What the Traveling Public Wants in the Future 330023
“DON'T let any industry kid itself that it is not in the midst of an absolute change, and particularly if it be a transportation industry.
“This will not be a mere slight improvement or an addition of attachments and gadgets, but an absolute fundamental metamorphosis.
“Industry, after its bristling period in the market, went into a coma and disappeared entirely into the chrysalis of the experimental laboratory where it has been for four years. Now, under the impetus of the new day, it is emerging from this cocoon of experimentation no longer a narrow short-sighted, crawling creature, but a butterfly with wings, preening itself in the sun and ready to take off almost any time for far more distant flights of progress than ever before in the history of mankind.”
Mr. Stout thus summarizes his paper after having outlined the history of transportation with special references to the development of railroad building and operation and the competition with which the railroads were confronted after motor-vehicle and highway development had proceeded sufficiently far.
Among future trends and needs, Mr. Stout is impressed by present developments in the touring-trailer field, and suggests that in the very near future the public will respond to a vehicle complete in itself and somewhere half-way between the present touring car and the most luxurious trailer.
Light weight must be a fundamental of the future car, and great improvement in vision is an urgent necessity at present.
