The future of the automobile is beyond our present conception. When the writer took up this subject and designed a gasoline automobile in 1891, he did not foresee that the people able to afford horses would use autos from preference, but believed the auto would be confined to that class of buyers, who, unable to afford a stable, might buy the auto on installments if need be, provided the price was not above $400 or $500. Experience with the vehicle showed so clearly its superiority that an entirely different view of the market was reached and I have since been building vehicles to sell for $1,000 or more and to go to people who use it, not because they can better afford it than horses, but because it gives superior service. Of its many superiorities little need be said here. It is faster, safer, more certainly handled, always ready and if of proper design, cheaper to maintain than horses. The auto of the future has not yet been built, but the future will see autos used in a quantity far beyond present horse vehicles. A prominent manufacturer, successful and conservative, recently stated that 100,000 rigs per year of the light runabout type will be needed to supply the market. sider this far below what we will see inside of another ten years. The future auto will be greatly simplified, greatly lightened, largely reduced in size and considerably cheaper. All these things are not only possible, but certain, and the result will be universal use.

I con

The

rich man's luxury will be the poor man's friend. The Duryea was the first auto adver tised regularly in this country. We began exploiting these in the Fall of '95, distributed our printed matter at the Times-Herald contest and took space in newly established automobile papers like the Horseless Age at that time. Duryea vehicles have been on the market longer than any other make, and excepting sporadic experiments were the first American vehicles.-Duryea Power Co., Reading, Pa.

If the automobile has come to stay, it is because, considered in competition with other means of transportation, it possesses merits which will bear favorable comparison, first cost, maintenance and depreciation to be considered in connection with results obtained.

The automobile industry and its stability is at times misjudged. The automobile business in America first began to assume form about five years ago, and like all other new industries, it was necessary to possess experience, facilities, and knowledge of essential requirements before progress could commence. Consequently, the product during the early period of development probably failed to fully meet expectations, producing in some quarters an unfavorable and erroneous opinion as

to the real possibilities of motor propelled vehicles.

Such rapid progress was made that the product of the first few years showed radical de partures from previous years' practices. However, the output of the standard makers has shown but slight changes from the previous year's patterns for the last two or three years, and these changes have been in the nature of slight modifications and not radical departures from former practices.

This is accounted for by the fact that experience has proven certain forms of construction to be most suitable while other practices are not so well adapted to meet necessary requirements.

Practically all of the leading engineers in Europe and America have agreed upon certain fundamental principles as right and best suited meet necessary requirements (4 cylinder, vertical motors located in front, sliding gear transmission, three speeds forward and reverse, and for the most part shaft drive).

to

The European makers with their experience antedating that of the Americans a great many years, were probably the first to work out the type of car which predominates today, but the American, building on this experience, has reconstructed and simplified the foreign ideas to best meet our less favorable road conditions, and to produce a motor car which does not require an expert to take care of and operate. These results, which have been so successful, have put the industry on a stable and sound basis.

It may be charged that the automobile was at first taken up as a fad and luxury, being of use for pleasure only, but a list of the automobile owners in the various localities, and the everyday use to which the automobile is put, bears overwhelming evidence that the merits of the motor car are recognized and that the more conservative element have been convinced of its real worth and practicability.

The major expense in connection with a well built motor car is the tire expense, and with amply large tires it ought to be possible to get approximately 5,000 miles service from one set of tires. Small and medium sized motor cars, about 25 to 30 H. P., should average 12 to 25 miles consuming a gallon of gasoline and a quart of lubricating oil should be suf ficient to cover 125 to 200 miles.

Accidents omitted, a standard car constructed on approved lines, with designing which provides liberal bearings and well distributed strength of parts, should be subjected to but nominal expense charges in the way of repairs.

To draw an intelligent comparison with the horse, original outlay, cost of operating, and miles recorded must be considered, and it is

only fair to consider as well the time con sumed in covering a given number of miles.

