automobilp: races. 



i, — the automobile. "^ 

 1^3' Henri Fournier. 



Undoubtedly the automobile has come to stay and to do. as the 

 5"eai's go on. more and more of the world's work. 



The fact that 1 went a mile in 51| seconds on the Coney Island 

 bouleyard the other daj' shows the swiftness we have already attained 

 with these machines, and it must be remembered that they are as yet 

 onl}' in their infancy. Six years ago we were making veiy bad auto- 

 mobiles in France and German}^ — almost as bad as those the American 

 makers are now turning out. Now France and Germany make fine 

 autos, and I haye come to this country to make line autos here. 



We French are manufacturing better automobiles than the Ameri- 

 cans because we ])egan first and because our conditions are more 

 favorable for development. Coney Island boulevard is as good as any 

 road in France, but in France they have thousands of miles like it, 

 while here there are very few. 



Of course, our good roads helped the automobile, as also did our 

 comparative!}' bad railroads. Here, on the other hand, there are good 

 railroads stretching everywhere through a brand new country, Avhere 

 the wagon wa^s are still rough. 



The conditions for automobile development are therefore not so 

 favorable here as in France. Rut they are improving very rapidly. 



Not so with American-made automobiles. I do not see any 

 improvement in them since I was here three years ago. The machine 

 in which I made the mile record of 51| seconds was of French make, 

 as also was that in which Mr. Foxhall Keene did a mile in 54| seconds. 



The makers here started wrong. Instead of taking the best French 

 and Gf^rman models and trying to improve on them, they set out to 

 produce something original, and thus went over all the ground previ- 

 ously traversed by European manufacturers, and fell into the errors 

 out of which the latter had lalwriously struggled. It is a shame, for 

 their troul)le and expense were quite unnecessary. They should have 



"Reprinted, by permission, from The Independent, New York, Vol. LIU, Dec. 

 12, 1901. 



SM 1901 38 59^ 



