and casings
on motor-cars.

No essential of the automobile, however, is of more importance than
gasoline. Here is the life-blood of the car. It is estimated that there
are to-day three hundred thousand cars in the United States that travel
fifteen miles a day. There are fifteen miles of travel in each gallon
of gasoline. This makes the daily consumption three hundred thousand
gallons. At an average price of fourteen cents a gallon, here is an
expenditure of forty-two thousand dollars for gasoline each day, or
more than fifteen million dollars a year. To this must be added the
excess used in cars that work longer and harder, and in the host of
taxicabs that are in business almost all the time, which will probably
swell the annual expenditure for gasoline well beyond twenty millions.

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