It ought to be possible to cover 25 to 30 miles a day, at an expense for fuel and oil of $12 to $20 per month, which means 750 to 900 miles per month, or 9,000 to 11,000 per year for twelve times the cost of one month. Add repairs, which should prove a nominal cost per mile, and tire cost, and compare the total cost with the mileage cov ered, with the total cost and mileage covered of a pair of horses, and the result will indicate the automobile's future.-Premier Motor Mfg. Co., Indianapolis, Ind.

The future of the automobile is assured, although we believe that it will eventually come down on a more solid basis and instead of cars being purchased so largely for pleasure and the mere satisfying of desires, the automobile will be purchased more as a real necessity. At present the business is done largely on a basis of personal prejudice, but eventually it will be the "survival of the fittest."

The commercial vehicle will eventually be one of the mainstays of the business, but this branch is at present only in its infancy.

was

You asked us if we could furnish you with the name of the first automobile that advertised, when and where. As we are one of the oldest manufacturing concerns in the United States, we believe that we have the first automobile literature published in America. It was called the Motor Cycle Automobile, was published by L. B. McGrath, the editor was Edward E. Gaugh. Their address Monadnock Blk., Chicago. We think we have every copy that they published, which commenced in December, 1896, and finished in October of 1897. The first American car to be advertised we

find was the Hertel Motor Cycle, as nearly all of the automobiles were called in those days. This was a vehicle that was at that time built in Chicago, but the industry was later moved to Greenfield, Mass., he and a man named Oakman joined forces. With this Hertel they manufactured and placed upon the market a goodly number of cars, after a time went into bankruptcy. The Winton, also the Haynes-Aperson appear in 1897.

As for our contributing anything toward the symposium, hardly know whether we can, that would be of any interest to your readers.

As was stated to you previously in this communication, we are among the first of the automobile manufacturers. We built the first plant in the United States for the express purpose of manufacturing the automobile, which was 1896. One year later we had, and in operation upon the streets, a double opposed gasoline motor placed into the first horseless carriage. We have watched the rapid growth of the industry, the interest that the owners and prospective owners have taken in the cars. There is not a question of doubt as to whether the automobile is a permanent fixture or not. It has gotten SO that we wonder how we ever got along without them. Each year the cars grow more simple and each year people buy more cars than they did the previous year. We have upon our books a customer who has purchased three cars and in all owns 19 cars. We also have another customer, there being three in the family who own and drive our Own cars, who also and control nine others. We could go on like this for some time. We have a physician who

has discontinued the use of horses and has not owned one for three years, having used his automobile wholly since that time, and we suppose that we might mention others the same, although they are not in our mind at the present writing. Many business men who run touring cars, own runabouts to drive to their business and back, showing the necessity of the car in that respect. The com mercial vehicle is bound to come, as the congestion of the city streets is becoming so great that there has got to be an outlet some way. This is the only apparent avenue.Grout Brothers Automobile Company, Orange, Mass.

or publishers have been given to understand that the claim was not sustained by facts.

Messrs. Hunter and Currier, in their statement, presented to the U. S. Postal Commission, which is published herewith, did far more than make a claim that advertisements in a publication, enjoying second-class privileges, does increase first-class postage receipts. They produced irrefutable evidence that such is the case. Here is their report in full:

To the Honorable Chairman and Members of the Postal Commission:

I herewith present some figures which have direct bearing on the matter of second-class mail, the figures obtained relating particularly to the operation of the Woman's World, pub lished by the Currier-Boyce Co. of Chicago. REPORT SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF FIRST, THIRD AND FOURTH-CLASS POSTAGE CREATED AS A RESULT OF THE CIRCULATION AT SECONDCLASS RATE OF THE MARCH, 1906, ISSUE OF WOMAN'S WORLD. Every advertiser in the March, 1900, issue of the Woman's World was asked to furnish a statement showing the amount of postage in dollars and cents that was created by the insertion of his advertisement in this one issue. It was possible for 75 per cent of these advertisers to furnish this information, as 75 per cent of the advertisements in the issue contained "keyed" addresses. For example, the address in the advertisement of Friend Supply Company is 1 Washington Street, Dept. 483, Boston; in the February issue of Woman's World the address was Dept. 482, Boston.

