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So far as I know, there is no book in circulation that tells, in concise form, the story of the mechanical and commercial evolution of the automobile, mirrors its sudden leap into popular use, and shows how it has demonstrated, in a most amazing way, the power of money to make money, describes its benefits to the world, and forecasts the future possibilities of the automobile industry as an investment.

This book, the “Story of the Automobile,” shows the struggle of man for one hundred and fifty years to devise a means of propelling a vehicle without animal power.

It describes the various stages of the evolution of the idea of motive force other than animal power, in France, England, Germany and the United States, and its triumphant culmination in a successful horseless vehicle. And it makes clear how, when the automobile became of practical use, its successful commercialization became most profitable in the shortest period of time of that of any product of man’s ingenuity supplying an article to meet human wants.

But if this were all that could be recorded of the story of the automobile, this book would not have been written. The automobile’s success demonstrates all this, and something more—something that would not ordinarily occur to a person unless his attention was called to it.

The astonishing history of the automobile’s success affords one of the most convincing and the best modern instance of the opportunities that are being constantly presented for investing for profit.

It is a signal example kept in our hearing every day by the Niagara-like roar of the cars along our boulevards, of the fact that this is the age of golden opportunities for making money make money—of opportunities that disclose themselves, sometimes unexpectedly, and, when embraced, are apt to respond with a veritable avalanche of profits.

For was it not an avalanche of profits that overwhelmed the man who in thirteen years made $200,000,000 and was offered another $200,000,000 for only a small part of his business? And this great fortune made by Henry Ford did not exhaust the Ford automobile’s possibilities, for millions are still being taken out of the business, one investor of $2,000 having received over half a million dollars out of it lately.

When men who are not 40 years old today came out of high school they either did not know what an automobile was or, if they had seen one of the very earliest samples, they had no vision of what it would develop into—no conception of what the future had in store for the wabbly horseless vehicle, zig-zagging down the street, as a potential money-maker.

And in the early days of the automobile’s struggles for recognition as a promising investment, no banker or other moneyed man could be brought to believe that it held out any reasonable hopes of great gain. No one could foresee, not even the inventors of the automobile, that in less than two decades the business done through its comparative perfection would rank fourth in order of the industries of the United States. And still less was there anybody so foresighted in the possibilities that lie in money to make more money, as to vision the billions of dollars of profits to be paid out by this one idea of a horseless vehicle.

We can find few instances which so forcefully show, as the automobile industry shows, the chances for profitable investment in a short time which may come from sources supplying the needs or pleasures of the great mass of the people.

The chapters of the “Story of the Automobile” devoted to its commercialization make clear that its greatest success has been due to the production of automobiles at a price within reach of people of ordinary means. For this the one man most responsible is Henry Ford. He has demonstrated in a manner of many millions that the most money is to be made out of things used by the greatest number of people—things that become common needs.

The enduring truth of the profitableness of Philip D. Armour’s apothegm, “Make and sell things that are ‘et’ up,” is not discredited by the automobile industry, for the use of the automobile “eats” up steel, brass, wood, rubber, leather, gasoline and many other natural resources. The automobile wears out and has to be replaced, so it properly comes in the category of things “et” up.

This truth, that the greatest profits lie in products that can be given general distribution, with a consequent large sale, which is one I have maintained in my book, “Making Money Make Money,” in my magazine, “Investing for Profit,” and in all my teachings on the science of investing, finds a splendid exemplification in the automobile industry’s success as a phenomenally profitable form of investment, and the circumstances of this success are but cumulative evidence of the soundness of my doctrine.

And the success of the automobile industry in the measure and with the speed it has achieved verifies not only this claim I have made and maintained, but confirms my contention of the value of co-operation.

I have preached co-operation as urgently as I have advocated, as the best objects of investment, the value of things used popularly and in quantities.

The “Story of the Automobile” could not have had written into it the glamour of the golden guerdons of Golconda but for Ford’s idea of quantity production, reinforced by co-operative standardization of parts. Co-operation between the manufacturers produced standardization, and standardization enabled quantity production, and the low price which quantity consumption warranted has caused automobiles to be bought by millions, and the purchase of the automobile in millions, instead of thousands, has made the hundreds of millions of dividends which this wonderful mine of profits has yielded.

The “Story of the Automobile” is one of the best and most notable proofs of two of my convictions bedded in the concrete of experience, namely, that the most promising investments are those made in natural resources and enterprises which the largest number of people can patronize, and that co-operation is one of the most effective forces in nature, and, therefore, applicable to the affairs of men as a beneficent influence, and, if efficient, the handmaiden of success.

The story of the automobile has herein been treated in a way that not only presents a graphic relation of the automobile’s development as an invention, its commercialization, its benefits to man and the position it occupies as a notable example of earning power, but in a manner that develops the many morals taught by its success. The method of treatment of the subject matter is uncommon, and, for this reason, interesting, I trust, to those who read the book.

The chapter contributed by Mr. Edward G. Westlake, automobile editor of the Chicago Evening Post, is a resume of automobile conditions from the intimate viewpoint of a writer who has specialized in the automobile, and enjoys a deserved reputation as the dean of the automobile editors of the daily newspaper press. Every one interested in automobiles will derive information and entertainment through reading Mr. Westlake’s presentation of the amazing features of automobile industrial figures. In it he states interesting facts not stated elsewhere in the volume.

The book’s interest and value as a contribution to automobile literature, of which there is not much in book form, would be less than they are, but for the participation in its preparation by the Business Bourse International, Inc., New York, whose vice-president, Mr. J. George Frederick, is one of the highest authorities on business economics.

The chapter by the Business Bourse deals with the automobile industry from the standpoint of the financial and investment aspects of the automobile, accessory and tire manufacturers’ securities, and Mr. Frederick’s reputation in the financial world is a guarantee of the authoritative accuracy of the facts presented in this chapter.

Credit for salient facts in the history of the automobile, obtained and used in the “Story of the Automobile,” is given to a large volume of nearly 500 pages, “The Romance of the Automobile Industry,” by James Rood Doolittle, issued lately by The Klebold Press, New York city. This volume is the most exhaustive work in book form yet published on the automobile, and covers graphically every phase of its development and popularization. It is virtually a textbook and reference guide of facts of motor car history, and devotes particular attention to the personnel of the founders of the industry and those engaged in it, and the association features.

I can only hope that the work entailed in presenting this, the “Story of the Automobile,” has been done sufficiently well to make it interesting and instructive to those who read it.

H. L. Barber.

Wheaton, Ill., April 2, 1917.