It is natural to expect that the earnings on and the price of automobile accessory stocks should therefore remain firm, if conditions of trade or competition do not unduly affect them.
The future of the tire industry and stocks seems reasonably secure, as unless some satisfactory substitutes for rubber tires are discovered, apparently an increasing number of tires for replacements, if not new cars, should be demanded each year.
The present earnings of the tire companies are very large and should continue favorable. It must be remembered that the cost of material and labor are as important considerations to this class of manufacturers as to all industrials, and that their undue rise in cost might affect the industry more or less temporarily. But as they have come to be classed as necessities, the prices would naturally adjust themselves to the cost of manufacture.
With all popular cars sold far in excess of their capacity, barring the interference or lack of transportation, labor friction, or other unexpected or disturbing elements, it is safe to assume that 1917 should be a record year in the motor, motor accessory and tire industries, and that their earnings should be reflected in the intrinsic and probably the market values of their securities.
CHAPTER VII.
PASSENGER AUTOMOBILES MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES.
The following is, as near as possible, a complete list of the passenger automobiles manufactured in the United States, with the number of cylinders and the retail price of each. New cars are being put on the market so rapidly that it is difficult to keep track of them.
The prices quoted may not be exact in every case, as manufacturers are putting up prices quite generally as this volume goes to press. They are the prices at which the cars sold for a long time, and they are given without the intention to be exact to the dollar, but merely as relative figures of retail cost.
An automobile quoted at $1,195 may have undergone a price raise to $1,350, but the former price quotation fixes the car’s retail price status as compared with a car that sells for $360 or $550.
One hundred manufacturers are said to have raised their prices, and forty made increases from $10 to $700 on each car, the average advance being $146. Freight conditions and the uncertainties of the international situation were advanced as reasons for the increase.
Practically all the American manufacturers of tires also raised prices a second time within a year, the range of the last increase being from 61⁄2 to 12 per cent. Where price is not given, it was not available.