Introduction: The Technology
The automobile (a horseless carriage) is a relatively new invention that used to be nothing more than a simple novelty. While it may seem to be an ingenious device, the fact remains that the cost of its production limited it as a mere fanciful curiosity for the wealthy with many among the masses simply opting to purchase a horse if they needed a means of personal transport. However, within the past year, an entrepreneur by the name of Henry Ford actually came up with an ingenious method of utilizing the industrial assembly line and incorporated it into the production of automobiles that he named “Model Ts”1.
This has made the production of the vehicles far cheaper and, as a result, made it more accessible to the common man. Senator, I believe that this is an ideal opportunity for you to throw your support behind Henry Ford and his Model Ts as a prelude towards your plans in running for the presidency. While this may seem strange to support a relatively unknown piece of technology that has yet to be tested, I believe that this is an ideal opportunity for you given the potential that this particular technology has in changing not only the U.S. but the world itself! All I ask is that you hear me out with this suggestion and be open minded about it. In this report, I will present some valid arguments that you can take into consideration before you make your final decision regarding my recommendation.
Strengths and Limitations
One of the first strengths behind throwing your support for the automobile is because, at the present, transit between different communities is limited to 10 to 15 miles per day due to the inherent limitations of horse/wagon based travel. Simply put, while horses are a great way to travel, they do need to rest, eat, and drink water every once in a while. This slows down travel considerably and limits the ability of a person to travel from one area to another.
With the speed and endurance of automobiles, such distances are no longer an issue and people living in locations 10 to 15 miles away or longer from towns are no longer as cut off as they used to be. All an automobile would need is enough gas to get to a location and it would be quite simple for someone to use it for a prolonged period of time since, as an inanimate object, it is not subject to the same level of fatigue that affects animals. Since it does not need to be fed and can be stored outside a house with no problems, this makes it an ideal method of transportation for people who live within various cities wherein due to inherent space limitations, people are at times unable to have their own horse.
Not only that, an automobile can be used in a variety of weather conditions without it getting sick, the same cannot be said when it comes to a horse since, as an animal, it is affected by the weather2. The last and most useful aspect of an automobile is that it runs on gasoline and only expels gas as a direct result. Aside from minor maintenance that would be needed, homeowners do not need to worry about keeping bales of hay in their home, hiring a veterinarian to ensure that their horse is healthy as well as dealing with their excrement when a horse inevitably defecates. All of these factors combined show that an automobile can have a considerable amount of advantages over a horse.
Aside from presenting these advantages, I would also like to present several limitations that should be taken into consideration in order for you Senator to have a more balanced idea regarding automobiles. One of the first issues is that there are simply areas where automobiles cannot traverse. Places that are particularly rocky or in forests where trees are close together simply cannot be traversed by virtue of an automobile’s size and the fact that it uses wheels in order to move.
This necessitates the creation of paved roads in order for them to get to one area quickly and without incident. This would of course come at a considerable expense that the government must shoulder and, as such, would require you to risk some political capital in order to argue for their creation. Lastly, there is also the inherent cost associated with cars; at the present, a single Model T is being sold for $275, a price that an ordinary worker can reach but is still quite expensive. This makes it uncertain whether demand will continue into the foreseeable future.
Ways it can be used
One of the many ways in which the automobiles created by Ford can be used is to expand into more urban and rural areas whereas previously many residences were isolated along with railways due to their convenience for travel. In the past towns and even cities appeared near railway stations since being situated near them resulted in a more convenient means to travel from region to region. The end result was that various rural areas tended to cluster around railway stations resulting in less land being used effectively. Through the use of automobiles, this is no longer a problem since the ease of travel that automobiles can give to ordinary people would result in them being able to settle in new areas that would not normally be settled in due to their distance from the train station.
Aside from this, there is also the possibility that the popularization of cars would result in a “boom” in the amount of travel between the various cities and states within the U.S. One of the reasons why people within the country tend to stay in the places they were born in is due to the inconvenience associated with long-distance travel. Some cities are simply too far away via horse and the journey far too uncomfortable for the trip to be worth it. Through the use of automobiles, the trip would be far easier since cars do not get exhausted, the passengers are protected from the sun, the wind, and dust and it would not take as long to get to a destination since there would be few rest breaks needed3.
Thus, through your support Senator of the popularization of automobiles as a form of transportation, this would actually encourage inter-state tourism resulting in new business opportunities as well as the possibility that new workers from one state may enter into another state that needs this influx of potential workers. Lastly, automobiles can help to facilitate trade between various areas which would allow agricultural products to be bought in far off places within the U.S. without them being rotten when they get there due to the length of travel required.
What you have to understand Senator is that a lot of our farmers sometimes find it quite difficult to transport what they grow or produce to places where they can be sold and processed before these food items start to rot. This is one of the reasons why people tend to cluster around train stations since this enables them to transport their goods faster from one location to another. While carriages have been used in the past, their limited capacity combined with the fact that horses can only go a certain amount of miles within a day results in food being close to spoiling if it is transported from a farm all the way to the nearest market.
