the future—the far future of this industry. We'd be perfectly willing to tell you could we do it without also letting the other fellows into our plans. You see, they all read our ads.—that's how they know what SNieir next move ought to be. ANYWAY, THAT'S WHAT WE PLAN TO DO. But, when all the margin has been eliminated by advance in price of materials, we will either have to manufacture cars at a loss or cut the quality—use malleable castings and cast iron crank cases and such other expedients as our rivals adopt to offset the difference between their facilities and ours—and then can't reach our price within $250 to $3501 Of course, neither of those courses would be considered. NOW PLEASE'REMEMBER WE HOPE WE WON'T have to increase the price. If we were positive we would we'd simply say so now and use less space. But when the. eight per cent has all gone—why we'll add it again; and that, in round numbers, just about figures out $100 added to the present price which, as all the world knows, is 81,260 f. o. b, factory in Detroit—magneto and five lamps included—"of course.” HAVE WE MADE OURSELVES PLAIN to you? We've tried. The facts stated above are open to easy confirma- tion from any reliable source. Some of “Our Friends the Enemy” will contradict them—naturally. And dealers handling competing lines will also try to refute them—- naturally and for two reasons, First, self interest; and sec- ond, from ignorance of the actual conditions. A Stude- baker dealer can heap other facts on the above—we keep them posted. THOMAS W. LAWSON SAYS he can always throw the “wise ones” off the scent by a ludicrously simple device— just telling the truth right out in print. Whether he does or not is beside the mark-—we know it's good advertising philosophy. There's a certain type of man who discounts everything he sees in the advertising columns. Others—and they were the kind that got E-M-F-Cars last season when thousands had to go without—know how to discriminate and these accept Studebaker advertising at par, WHAT IS OUR OBJECT IN THIS AD? Own up now— you're puzzled! Aren't you? Is it to induce orders for immediate delivery?—or to distribute them over a longer period so we can deliver to better advantage? Which? Or both? Or—? Do your own interpreting. There'll be enough of both classes to suit our purpose. Which will be the wiser—that's for each reader to figure out for himself. We've told you plainly—if enough readers doubt perhaps that will best suit our purpose! IF WE KNEW OURSELVES whether or not the price of the E-M-F-“30" would advance February first—why the problem would be easy. In fact there would be no problem. But we don't. We can't afford to advance it without due notice—wouldn't be fair according to our ideas of things, So, we've had to content ourselves with telling you the facts as we know them to date and let each reader steer his own course according to his lights. WE ARE MAKING FIFTY CARS A DAY NOW—E-M- F 0" alone. Each Studebaker branch and dealer has his allotment ows to a car just how many he can have and to a day when each car will be shipped. As far as the present output will go, and as long as your dealer has a car for present delivery left, you can get one. 1f you are five minutes later than the man ahead of you—imposs to get one of course. If everybody who wants and E-M-F rushed in today—of course we couldn’t take care of them. But some always delay—that gives the more alert a chance. STUDEBAKERS CANNOT ‘AFFORD to do some things other eoncerns with less at stake can do. On the other hand, our capi- tal permits us to do many things that are impossible to others. Stude- bakers ctannot. afford to reépudiate any contract, legal or moral, made either with dealer or ultimate user. SO WE WILL AGREE TO DO THIS. When vour local dealer has exhausted his allotment for delivery prior to Feb. 1st, we will stand back .af him and you to the extént of agreeing o deliver any car on which a bona fide order has been placed and deposit paid, for delivery an ofe of his alloted dates any time up to May first. Such car will be delivered at the present price whether conditions compel us to increase it between now and then or not Provided—mark this .url)u“y»/’vuwlild name of pwrchaser ond evidence of payment of such deposit is.sent to the mearest Studeboker Bramch by next mail after order has been placed, This provision will hold ~good wmtsl withdrawn by notice published in this paper, after which date it will be inoperative. THERE'S THE WHOLE STORY—Let's see how many will interpret aright. ' Who will inost accurately gauge the immediats future of this automobile industry—and srofit by it BERGERS AUTOMOBILE (0 1919 KANNAMISTREETY a Douglas 363, g, Omaha, Nebraska