Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/157

Rh per annum deduction for amortization. These figures show the large amount of money that we put annually into automobiles which we wear out, with disappearance from inventory within the period of five years. I estimate the value of the automobiles in commission in 1920 in the following way:

1916 2,391,016 at $150 per car = $ 358,652,400 1917 1,788,168 at $1,479,415,394 xX }¢ = 295,883,078 1918 1,106,393 at $1,466,267,091 x 3g = 586,506,836 1919 1,891,286 at $2,219,983,227 xX 3¢ = 1,331,989,935 1920 2,034,432 at $2,526,772,461 X $§ = 2,021,417,968

, ———_—__ Total........ 9,211,295 $4,594,450,217

The second column gives the number of the corresponding year’s cars estimated to be still in use. The right-hand column gives the estimated value, allowing for depreciation.

According to the census of Jan. 1, 1920, there were then 2,146,512 automobiles, 139,169 motor trucks. and 246,139 tractors in use on the farms of the United States. These automobiles may be considered as performing a business function, distinct from use for pleasure purposes. The farmer’s automobile is free from condemnation under the head of the abuse of the automobile, which in recent years has been one of the serious features in our economic life.

The subject of “The Automobile Industry and Its Future” has recently been studied by Leonard P. Ayres, vice-president of the Cleveland Trust Co. Mr. Ayres reports the automobile manufacturing capacity of the United States to have been in the neighborhood of 2,750,000 cars per annum at the end of 1920. Up to that time the total manufacture had been about 11,775,000 cars, of which more than 700,000 had been