The advantage of an automobile in this case is that it can easily help a farmer transport his goods from his/her farm to the nearest market without having to rely on horses. The weight that a Model T can hold combined with the fact that it does not need to rest in order to function results in a far better capacity to transport perishable goods. If such items can reach consumers within such a timeframe and in large amounts, this can actually result in lower prices for a lot of basic food items. This benefit alone would help many communities within the country that are affected by high prices due to their far-off location necessitating greater transportation and food costs.
What this section has shown Senator is that by promoting and aligning yourself with the automobile industry, you can make your name synonymous with progressive and beneficial change. This would be a very good start for your future plans Senator since if automobiles and the resulting culture they create becomes popular enough, you could very well find yourself sitting in the White House within a few years.
The Impact it May have
Aside from the aforementioned changes that may occur as a direct result of the popularization of automobiles, there are also other impacts that may occur as a direct result. For instance, it may enable better methods of communication (i.e. people can travel and talk to each other personally a lot better), more convenient forms of transportation, better methods of collaboration and finally a far easier lifestyle for most people4. This is because with ease of mobility comes other benefits that we may not understand or even know about at the present; however, with this type of technological marvel at your fingertips, it is likely that the society that we know of today will be forever changed as we gain more freedom over where we go and when we want to do so.
As automobiles become more popular, they can help to introduce changes in the way in which people do business. For instance, after the initial Model T car, Ford could possibly create even bigger automobiles that can transport more goods from one location to another. This can help to increase the amount of food and other products that could be delivered resulting in lower transportation costs which in turn would help to lower the cost of food in general. This can help to further facilitate the amount of trade between far off communities and contributed towards the expansion of cities and states.
Recommendation
When it comes to proceeding with the future of this technology and how it can help your political career, it is important to find some way of supporting this growing industry. This can come in the form of tax breaks for the Ford Corporation in your city or by lowering the tax associated with buying a new vehicle. Aside from this, you could also create a bill that would support the creation of more roads and gas stations within the city so that you can popularize the use of cars.
Other potential solutions would come in the form of actually going on the radio and actually announcing your support for the use of automobiles and actually putting into place programs that would help ordinary farmers get their hands on one to show that these vehicles can be used not only to transport crops and other farm products but could also be potentially used on the farm itself by helping to plow the land or transport water and other materials from one end of the farm to another. Suffice it to say that there are a lot of possible applications that an automobile can be used for which a government campaign could promote resulting in their popularity.
These actions Senator will benefit not only your political career but your constituents as well since their lives would become far easier due to being able to have better travel conditions or reaping the aforementioned benefits that have been elaborated on multiple times in this paper. All that is needed is the political will along with your effort in order to bring such a dream into reality. By doing so, you will cement your place into history and possibly become someone to be remembered as an example to follow.
Conclusion
After going everything that has been presented in this report so far, it can be seen that the entry of automobiles into the U.S. economy can be considered as a catalyst towards the expansion of cities, the creation of longer delivery routes as well as enabling a greater focus towards interconnecting different cities via paved roads in order to better facilitate automobile travel. Supporting such technology will not only cement your place in history as a progressive president but will ensure that the United States as a nation will not only prosper but will even thrive in the upcoming years. Automobiles and all the benefits they entail are most likely going to become an integral aspect of our society.
However, the potential effectiveness of this technological marvel and how it will aid our country as a whole all depends on when we act on what has been presented to us on what is essentially a silver platter. Supporting this industry entails creating the necessary infrastructure in the form of roads, places where automobiles can fill up on gas as well as placing significant senatorial support behind the popularization of this new mode of transportation. Through these actions, you ensure your name is associated with progressive change which could even lead to the presidency if done correctly.
Bibliography
Freund, Peter, and George Martin.”The Social and Material Culture of Hyperautomobility: “Hyperauto.” Bulletin Of Science, Technology & Society 29, no. 6 (2009): 476-482.
Koji, Yamada.”Spurious Correlation between Economies and Scale: Model T Ford Revisited.” Annals Of Business Administrative Science 13, no. 4 (2014): 199-214.2015).
Yates, Brock. “Citizens, Start Your Engines.” American History 43, no. 4 (2008): 62-63.
Footnotes
- Peter Freund and George Martin, “The Social and Material Culture of Hyperautomobility: “Hyperauto.” Bulletin Of Science, Technology & Society 29, no. 6 (2009): 476-482.
- Brock Yates, “Citizens, Start Your Engines.” American History 43, no. 4 (2008): 62-63.
- Yamada Koji, “Spurious Correlation between Economies and Scale: Model T Ford Revisited.” Annals Of Business Administrative Science 13, no. 4 (2014): 199-214.2015).
- Ibid.