MORE ABOUT THE BOND.
Page 15
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The Cambridge Show, "The Inspector" Asserts, was not a Success for Steam Wagon Exhibitors, nor will any Show be, in a Purely Agricultural District.
HEN I WROTE the article that appeared in
the last issue but one of The Commercial Motor the Cambridge Royal Show was still running, although to allow for the exigencies of publication dates I had to address my readers as if the gates had been finally closed. The results from the motor vehicle manufacturers' point of view have now, however, been known for a -week or ten days, and they have been meagre in the extreme. The decision of the manufacturers, through their Society, to ban the Royal this year to all, with the exception. of the steam wagon makers who were in the position of being able to make their own terms, was a wise one. The Show was very little, if any, goad to any vehicle exhibitor. Practically no current business was done there and very little progress was made with laying the foundations of future orders. I'Legular petrol vehicle manufacturers were barred, and so were their own reconditioned machines, yet Slough was given a protected opportunity to cry its wares.
It may be that a Show of this kind in a purely agricultural district, whilst of use to purveyors of agritural supplies, is useless for S.M.M. and T. members. Yet there are those who hold that the industry can, and should, make a strong appeal to the farmer and to the market gardener, and who claim that the failure to do so hitherto has been due solely to lack of appreciation of the farmer's requirements and to failure to present the suitable class of machine ; they assert that the farmer -is not interested in the f ourtoner--they forget that hundreds of this type have been sold to agriculturists, and that it is a very useful type for market-garden transport. To the writer's way of thinking, in certain circumstances an agricultural show has publicity attractions for the trade that do not solely depend on the attendance of the agriculturist. If such shows are held within reasonable distance of industrial districts they become a centre of interest to thousands who 'hardly know a heifer from a filly or avhose whole life interests are not cen tred in bees and butter or goats and chemical manure. Surely it would almost be safe for the Society to leave the decision to the individual member in such cases, and to announce that the Bond is not operative but optional.
So many people have fallen into the way of talking of the S.M.M. and T. as if it were some extraneous authority—some Government department. They forget that it is the manufacturers and traders themselves and only their money and decisions that are responsible for it, in toto, and that it is to them that the officials are responsible for their decisions. Unfortunately, to the thinking of many, there is too much Trader about its organization and not enough Manufacturer. That is as it may be, but it has to be remembered that there is little, if any, protection in this country as yet. In any ease, the S.M.M. and T.'s should be the trade's decisions, and, to some extent, are even now.
There is to be no commercial vehicle show this year at Olympia, but, in order that there may be consideration in respect to the new Bond, the period for such Bond is extended to December, 1923, which would cover the 1923 Show if there be one. There is time to spare before that need be taken into account. It has to be remembered that the Bond (which has to be signed before July 31st) will bind the Bondsigner until after Olympia 1923. He will have to decide whether, as part of his consideration, he is to have an assurance that non Bond-signors shall net have the same consideration as that for which he has undertaken to sign the Bond—a state of affairs that existed up to the last commercial vehicle show. Non-Bond-signers should not be allowed to exhibit.
Then, finally, there is the much-vexed question as to the .respective importance of the coachbuilder and the chassis builder. It has to be remembered that but for the chassis builder there would be no coachbuilder. The chassis builder is the tons et origo of the industry, and the other auxiliaries from coachbuilding down to ignition plugs, depend 'on the chassis industry for their existence' and most certainly, in so many cases, such as tyres, for the enormous volume of business that arises by way of repeats. Certainly the coachbuilders' claim that they should have exactly equal rights, so far as the ballot is concerned, with the chassis builders ; at the same time, they stipulate for a wide choice of chassis upon which to show their coachbuilding examples. If these arguments be admitted in tote, the result may easily be that, amongst the oldest chassis Bond-signers in good positions at Olympia, there may be one or two stands of cbachbuilders,_ Bond-signers themselves, who are showing their bodies on chassis produced by manufacturers whose rights in the ballot are entirely at the end of the sheet, and who, properly, would, in the order of precedence, fall last on the list of the chassis builders. The Olympia show for commercial vehicles should have, as its nucleus and in the central positions, only the exhibits of the principal chassis manufacturers of the industry. Only in that way is the show properly. and comprehensively represented ; only in that way is the attractiveness of the exhibition maintained. Coachbuilders have been most insistent that their rights should not be prejudiced by the exhibition of non-Bond-signing builders' bodies on Bond-signers' chassis. It must at least be conceded that, if coachbuilders have distinct privileges accorded to them in the matter of ballot rights, they must not be at liberty to show their productions on chassis produced by people who, otherwise, would either not be there at all, or, if present, would be somewhere on the less prominent stands.
All these subjects are linked up with the signing of the new Bond, and require to be carefully reviewed before the signatures are attached. -The Bond in itself is necessary. It is important that the members of the industry should have a recognized organization for giving effect to the will of the majority with regard to the expenditure of time and money that shall be made in the matter of exhibitions. It is most important that there should be means ready at hand to ensure unanimity of action in all these matters, and it is also most important that deliberate attempts to ride round the Bond or connivance at other people's attempts to• ride round the Bond should be rigorously dealt with. At the same time, it has to be remembered that; whereas the Bond states that the Bond-signer shall neither do nor permit to be done and that he shall, moreover, prevent all others with whom he does business doing or permitting to be done anything set out in detail in the Bond as interdicted, and whereas it is desirable to make the Bond as far-reaching 'as possible, it is quite impracticable to insist that the manufacturer shall be responsible for the actions of the second, third or fourth purchaser of the machine which has long ago left his hands and over the destiny of which he has but the slightest control, if any.