CAPITALISM'S FAVORITE CHILD'
Neuberger, Richard L.
'Capitalism's Favorite Child' COMBUSTION ON WHEELS, by David L. Cohn. Houghton Mifflin Company. Reviewed by Richard L Neuberger NECESSITY is the mother of invention, and invention is the mother...
...It raised up the biggest industrial giants on the face of the earth...
...We learn not only about Henry Ford's anti-Semitism but also about Barney Oldfield's daredevil driving...
...His book covers the fabulous era from the time of the "horseless carriage" to the moment that the last sedan rolled off the assembly line at Detroit prior to conversion to war weapons...
...He shows the concentration of car production...
...Who will say that the recent Presidential campaign was not decided by the radio...
...Would the outcome of the war have been altered had some German inventor discovered V-l arid V-2 several years earlier...
...The automobile brought in the era of the gangster...
...We learn, too, that man does not change...
...Cohn is not only a social historian...
...Cohn is sufficiently witty and wise never to answer this question...
...Cohn does not deal only in triviata...
...Has the automobile been a good or evil influence...
...Whose life has not been shaped these past few bloody years by the airplane...
...Yet his facts leave one thinking that perhaps, had the internal combustion engine never been invented, mankind might still be struggling along and the grand old Stars and Stripes would still be waving...
...David L. Cohn, one of the nation's best social historians, has gone behind these, questions to the whole story of the automobile...
...They are the ultimate in the flowering and fruition of capitalism...
...Cohn refers to the automobile as "capitalism's favorite child...
...And what about the automobile...
...These companies are more powerful and have greater resources than many entire nations...
...MR...
...Can this country ever be the same as it was before the mass production of cars began...
...He sees, too, such ramifications as the building of vast manufacturing establishments, with thousands of workers and billions of dollars in resources...
...What other product so symbolizes this period in history...
...At the time of the first autos men did not think a woman had any business driving them...
...WE discover that doctors in 1910 solemnly warned that "a rate of 15 or 20 miles an hour in a motor car causes ladies mental suffering, nervous excitement, and circulatory disturbances, extending into the night and causing insomnia...
...Reviewed by Richard L Neuberger NECESSITY is the mother of invention, and invention is the mother of history...
...He sees and understands the social implications of the automobile...
...Did not America change the day that the automobile was invented...
...He is also a humorist, and we see our ancestors in mufflers, goggles, and dusters rolling along at the fearsone speed of 15 miles an hour...
...The opinion still prevails...
...Three companies now dominate the field—Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors...
...These questions answer themselves...
...But Mr...
Vol. 8 • December 1944 • No. 50