If their advertisement appeared in any other papers or issues, the Department number in the address was different; therefore, all letters received by the Friend Supply Company addressed to Department 483, Boston, were replies to their advertisement in the March, 1906, issue of Woman's World. The "Dept.' idea is only one of many methods employed by advertisers to "key" their advertisements so they will know accurately how many answers each paper for every issue brings them-in other words, how the insertion pays them.

The March, 1906, issue of Woman's World was 40 pages of 880 agate lines each, or a total of 35,200 agate lines of space, 16,391 of which were devoted to advertising and 18,809 to reading matter.

We received reports from 101 of the 316 different advertisements in this issue of Woman's World. These 101 reports, furnished and signed by the advertisers, are produced herewith. They represent 42 per cent of the advertising space in the issue that is to say, these reports from 101 advertisers represent 6,888 agate lines of advertising out of a total of 16,391 agate lines, or 42 per cent of the whole.

These 101 reports from advertisers show that the immediate amount of first, third and fourthclass postage created from insertions of these 101 advertisements in March, 1906, issue of Woman's World was $11,262.99. This repre

sents 42 per cent of the advertising in the issue. It can be stated positively and unequivocally that the March, 1906, issue of Woman's World produced within practically thirty days after the issue was mailed $26,

816.64 in first, third and fourth-class mail from the advertisements in that issue to which, approximately, three-eighths of the space in the issue was devoted. The publishers of Woman's World expended $10,457.58 in postage (exclu sive of second class) during the month of March, 1906. They also received 156,782 letters from subscribers and subscription agents during March, 1906, to which were affixed stamps amounting to $3,135.74.

These three items of postage-the $26,816.64 created by the advertisements, the $10,457.58 expended by the publishers, and the $3,135.74 expended by subscribers and agentsaggregate $40,409.96 in first, third and fourthclass mail matter. Every cent of it is pertaining to the March, 1906, issue and March business (exclusive of second class) of Woman's World. The Woman's World has been built up, and its existence depends, upon the pound rate of postage. IF THE 339,895 POUNDS OF THE MARCH, 1906, ISSUE OF WOMAN'S WORLD HAD NOT BEEN CIRCULATED BY THE POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT AT ONE CENT A POUND, THIS $40,409.96 IN FIRST, THIRD AND FOURTH-CLASS POSTAGE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN CREATED.

The mailing of this March, 1906, issue at 1 cent per pound cost the publishers $3,398.95; $40,409.96 is only a part of the business other than second class created by this March, 1906, issue of the Woman's World. The $26,816.64 created by the insertion of 316 advertisements represents immediate mail matter; in many cases permanent customers are secured by these advertisers who order goods by mail with more or less regularity for years. The subscription receipts of Woman's World during March, 1906, were $67,841.22, 85 per cent of which was remitted in postoffice money orders registered letters, as the records of the Chicago Postoffice will show.

CURRIER-BOYCE Co.,

George H. Currier, Sec. and Treas. Chicago, Ill., Nov. 22, 1906.

or

Mr.

our

There has been much talk and little evidence about the volume of business created through advertising, and I believe this is the first instance where actual facts over the signature of the advertisers has been presented. Geo. H. Currier, the Secretary of our Company, caused each advertisement appearing in March, 1906, issue to be cut out and sent to the advertiser, together with a list of questions asking the number of letters received in answer to the advertisement, the subsequent letters received ordering goods, also the num ber of letters, printed matter and merchandise sent to those answering advertisements, the follow-up letters and acknowledgments, the postage on merchandise or printed matter sold through the advertisement. These figures have been carefully prepared, and in Mr. Currier's statement, which I give here for your inspec tion and verification, we find the following interesting facts:

The amount of postage of all grades absolutely created by the March issue of Woman's World is as follows: