July, 1913.
Page 1
Page 2
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The decision of the Commercial Vehicle Committee of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, as to the date of the proposed exhibition, has duly been recorded in our columns. The third Saturday in July, 1913, is a date which has already been entered on the diaries of most of those concerned with the commercial-motor industry. We have so entered it in our batch of "reminders," which we publish weekly.
There have been rumours of shows for months past —we had almost written years, and we must confess to some feeling of relief when we heard that the committee had been enabled definitely to fix a date at last. We do not pretend that we were enamoured of the choice, and if truth be told, we believe that those even who had the actual settling of it were no morepleased than were we ourselves. We felt, however, that the committee had honestly striven to arrive at a satisfactory decision, and so to put an end to further postponements, in spite of very considerable difficulties which had cropped up with regard to the location and date.
If the various branches of the trade itself as a body felt that this was the best compromise which could be achieved, we were prepared wholeheartedly to make the best of it, and to throw our weight into the scales in order to achieve the success which, for the sake of the industry as a whole, must be attained.
We have, however, not been allowed unequivocally to record the fact that those who are primarily interested in the exhibition, viz., the exhibitors, areunanimously of opinion that this choice should beaccepted without protest. "The Extractor," a member of our staff whose duties are of a migratory, if intensive, character, has, in the course of recent journeyings through the country, had forced upon his attention the fact that a considerable body of menin the industry considers that the choice of the middle of July will render it exceptionally difficult to insure that amount of success which the occasion demands. Expressions of opinion in this sense have been received from such important quarters, that it has been found impossible to disregard their import.
We note that the date has been chosen because it is the only one available for the particular building at Addison Road, which seemingly is the only place where heavy vehicles and their accessories can be exposed collectively. It is evident, that if there be danger of the exhibition's not securing that amount of interested support to which it is entitled, on account of the choice of a date on which a very large proportion of manufacturers and their staffs, and of users, is on holiday bent, that date is a bad one. If the only answer to this be that the date is the only one on which Olympia is available, then it is obvious that some other building than that at Kensington should be chosen.
We think the claim, that the middle of July is particularly suitable for the Colonial visitor, carries little weight. We do not anticipate that travellers of this class will journey to England specially for the exhibition in very great numbers. Those who are here on other business, and who would be attracted to a show of this kind, are here for a period of weeks, and very often of months.
We are told that the date has been fixed. Never thelehs, in view of this newly-revealed body of objectors, there is no question that the success of the exhibition, by virtue of everyone's entire co-operation, must be the first care of the Society. No avoidable risk of lukewarm support must be allowed to jeopardize this great new industry. No chance of partial failure must be permitted. If there be a general feeling, and there certainly is an indication of it, that the Society, although it has done its best with Olympia, should have paid more attention to date and less to location, then there must be yet further discussion. On another page of this issue, we publish a few extracts from letters which have been received with regard to this question, and our columns are available for any further correspondence on the subject.