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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1928)
THE OKJ2UON STATESMAN, SALEM, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 11, 1928 E OF VicefPresident of Marmon I Company Suggests Ideas On Payment Plans One reason why tbe Canadians seem to derive so much satisfac tion from life despite tbeir rela- tively smaller incomes Is that they, pay cash for what their American cousins re accustomed to pur chase on the deferred payment plan. The Canadian trill save for months to buy a radio set, a piano or an automobile, and, once the merchandise Is his, he feels a sense of ownership and a pride of posses sion which more than repays him ' for his sacrifice. There is a cer tain feeling of security In owner ship 4nd in cash payment that can be ea Joyed under no other pur chase! plan. Tnese observations were sug gested to G. M. Williams, pregl dent of the Marmon Motor Car Company, hy a perusal of a recen bulletin Issued by the Ohio Council of the National Automobile Deal ers' Association, bearing on the re possession problem as the finance companies find it in that territory .! Thl3 bulletin, Mr. Williams found, furnishes an interesting commentory on human nature. showed that in cars where the in itial payment on a motor car rep resented one-third of its price, the percentage of repossessions was only 2.7. ; This percentage Increased, how ever,' in almost geometrical pro portion as the first payment grew smaller. Thus, if it represented only a quartjer of the car's value. repossessions rose to 5.9 percent and 1 less than a quarter of the selling price, repossessions reached 11 percent. "Of course," said Mr. Williams, "the Canadians buy fewer cars than the Americans, and If the automobile manufacturers had to wait until everybody had saved nough money to buy a car out right, production would fall off and many of the factories would have to shut down. The American assured of a comfortable Income, likes to enjoy life as he goes, and. Js willing to mortgage his future earning capacity for present lux uries if you can call a motor car a luxury, "Even the 11 per cent of re possessions consequent to the small down payment indicates only a trace of dishonesty, and might eas ily be accounted for by unemploy ment, illness or other emergencies. Nor would such a percentage of bad sales necessarily demoralize the dealer, especially if he knew the equasion In advance. At the same time, the situation tends to produce a sense of false security among dealers and manufacturers, and if we can calculate with any degree of accuracy just what the reaction will be under certain circumstances, we can act accord ingly. The conservative dealer will in sist on an initial payment sub stantial enough to establish a feel ing of ownership on the part of the buyer and to eliminate any sugges tion of rental. For if the pur chaser making only a nominal pay ment is inclined to be dishonest or a bit smart, he can use the car for a certain length of time and then, defaulting on his contract, turn it back to the dealer greatly deteriorated in value. His own loss he can strike off as rental, and in the majority of cases, he would get the better of the bargain. But credit, of course, in Its last anal ysis, Is a matter of character. Only a email percentage of our custom ers are intentionally dishonest." Spanish Combs Popular In Paris This Season PARIS (AP) Spain inspires some of the freak styles that Paris : Is seeing for spring. The latest arrival is a SDanish comb, meant to be worn on the hat, and not the head. It is an outgrowth of Spanish ha3 and hairdresslng which interest the fashion makers just now. TRAFFIC TIE-UPS COST CONSIDERABLE (Continued from pare 13) large and small, are widening the pavement area, both b ythe re moval of buildings arid by the cut ting back of sidewalks. For in stance. .Chicago is widening La Salle street to a width of 108 feet. This requires that the fronts of several buildings bev sheered off. cm o PIE BUYING UV K'evated streets give every in - dication of being an essential part . of the city's future street equip ment. Wacker Drive, Chicago's i double-decked ; thoroughfare, is three-quarters of a mile long. Both New York and St, Louis are planning. even more extensive two-level streets. City authorities point ont that such structures are "necessary, for cities are daily .building more skyscrapers, there by increasing the need' for addi tional .street space by leaps and bounds. ' i' lYse Tunnels - . . v' Pedestrian tunnels, remindful of Chinatown passageways, are ' being constructed by many cities i for the double purpose of speed ing up traffic and . for making street crossing more safe for foot ' traTelers". Los Angeles has com- pleted 33 of the 40 pedestrian tun nels planned. - i Highland v Par. Mich., : has .constructed two snc-h underpasses, which have made t e BRITISHERS TRIUMPH AGAIN IN - Jfc Z: fs llS&"rf- ' '4$ 2?W "''vT U i'fi - -'K-XA - fewSPSv?4- ::;:; '-J?1' ' s .vT The United States came off second best in the international speed trials at Daytona Beach, FUl, bat the Americans are still planning to regain world speed laurels. Left is Capt Malcoln Campbell, who set a new world's record, and his two American rivals, Frank Lockhart and Ray Keech. Left Camp bell's car and below, Lockhart's wrecked steed, r services of-traffic policemen avail able for use elsewhere. Visionary as they may appear, cities will soon be equipped with elevated street intersections. With heavy volumes of traffic meeting at street intersections, the time and money wasted is tremendous and the accident hazard is great. Chicago has several elevated street intersections in service with intersections in