30 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



Commerce, the child of science, is doing more to pro- 

 mote the unification of the world than all the politicians. 

 Politics is the art of managing men. It was therefore of 

 supreme importance in the days when war and work 

 were done by men. But as war and work come to be 

 done by machinery the importance of the politician 

 diminishes as the importance of the engineer increases. 

 The financial side of the automobile business is in- 

 teresting but puzzling. The best estimate of the an- 

 nual expenditure on motor cars in this country for 1921 

 makes the total out to be $7,783,000,000, distributed 

 as follows: 



New Cars #1,448,000,000 



Depreciation 1,800,000,000 



Interest 295,000,000 



Tires 450,000,000 



Gasolene 823,000,000 



Oil 175,000,000 



Garage 552,000,000 



Repairs and Supplies 1,000,000,000 



Insurance 185,000,000 



Taxes 275,000,000 



Drivers' Salaries 600,000,000 



Road Maintenance 180,000,000 



$7,783,000,000 



That is to say, we are spending approximately 

 eight billions of dollars a year on something that did 

 not exist twenty-five years ago. 



Where does the money come from? I am not com- 

 plaining of extravagance. I am not saying that it is a 

 cent too much. But it would be interesting to find out, 

 if we could, from what sources this immense amount of 



