Letters to the Editor

America should be proud of our entrepreneurs, inventors

This month I am writing about the United States and the impact of the automobile. Long before Henry Ford cornered the auto market with his Model T, most Americans seldom went 20 miles from home by horse or by horse and cart. Yes, since the 1880s the rich folks could afford beautiful custom-made cars and chauffeur to drive and repair them, but the average middle-class family could not afford an automobile, which remained scarce, expensive and unreliable.

This changed in 1908 when Henry Ford introduced the Model T (his 20th car model). Ford engineers continued to work on making this car more affordable and easy to produce. In 1913 Henry Ford started to use the assembly line model (first introduced in the Oldsmobile) and combined it with interchangeable parts. In 1914 Ford doubled the wages of his workers to $5 per day and cut hours to an eight-hour day. He was able to cut the cost of the car from $780 in 1910 to $290 by 1924. By 1918 half the cars sold in the United States were Model T’s. Americans now had cars that were durable and affordable. Rural towns were now being connected to cities and reliable roads and highways were being built.

This car enabled the average American to get on the road and travel. Vacations, long Sunday drives, visiting friends and relatives became commonplace. Americans began driving to stores and shops and demanded these be located nearby instead of being a faraway, hot, dusty trip into the city. Repairing the car was not difficult. Tires could be easily changed.

My grandfather bought his first Model T in 1920. He taught my mother, then ten, how to drive so he’d have a backup driver. Life was fun for my mother’s family. The car let them visit distant relatives across the United States. They visited several national parks like Yellowstone, attended the World’s Fair in 1934 and the Indianapolis 500 Race.

Trips such as my mother’s family were taking led to roads being vastly improved. Over the next few years, the first network of cross-country highways were created starting with the Lincoln Highway in 1913 running from Times Square in New York City to Bedford Park in San Francisco. This road network inspired many others, such as the Dixie Highway; these roads connected the country, running north and south or east and west. In 1926 the names of these networks were changed into a numerical system. Finally in 1956 the U.S. established a nationwide system of controlled access highways. America was on the move leading to new innovations like suburbs and large shopping malls.

By the 1960s Americans had taken to the road with style. This was Detroit’s Golden Age, producing cars that were rolling works of art. For more than 100 years, cars have provided America with independence, freedom and adventure.

Over the last 250 years America has provided the world with innovators who have created products like cars that have transformed the world. Who knows what American has an idea for the next new thing.

We are all blessed to live in America where we continue to develop amazing products.

Betty Cotner