"One expression of man's technical genius disappeared over the hori-
zon but another was born before our eyes." ²

The several ramifications of the mass production of automobiles
spelled revolution: 1) lower cost of production and lower prices,
which in turn widened the market, a market that soon spread beyond
national frontiers all over the world and that would require manufac-
turers to become multinational enterprises; 2) a sharp increase in
labor productivity and higher wages; and 3) a precipitous decline in
the need for skilled workers but at the same time a rise in the
importance of highly trained engineers and technicians, who would
take growing responsibility for planning and managing the produc-
tion process.

Although in America the evolution of mass production and mass
marketing of automobiles continued in almost unbroken steps into
the 1920s, in Europe the First World War caused a diversion. Most
auto firms there shifted to military production, especially of aircraft
engines. Even though some of them worked out mass-production
methods for their military orders, most fell further behind the Ameri-
cans in this aspect of industrial technology. But, in the 1920s and
the 1930s, mass-production and mass-marketing methods gradually
were adopted in Europe, though not to the same extent as on the
other side of the Atlantic.

In America, the innovations of the interwar period were less in the
realm of technology than in improving the management of the large
auto firms. During these years, while huge investments were being
made in highways, the automobile, by expanding opportunities for
leisure time, strongly influenced social life, ending rural isolation and
fostering the beginning of urban congestion. Even at this time, a
threat to the cities was perceived. As one farsighted observer re-
marked: "Already the automobiles are gnawing like termites at the
bases of our skyscrapers." ³

By the end of the 1930s, Europe had decided to adopt the auto-
mobile as a form of mass transportation and began to build express-
ways as well as small cars for a mass market. But, before this transi-
tion could occur, the Second World War broke out and interrupted
the auto industry again. When it ended, Western Europe quickly
turned to a policy of mass production and mass marketing, an ap-
proach that would spread to Japan in the 1960s, ultimately making
that country the world's largest auto producer in 1980, and then
to the Third World and the European communist countries in the
1970s.

But, as it did, two problems emerged in the heartland of the
automobile, Europe and America, and in Japan as well. The huge

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