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== WILMETTE LIFE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1924 17 THE AUTOMOBILE out the Country ernn'lent custom inspectors condemned it as unfit to be sold. The condemned tobacco was valued at $150,000 and additional expense for destroying it was in sight when permission was ob· tained to dump the cans in the Kearney meadqws as part of the fill for the new highway. SECTIQ~ I ~ .. Rent-a-Car Idea Follows Old Livery Stable Service Idea Newest Form of Rental Be. comes Popular Through. EXPECI' CUT ON AUTO T . AXATION 111 the many Re~t-a-Car systef1!S springing up all ovet the country, ts found a revival of the livery stables of former days. The pendulum has sw~ng back, and an old phase ~£ trans.portah?n, motorized and moderntzed, IS bemg brought to light. A~though the com· panics already operatmg have had a Ia rge volume of business, due to the fact that they do not employ specialized cars ,maintenance costs are exhorbitaJ?t. profits barely cover expenses and fatl· ures in business are frequent. However, a certain portion of the public likes to serve itself when it can be done economically, as is attested by the popularity of self-serve restaurants and grocery stores. John Hettt, guiding genius of the Ye11ow Cab Manufactur· in g company, which specializes in building revenue producing vehicles, has announced a special car necessary to the success of a Drive-It· Yourself business. It is over two years since Mr. Hertz fir st began his investigations of this new development o£ motor transportation. He maintains that a specially built car of attractive appearance and dependable qualities was necessa ry for the buccessful operation of Drive-ItYour5c:lf se rvice. That car, the Ambassador. Drive-Yourself five-passenger sedan. is uow ready for sale. Hut ~lr . H~rtz didn't stop there. He realized that the business needed a system of operation, and the Yellow DriveIt - Your~elf System, in which the Yellow Cab company of Chicago, the operating company-not the Yellow Cab Manufacturing company, is financially interested, was formed in that city. Four different stations operating Drive-Yourself vehicles have been the testing ground for this new car, and its operation has proved to be economical and profit-building. During the month of August alone the net profit from this busine ss was $12,000. The Yellow Cab Manufacturing comthrough its various subsidiaries anches is makitJt; a concentrated roughout the country for the ~:IOJ>m·ent of this business. Soon large city will have many Driveourself c~mpanies operating on a !&rge sc~le, w1th n~w,modernized, spectally bmlt automobtles and financiallysound organizations behind them, it is said. Already operations are under way in Chicago and Louisville. Plans are prepared for every operator of Yellow Cab products to g? into business, and the Ambassador Dnve- Your elf, a specially built automobile that cannot be distinguished from privately owned machines, will be sold to every Drive-ItYourself company in the United States as well. To hire the car the public will pay but a small rate per mile. Traveling salesmen will use Drive-It-Yourself service to cover territory. Government offiLials will find it invaluable going from place to place on investigations. In the old days young folks did their courting . in a hired rig. Now they have the nttre resources of the Drive-ItYourself companies at their command. There are hundreds of uses for this service. 'Vomen who like to drive a smoothly running automobile will avail thems~lves of the new system on their shoppmg tours ; delivery boys, co11ectors ·. and public officials will use it; compallles w~o have hesitated about putting mto servtce cars of their own will hail it w_ith sati faction, it is claimed. Automobtle repair stations will get more now that the private owner can a car to drive while hi own maine is being over-hauled. Drive-It-Yourself is a business that offers big opportunities with a minimum of responsibility and less effort tha~ any other phase of the automobile b~smess, Mr. Hertz says, now that the rtght car is available for the operation of such a business. Claims Good oada Will Make for Better Schools "In checking over the notes made by our road survey cars which cover e\·ery section of the country, we find that four-fifths o£ the little one-room school houses have no provision for heating or ventilation except old unjacketed stoves and rickety windows," says Charles P. Root, manager of the touring bureau of the Chicago Motor club. "Most of these buildings are poorly lighted, and the seating facilities are also poor. "The moral," points out Mr. Root, "is simply this: Build good roads and we sbal1 be able to build larger and better schools, for with the existence of hard roads children can