(See front cover)
A fair opened in Manhattan this week. From Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan came the merchants and the craftsmen. Their wares were new, bright, polished, gorgeous. Transportation was for sale. Better and cheaper. . . .
Eleven months of the year motorcars may be prosaic things of steel and glass. But in January, when the automobile fairs are held throughout the land, this prima donna of the industrial stage is greeted with acclaim and if her appearance succeeds she is well rewarded.
The merchants gathered. Feasts were arranged and salesmen were harangued to sell, sell and sell as they never had sold before, not only for their own pockets' good, or those of their employers, but for the good of the depressed U. S. (see p. 56). There was talk of the price of steel, of tariffs, tires and taxes. But most of all there was talk of transportation value: price, performance, appearance.
Passing its hurried 30 years of life, the Automotive Industry has been the most aggressive revolutionist in a world of increasing Industrial Revolution. So fast has been its pace that 100 automobile companies have started and quit. But contrary to glib predictions, there have been few casualties since 1929. The cash reserves of good years have been a bulwark against catastrophe.
The only merger of importance in 1932 occurred last autumn when, unexpectedly, Studebaker Corp. and White Motor Co. cast their lot together. A newcomer during 1933 will be Continental Motors Corp. Its markets were lost when most manufacturers began to make their own engines. When some directors warned against the company's entering the retail market Continental President William Robert Angell said, "God almighty did not give me this jaw for nothing, gentlemen."
In the leadership of the 35 companies represented in Manhattan last week (their total capital stock: $1,000,000,000). there had been few changes in 1932. Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. still spoke for General Motors; Walter P. Chrysler for Chrysler; Alvan Macauley for Packard (and as president of Automobile Chamber of Commerce, for the Industry) ; Albert Russel Erskine for Studebaker. Henry Ford still spoke for Lincoln: his Ford is not a member of the show. Notable among the changes had been the departure of Roy Dikeman Chapin, to be U. S. Secretary of Commerce, leaving William Joseph Mc-Aneeny active leader of Hudson.* The Industry's first U. S. Ambassador, John North Willys, who wisely sold his common stock for $20,000,000 in 1929, was home from Poland and again in control of his company because it had passed its fourth consecutive preferred dividend. He is living in his Fifth Avenue home in Manhattan, but the sojourn has been punctuated by many trips to Toledo where he stays at the Toledo Club and goes to his factory at 8 a. m., often remaining until midnight. Willys-Overland is bidding sharply for a place in the less-than-$500 field.
A company-to-company shift was made by Robert Henry ("Roy") Faulkner. 46, who resigned as president of Auburn Automobile Co. and was last year made a vice president of Studebaker Corp., in charge of Fierce-Arrow sales.