As in the case of rubber, there is beginning to be some apprehension about the future supply of high-power gasoline, so great is the demand.  Many students of this fuel problem believe that before many years there will be substitutes in the shape of alcohol and kerosene.  The efficiency of alcohol has been proved in commercial trucks in New York, but its present price is prohibitive for a general automobile fuel.  If denatured alcohol can be produced cheaply and on a large scale, it will help to solve the problem.

This brings us to the maker of parts and accessories, who has been termed “the father of the automobile business.”  Without him, there might be no such industry; for it was he that gave the early makers credit and materials which enabled them to get their machines together.

Ten years ago, the parts were all turned out in the ordinary forge and machine-shops; to-day there are six hundred manufacturers of parts and accessories, and their investment, including plants, is more than a billion dollars.  They employ a quarter of a million people.

No one was more surprised at the growth of the automobile business than the parts-makers themselves.  A leading Detroit manufacturer summed it up to me as follows: 

“Ten years ago I was in the machine-shop business, making gas engines.  Along came the demand for automobile parts.  I thought it would be a pretty good and profitable specialty for a little while, but I developed my general business so as to have something to fall back on when it ended.  To-day my whole plant works night and day to fill automobile orders, and we can’t keep up with the demand.”

What was looked upon as the tail now wags the whole dog, and is the dog.  The volume of business is so large, and the interests concerned so wide, that the manufacturers have their own organization, called the Motor and Accessory Manufacturers.  It includes one hundred and eighty makers, whose capitalization is three hundred millions, and whose investment is more than half a billion dollars.

There still remain to be discussed two phases of the automobile which have tremendous significance for the future of the industry—­its commercial adaptability and its relation with the farmer and the farm.  Let us consider the former first.

No matter in what town you live, something has been delivered at your door by a motor-driven wagon or truck.  These vehicles at work to-day are only the forerunners of what many conservative makers believe will be the great body of the business.  Here is a field that is as yet practically unscratched.  Now that the pleasure-car has practically been standardized, vast energy will be concentrated on the development of the truck.  Wherever I went on a recent trip through the automobile-making zone, I found that the manufacturers had been experimenting in this direction, and were laying plans for a big output within the next few years.  This year’s production will be about five thousand vehicles.