service with ap propriations for more, and Pitts burgh has eight. Many others are planned. HOW TO HANDLE 35,000,000 CARS . many agencies are busily engaged in teaching the motorist to drive carefully. But there is also a moement which encourages the'ner. The edestrian should be per- pedestrian to walk carefully. Con siderable impetus can be given this work if it Is consistently poin ted out that nearly all pedestrians are frequent motorists, and that nearly aU motorists are frequently pedestrians. To walk carefully means to cross streets at crossings. It means to observe traffic signals and traffic rules. A few cities have succeeded in keepinz pedes trians on the curb until they are given the right of way. A city like Chicago, with its Loon district. VICK 1927 Pontiac Coupe - 1925 Buick Roadster glass enclosure 1926 Chevrolet Coupe 1927 Pontiac Roadster 1924 Buick Touring 1927 Chevrolet Coach 1926 Ford Coupe - - 325.00 1924 Willys-Knight Sedan 550.00 Phone 1841 The too great to expect all pedestrians to keep on the sidewalk until given the signal to go. But most cities are finding that they can reduce the number of accidents by en couraging pedestrians to observe signals and to be guided by them. A Chicago transportation execu tive recently made the impressive statement that anyone alert enough to be on the Btreets of Chi cago was alert enough to get through lines of moving vehicles. They may apply to the Loop dis trict, which has problems peculiar to itself,' but it hardly applies to most cities. Many pedestrians complain that they are obliged to cut through lines of vehicles because when they wait for the signal to cross they find their line of walk cut off by vehicles coming around the cor- mitted to cross before vehicles are allowed to turn corners. Police officers are going into the schools in many cities to instruct children how to cross streets, and when. In those same cities policemen are assigned to street corners children use fre quently in going to-and from school. Usually those'. police, in escorting children aerosa" Btreets. wait for signals before crossing. At least they should. This type of education means that the years to come will bring may find pedestrian traffic BROTHERS1 D CAR -House That Service Built SPEED TUSSLE us a generation of men and women schooled in the ways of careful walking. Traffic problems are usually considered as police problems. As they increased the number of po lice was increased. Then came the introduction of the synchro nized electric signal system con trol. This was accepted in many communities as a substitute for the traffic policeman. The truth is that there Is no substitute for the traffic officer. At some In tersections the signal light Is all right. At others It isn't. Signals will work under certain traffic conditions, but not all. Our larger cities will be con nected by express highways. These will be enclosed like railroad rights-of-way. There will be sepa rate lanes for slow moving ve hicles and separate lanes for the faster moving ones. When grade crossings are encountered the highway will go overboard or underneath. America today has a most ambi tious road building program. There Is every reason to believe that this program will be ex panded until this country will have a great system of transconti nental highways and roads, ex tending from Canada to Mexico. Of course, as soon as we finish a two-way highway, traffic on it $695.00 575.00 450.00 650.00 475.00 500.00 280 South High Street frequently increases to a point where a four-way highway is needed. This is bound to be true for eight or ten more years. The 'United States will never complete its road building pro gram. New highways will be needed constantly. Old highways must be kept in repair and many must be widened. The elimination of grade cross ings is a tremendous job. This work should continue until every dangerous 'crossing Is' eliminated, with an over-pass or nnder-pas built in its stead. There Is also the job of eliminating curves from highways. Engineers today agree that highways must possess what might be called built-in safety. Signs can't be relied on to make highways safe. The parking problem will prob ably be with us always. But it will be met in part by erecting tall ramp garages in areas where rents aren't so high. In our most congested centers streets will be cleared of trucks loading and unloading during the day. Loading will be done at re mote delivery systems. There will be underground loading platforms and it is not at all impossible that main levels will be used by de partment stores to park cars. Roofs may be used also. More and- more attention is be ing given the skyscraper anj its relation to the traffic congestion problem. Throughout the country there is a growing appreciation that New York, built as it is on a narrow island, was compelled to go into the air to expand because it couldn't grow in any other di rection. Other cities are realizing that there must be some relationship between the height of a building and the capacity of the abutting streets to care for the additional traffic so created. 