MOTORING 



463 



can manufacturers not to pursue their intention 

 to wrest from European makers the prestige 

 they have enjoyed as the builders of the fastest 

 and most secure cars. 



In connection with this contest it may be 

 added that the motorists of Chicago are agitat- 

 ing the holding of a road race on some section 

 of highway near that city. Western visitors have 

 been many at the two races for the Vanderbilt 

 Cup, which have been run in the East, and with 

 their usual impulsiveness are eager to give the 

 citizens of Chicago an opportunity to see what 

 a wonderful destroyer of time and distance a 

 completely rigged racing car can prove itself 

 to be. 



On the whole, it appears as if a cup race 

 somewhere near Chicago, managed on the lines 

 of that which has taken place annually on 

 Long Island, would be a large factor for good. 

 No matter how much ultraconservatism may 

 rail at the automobile and deny its use to the 

 highways on the same terms and with the same 

 privileges as other vehicles, there is not the 

 slightest question but it will be the vehicle of 

 the future, and in no place will it be more 

 popular than in the magnificent West, with its 

 grand expanses of outlying country, which need 

 other than the poor cart-horse to keep commu- 

 nities in touch with each other. 



John Farson is the new president of the 

 American Automobile Association. He is an 

 interesting conversationalist and he is not a 

 " speed-mad" motorist. The Vanderbilt Cup 

 race appeals to him because it is a contest prop- 

 erly guarded, but he is not over-mad on the 

 subject of holding contests to establish records 

 between cities, or to show off the merits of some 

 car to some particular section at the risk of 

 injury to somebody, followed by natural ani- 

 mosity to the automobile. 



He had something to remark about motoring 

 the other day, which followed the line recently 

 taken in Recreation regarding the spread of 

 the motor car in popularity. He said: " Every 

 automobilist should realize the wonderful 

 improvements that have been made by Ameri- 

 can manufacturers within the last two or three 

 years. Hundreds of Eastern automobilists 

 probably have no idea to how great an extent 

 the moderate-priced and serviceable small car 

 has resulted in a friendlier feeling through the 

 country districts of the West toward automo- 

 biles. In many sections of Illinois, Indiana 

 and Ohio, where a short time ago there was 

 hostile feeling in the so-called farming districts, 

 totally different conditions now prevail. The 

 well-to-do farmer and the man of moderate 

 means are buying the small cars which sell from 



I750 to $1,500 in large numbers, and they are 

 discovering that there are elements of useful- 

 ness in the motor car apart from the mere 

 pleasure of driving about the country." 



The greatest market for the automobile; 

 trade in the United States lies in the Western 

 States. It is said that it is impossible to build 

 a car cheaper than at the present time. It is 

 doubtful if such is the case. Motor cars will 

 gradually lessen in price as every commodity 

 does after the first demand. 



Any discussion of motor car topics must 

 eventually lead to the subject of good roads. 

 They go hand in hand. Motor cars need good 

 roads to make them most enjoyable, and motor 

 cars are a better preservative of good roads 

 than any vehicle which we use in America. 



This year the American Automobile Associa- 

 tion will make an earnest effort to have roads 

 properly sign -posted throughout all sections 

 of the United States. It is bad enough to travel 

 over some roads, which are most improperly 

 fitted for motoring, to say nothing of adding 

 the possibility of losing one's way and wander- 

 ing for hours through mud and over ruts which 

 are enough to jar the mechanism of a loco- 

 motive out of plumb. 



The League of American Wheelmen were 

 pioneers in the matter of sign posts and suc- 

 ceeded admirably in some sections of the coun- 

 try in having them established. What was the 

 result ? Indifferent farmer boys, who knew the 

 surrounding country to their own satisfaction, 

 used many of the sign posts for targets. Their 

 elders, instead of rebuking them, passed over 

 the destruction of property in a nonchalant 

 fashion, as if it were something of which to be 

 proud. 



The French farmer and the Italian farmer, 

 though they be poor as Job's turkeys, and the 

 English farmers, too, for that matter, are most 

 assiduous in protecting guide posts on their 

 roads. They tell the traveler that it is a matter 

 of business. If Mr. So-and-So is journeying 

 through the country, with an eye to purchasing 

 here and there, he wants to know the proper 

 direction, therefore it would be foolish not to 

 preserve the sign boards at road intersections. 



Would that some of our American farmers 

 felt of the same mind, so that the belated trav- 

 eler in a dark night should not be compelled to 

 alight from his car, and retrace his steps half a 

 mile or so to a farmhouse, there to try to ascer- 

 tain which road to take at a forks which once 

 had a guide post, but presented nothing except 

 the shivered stump filled with buckshot that 

 had destroyed both sign and most of the up- 

 right. 