be trans· ported by bus from IS to 18 miles to a large consolidated school." Moreover, the automobile interests of This means that for the entire counlhe country and organizations concerned try the gasoline tax collections will exin t.he welfare of the owner of the auto ceed $64,000,000. The states also in the vehtcle are strongly opposed to a Feder- first six months of 1924 collected about $2000,000,000 from registrations, licenses al ~uto fuel levy. Efforts were made by the Treasury and permits. Probably 20 per cent more Department about two years ago to im· will be collected from this ource bepose .a general horsepower tax and a fore next January 1. The Federal taxes · tax; on ~II autos. and to require on the automobile industry this year, No Government Levy on gasohne ~ederal regtstratton. ThiS recommenda- roughly, will amount to about $130,000,· tJOn was made to the House Ways and 000. Guoline, Report Means Committee. But such a protest These figures do not take account of arose from the country against such a the fact that thirty-six state , al o have plan that it was blocked. personal property taxes again t autoCongress will not impose a federal Under the Federal law there is a 3 tax on gasoline. N~ only is this prac- per cent tax on trucks and a 5 per mobiles. tically assured but there will be a stronc rent tax on other automobiles. Last Taking all taxes into account, it will movement at the next season, and, if year about $150,000,000 was raised by be seen the automobile in this country need be, in the following one, to have this levy. Congress last session cut the is bearing a tax of about $500,000,000 the excise taxes on automobiles reduced. tax on accessories, tires and parts from annually and the tendency is con tant· This movement will be backed by the S per cent to 2~. a reduction of about ly to increase it, due partly to increased American Automobile Association and $20,000,000 a year, and exempted truck production and partly to insistence of the other strong influences. chassis selling {or less than $1,000. This politicians on using the automobile as a But despite this, the tax load on the means a reduction of $4,000.000 to source for large revenues bec.ause it is automobile steadily is growing more $5,000,000. In other words, there has convenient to do so and, thus h.r, easy and. more burdensome. Between them, been a reduction of between $20,000,000 to pass muster with the argument the the Federal and State governments are and $25,000,000 in the Federal taxes on automobile is more or less of a luxury collecting annually almost a hal£ billion the automobile industry and purchasers in the hands of those who can afford it. dollars. of machines. While there may be and probably will THREE. WHEEL AUTOMOBILE Because more states are applying the be further agitation for a Federal tax gasoline tax and in some cases raising The Germans have perfected a three· on gasoline, such tax cannot be put the rate of the gasoline tax, the amount wheel motor car, and the advantages through chiefly because the states are collected by the states is steadily climb· are said to be the reduction o£ cost due more and more resorting to the gasoline ing. This year the ~ollections will be to saving of tires, easier steering and tax. They are raising large sums of much larger than in 1923, when they to· braking. Rigidity is given to the frame money by it and they object to the Fed- taled $36,813,951. In the first six months by diagonal cross members reaching a eral government invading the same field. of 1924 they totaled $32,430,410. point in front. - -- - --- --- -- - Cadillac announces the first public show- ing of the new and distinctive Custom Built Cadillac-Fisher Bodies on the V-63 chassis. You are cordially in vi ted to attend this Salon between the hours of 9 a. m. and 9 p. m. at the Chicago Branch 23rd Street and Michigan Avenue. Octobtr 4th to 11th Tobacco in Cans Used u "Fill' on Highway Down through the ages many odd substances have been used for the con.struction of highways. But it is U!Jhkely that ever before in the lons;r h1story of road building has a grade been . constructed of pipe tobacco-and 111 cans at that. But that is what is being used to form t~e grade for the important Lincoln Haghway feeder along the Hack· e!lsack river connecting the transcon· tt.nental road with the Harrison Turn· p1ke. ~he 1,~,000 cans of tobacco which wtll go mto the fill for the new highwere purchased with the contriof patriotic citizens during the overseas troops. Stored in warehouses at the close of the war, the tobacco was recently purch~sed by a New York firm and shtpped to this country where Gov- c I L L AC Standard ./ CADILLAC MOTOR CAR COMPANY Clzicago Branch . -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - --- ----------------------