BRIDGING THE GAP.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4781, 26 November 1924, Page 1

BRIDGING THE GAP.

OVERCOMING CLASS STRUGGLE.

AGENCY OF THE MOTORf-CAK. The theory that the class struggle between wage workers and employers so much in evidence in European countries has been held down to a minimum in the United States through the wholesale production of cheap automobiles is elaborated and supported by Er. CoHn Ross, a wellknown German publicist, in an article written in Los Angelejs for German papers. Dr. Ross, who is a champion of democracy in Geimany, and who recently reached the United States from a tour in Latin America, begins by pointing out that if the use of automobiles is restricted practically to the wealthy, as in most European countries, they are potent factors fot breeding hatred for their possessors in the hearts of the proletariat that has to sswall ( ow their dust and petiol odours. He notes that in America they nave become so general as to make for democracy instead of class warfare, and then says

•Tn fact, to-day the .automobile in the United States, at least in the West, is in more general use by the working-class as a means of transportation than the bicycle in Europe. An unskilled worker getis four or five dollars a day, a skilled man eight to 10, and even 12 to 14. With such wages it is easy to get a motor-car and to maintain it. . If. one finds a new Ford too dear, one can get a second-hand one for little money, lhe American generally doesn’t keep his car very long, three or four years ; .then he buys a new one. Above all, a person who begins with a Ford tries as soon ais possible .to get a more expensive type—although even that is not dear, according to European ideas. And so there is a constant supply that bears the market.

‘■Dealing in used cars is a simple matter in California and doesn’t cost much. All that is needed is an open space. There the cars stand, day and night, and the dealer hais his office in one of them. A small used car may be bad for as little as 150 dollars. And you don’t have to pay all of it in cash either. It is enough to make a payment of 30 to 50 dollars down, the rest is on the instalment plan. .

“But with the possession of an automobile the social chasm is again spanned. The worker goes to the factory in hip motor-car like the manager or . the owner. ■ He takes his sweetheart for a trip on Sunday or goes with his family for a week-end. in the Aiountains or at the seashore. Many take tent and camp beds with them and spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday in the open. The possession of a motor-car makes one absolutely free in one’s .movements. If one does not like his job in one place the car quickly takes him to another. “Surprises are constantly overwhelming the European in connection with the wide use of motor vehicles in the West. In the country I saw, with astonishment, farm hands, unable to read or write and doing the most common day labour, enter their cars after the day’s work to go home to their families. And the seasonal agricultural worker also has his auto. In the San Joaquin Valley I met Mexican families on their way from gathering oranges near San Diego to cut grapes in Central; California. They lived in tents and travelled in motorcars.

“Human labour ip dear, the machine is cheap. This really smoothes over social contrasts. The small, and even the larger, manufacturers or business men, in principle, don’t live much better than the workers. Both classes have their autos, and both have no servants in their houses.. It iis easier to keep two autos than one servant girl. I have become acquainted with very well situated families, living in fine houses and owning several motor-cars, where the lady vf the house does not employ a girl. Of course, the mechanical appliances for housekeeping have developed quite differently than with us. But they are also financially, available to the worker’s family.

“The widespread ownership of autos has also influenced the relationship of man and wife and of children and parente. it is a matter of course that every woman runs a car. Without that she really couldn’| do her housekeeping. And every half-grown youth can guide an auto. When a son or daughter is sent to college a car is frequently furnished by the parents. At least I found the campus of the University of California in Berkeley actually surrounded by students’ cars.