necessary to go to the men who made it possible. Many impersonal items
can be enumerated which help to account for the growth and the nature
of the American automobile industry. The fact that the United States of-
fered a large and expanding market, with the consuming power provided
by a high standard of living, invited attention to the possibilities of mass
production. The resources needed for the development of a new industry
were all readily available. The United States was endowed with a rich
assortment of raw materials, mostly in easily accessible locations; trans-
portation facilities were ample; and the previous industrial growth of the
country had created a reservoir of capital and technical skill. Americans,
moreover, have always been a mobile people--they might even be called
restless--and they could be counted on to welcome an innovation which
would enable them to get about more easily

Nevertheless, while this combination of favorable conditions helps to
account for the predominance of the United States in automobile produc-
tion, it does not automatically add up to the American automobile industry
as it now exists. It does not, for example, explain what determined survival
among the host of firms that have appeared in the industry at one time or
another. ¹ The human element loomed large in the basic decisions that had
to be made: what kind of car to produce (gasoline, steam, or electric, for
instance); whether to aim for the luxury or the mass market; whether to
concentrate on one model or offer a product in several price ranges; what
components of the car to make in one's own plant and what to buy from
outside suppliers; when and how far to innovate in technology or style.
None of these problems would solve itself, and in this intensely competitive
industry the passing grade was close to 100%.

Business leadership, therefore, emerges as an essential factor--perhaps
the most essential factor--in the growth of the automobile industry. I pro-
pose in this book to use this element of leadership as the focus for a study
of the industry from its beginnings to about the year 1935. The terminal
point has been chosen because it marks a period of major change in both
the economy of the United States as a whole and the structure and problems
of the automobile industry. Up to this time the manufacturers of motor cars
had had to be concerned chiefly with problems of technology and pro-
duction. They had to devise a vehicle that would meet certain rather rigor-
ous technical requirements: it had to be mechanically simple enough to be
operated by individuals who knew little or nothing about machinery; at the
same time, it had to be well enough constructed to stand up under ordinary
usage without frequent and expensive repairs. This vehicle had to be pro-
duced at a cost which would permit it to be sold profitably in a highly com-
petitive market, and techniques of production had to be developed to meet
a constantly increasing and for a time apparently insatiable demand. ²

By the decade of the 1920's, the essential features of the modern auto-

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