TIIE MORNING OREGOXIAX, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1920
Mo
Re
diuiciLioini in
Oakland.
SesW
Six
At this time when the public mind is disturbed by
sensationally announced price reductions of automobiles
and other merchandise and commodities, we desire to
give assurance to those who require Personal Passenger
Transportation, such as provided by .the Oakland Sen
sible Six, that we do not anticipate reducing the price of
our cars.
Starting with the production of the raw material re
quired and continuing through' to the finished product,
over 80 per cent of the cost of an Oakland Sensible Six is
labor.
Over 80 per cent of the cost of all other automobiles
produced in large quantities is labor.
When wages paid to labor are reduced, or when labor
produces more per man, then may manufacturers of hon
estly priced automobiles legitimately consider the reduc
tion of their selling prices.
We have not heard of any instance where automobile
workers are receiving lower wages.
If wages may be lowered eventually we see no immedi
ate trend in that direction.
.
In the production of so essential a factor in our eco-
nomicjlife as the passenger automobile increasing as it
does-the personal efficiency of owners by nearly 57 per
cent we believe the workers whose toil produces the
vehicle should be large beneficiaries of the constructive
character of their work.
If abnormal demand has been responsible for over
enthusiastic expansion and inflated profits in certain
instances, the wage earner should not be made to suffer,
as he must if powerful forces effect lower automobile
prices whether or no.
True enough", there have' been many instances of in
flated prices. There has been profiteering. And true
enough, abnormal profits must be eliminated.
And that is-what has been going on all around you
recently- the price reductions you have witnessed in
automobiles and other merchandise are the belated shak
ing out of the abnormal profits. The normal profits are
still there.
Manufacturers whose goods have been priced on actual
cost to produce, plus normal profit, have no inflated fig
ures with which to appeal to the uninformed public in
sensational announcements of "Price Reductions." Pru
dent, studious buyers will not be misguided by erroneous
principles.
O
akland Price Advance in Five Years, Due to Increased Co
of Labor and Material, Only 27.4 Per Cent
In 1915 Model 32 Oakland Sensible Six was put on the
market at $795 f . o. b. factory.
Since 1915 the wheelbaseof the Sensible Six has been
lengthened five inches, its weight increased about four
hundred pounds, its horsepower materially increased, its
frame made deeper, and in many other ways the car has
been enlarged, strengthened, improved and refined.
If the present Model 34-C had been built in 1915, it is
more than conservative to say that, based on labor and
material costs at that time we would have been com
pelled to list it to sell at $1095, or more, f.o.b. factory.
We are therefore able to say, also with great conserva
tism, that the present price of Model 34-C represents an
.increase, due solely to increased costs of labor and ma
terial, of 27.4 per cent. Larger production each year has
kept this increase at a low figure.
Compare this increase with the increase of other auto
mobiles and with commodities with the things you
buy every day.
Nowhere have we been able to find a standard article
of merchandise that has increased as little in selling price
as the price of the Oakland Sensible Six.
In tlie event of unexpected reductions in the cost of the labor and material that enter into the con
struction of the Oakland Sensible Six to a point where we may properly and legitimately reduce the
list price of our cars between October 1st, 1920, and May lst5 1921, we will refund to every Oakland
purchaser .who buys within the above mentioned period of time tlie amount of such reduction
o
AK
A
M
O TO R
AR
Sixth Largest Builders of 'Automobiles in the World
PONTIAC, MICHIGAN
NORTHWEST OAKLAND CO., DISTRIBUTORS, 344 BURN SIDE ST., PORTLAND