5 TO 25 MILES PER HOUR IN TA SECONDS 10 TO 45 MILES IN J32 SECONDS No other car in The Victory price class can approach these astonishing getaway figures! And the statement holds equally true of Victory speed! . . . Watch the car flash fthru traffic, lead off at the go signal and hold its lead! Ask Victory owners about its amazing pull on the hills! There's a simple, logical answer to this spectacular performance unequalled power per pound of car weight. In other words, a new and superior kind of engine with a new and superior kind of body. The problem of weight solved thru simplicity of design. The problem of design solved thru simplicity of parts. (No body sills only 8 major body pieces) Tune in for Dodge Brothers Radio Program every Thursday nieht. at 9 to 9:30 thru WEAF NBC Red Network BONESTEELE MOTOR .CO; 474 S. Commercial Telephone 423 BY RACE TRACK DRIVER TRIES EXPERIMENTS c (Continued from p( IS) ers as Bennie Hill, Pete ; Kreis; Bob McDonough and Jules Ellin g boe. Cooper's association with Mar mon and his work in the develop ment of Marmon straight-eight automobiles are direct evidence of the strong influence of automobile racing on the design and construc tion of passenger cars. It, is inter esting to note that beginning in 1924 every car that finished the famous Indianapolis race was of the straight-eight design. These cars, despite their small piston displacement, have attained the utmost efficiency and have result ed in a distinct trend toward the straight-eight motor in passenger cars. That cars powered by this type of motor are becoming ex tremely popular is demonstrated by the tbe record breaking sales of the New Marmon 8 and "7&" which were Introduced at this sea son's automobile show. A glance at the race track rec ord of Cooper, who now it using his years of experience toward the development of Marmon automo biles, reveals a consistent series of achievements and victories which date back to the earliest days of automobile racing. More than twenty years ago Cooper be gan his career on the race track and jumped into nation-wide prominence when he won the road race championship in 1913 by scoring seven consecutive first places in as many starts at an av erage' speed of better than 70 miles an hour. Despite his retire ment he is among the first four drivers on the Indianapolis speed way in point of the number of miles driven on the famous two- and-one-half mile brick track, Z -do iioan p-o.m ocTorr Victory DODGE covered a. total distance of more than 2,500 miles. One of his out atandfne achievements was in 1917 when he surprised the auto- molflle. world' by winning the 250 mile War Derby on the Chicago speedway. Two years previous he was the victor in the 500 mile SDeed competition that opened a new speedway at Minneapolis. AUTOMOBILE SAID VIVID EXPRESSIONS (Con tins ad from pj 13) proceed in the selection, and the harmonizing of colors for both the exterior and the interior of a mo tor car is emphasized by the work of Fisher and Fisher-Fleetwood in originating color designs for their latest creations. In one, the Bird of Paradise supplies the color mo tif. The body panels are In the Paradise red of its tail; the up perstructure, fencers, mouldings. and running gear in the brown of its breast and the interior Is in harmony, being a golden tan. "In still another, the butterfly known to lepidopterans as morpho menelaus supplies the key. The car which is color-toned to tm shimmering, iridescent messenger from fairyland is a seven pas senger sedan. The exterior is in butterfly wing blue with which the interior is in keeping. But terflies are inlaid in walnut mouldings of the doors, the parti tion panels and the vanity cases, and even on the heavy robe which goes with the car there is a but terfly in needlepoint. 'Fisher and Fisher-Fleetwood, n creating color designs for Gen eral Motors cars, have gone direct ly to nature, because in her hand ling of colors nature never errs. Whether In the fragile splendor of the butterfly floating in the warmth of the afternoon sun. the High power made feasible by rugged Dodge construction and Dodge quality materials. . High speed made practical by a lower gravity center and no body over hang. (Chassis full width of body) A car that glides over ruts and railroad tracks with limousine smoothness and takes sharp corners without sidesway. And a beauty!. Inside and out! A quality car in the smartest sense of the word at a price that seems incredible! This is Victory Demonstration Month. Drive the car any hour you please and win one of 'Dodge Brothers big Demon stration Prizes. (Full details on request) B kfO T H E R. gay plumage of, some tropical bird, the gorgeous coloring of a deep sea fish, the latender shadows on January snoHfrs 6r the glowing gem brought up from tUe depths of the earth, nature reveals her perfect harmonizing ' of .colors. To the great studio of natnre, therefore., the artist-designers of Fisher have gone for their inspiration. The result is, more colorful and more beautiful cars than ever before. 'In one car Iz the tcne of the blue of an oriental sky at mid night; In another is a modification of the gold and blue of the Ber muda Anrel fish: In a third the deep green of the emerald; mounted, as it were, in a setting of platinum-toned fenders, ra diator and lamps; in a fourth the bold, vivid, brilliant colorings of a recently discovered mineral known as curite; in a fifth, the cool, re freshing green of a forest in sum- ner; in a sixth, the warm shades of golden brown and orange of the Grand Canyon; in a seventh, the living glow of that preciofus gem. the rose coral; in an eighth, the cerulean hues of Italian waters and so on. with nature always sup plying the color tone. "The Increased use of color fn motor cars has been made eco nomically possible by the use of Duco and other lacquers. The movement,owever, did not set in full strength to color until about two years ago. when Fisher made plain to the entire world by way of actual accomplishment that color in far greater variety than previously thought feasible could be employed in the finishing of motor cars. Since then, the streets of the American city and town have take non a gala ap pearance as motor cars in virtual ly infinite variety of color com binations lend ever-changing in terest to the scene." IX 5 : -.It f ! 4 r J