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THE FREE ENTERPRISE

Positive Feedback

 

SCHRAMM'S GARAGE

 
To: Jack W. Bailey
413 Crescent Drive
City

 
Parts: 1 set 22-638 brushes$1.18
Labor: overhaul generator
set regulator
clean battery terminals$11.00
total$12.18
Note: Time for oil change and install new filter.
Noticed car seemed to pull to the left when we stepped on
the brake.
Can take care of it Wednesday if you want.

Joe Schramm

 

Dear Joe:

Check for $12.18 enclosed.

Will see about the oil change and filter later. The kids have been sick and we're going broke at this rate.

Maybe it pulls to the left, but I haven't noticed it.

Jack Bailey

 

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Mr. Joseph Schramm

Schramm's Garage

1428 West Ave.

Crescent City

 

Dear Mr. Schramm:

Enclosed find literature on our new Automated Car Service Handling Machine.

With this great new machine, you can service anything from a little imported car to a big truck. The Handling Machine just picks the vehicle up, and the Glider on its Universal Arm enables your mechanic to get at any part, from above or below. By just turning a few knobs, he glides right to the spot on the end of the Arm. Power grapples, twisters, engine-lifters, transmission-holders, dozen-armed grippers and wrasslers—all these make the toughest job easy.

If you've got a dozen mechanics, buy this machine and you can get along with three or four.

This machine will be the best buy of your life.

Truly yours,

G. Wrattan

Sales Manager

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S GARAGE

Dear Mr. Wrattan:

This machine of yours would take up my whole shop. It's all-electric, and looks to me as if it would take the Government to pay the electric bills. Your idea that I could buy this thing and then let most of my mechanics go is a little dull. When business gets bad, I can always let them go. But with this monster machine of yours, I couldn't let anybody go, except the few guys I still had, who would be my best mechanics.

Do you know how hard it is to find a good mechanic?

Let's have the prices and information on your line of hydraulic jacks. Spare me the million-dollar-Robot-Garage stuff.

Yours truly,

J. Schramm

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Mr. Joseph Schramm

Schramm's Garage

1428 West Ave.

Crescent City

 

Dear Mr. Schramm:

Enclosed find prices and literature on our complete line of hydraulic jacks, jack-stands, and lifts.

Mr. Schramm, we feel that you do not fully appreciate the advantages of our great new Automated Car Service Handling Machine. This machine will more than pay for itself in speed, efficiency, and economical service. In bad times you could still cut down your repair staff. Mr. Schramm, one man can operate this machine.

We are enclosing a new brochure on this wonderful new labor-and-expense-saving machine, which will turn your garage into an ultramodern Servicatorium.

Cordially,

G. Wrattan

Sales Manager

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S GARAGE

Dear Mr. Wrattan:

I'm enclosing an order sheet for jack and stands.

Your new brochure on your wonderful new labor and-expense-saving machine went straight into the furnace.

I think you are going to have plenty of trouble selling this machine. The reason is, all you're doing is to think how nice it will be for you if somebody buys it, not how lousy it will be for him to have the thing.

This machine will take cable as thick as my arm for the juice to run all those motors. It's bound to break down, and while I'm repairing it, I'm out of business.

You say I can let all my mechanics go but one. You must have a loose ground somewhere. If I fire all my mechanics but one, and he runs this machine, who's the boss then?

I could tell you what to do with this great new machine of yours, but I don't think you would do it.

Yours truly,

J. Schramm

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: W. W. Sanson, Pres.

Dear Mr. Sanson:

I am sending up a large envelope containing sample letters, from garages all over the country.

The response we've had on Handling Machines has been unusually large and emphatic, but unfortunately it has not been favorable.

G. Wrattan

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: G. Wrattan, Sales Mgr.

Dear Wrattan:

There are going to have to be some drastic changes around here.

Bring all the letters you have up to my office at once.

Sanson

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Mr. Joseph Schramm

Schramm's Garage

1428 West Ave.

Crescent City

 

Dear Mr. Schramm:

There have been big changes at Superdee! Exciting changes!

Following a complete overhaul of top engineering management personnel, things are moving again!

Superdee is on the march!

Leading the van is our revamped ultramodern Supramatic Car Service Handling Machine, capable of repairing anything from a little foreign car to a huge truck! Fast! Economical! Efficient!

This new version embodies the most advanced methods, together with the actual suggestions of practical automotive repairmen like yourself!

This machine is hydraulically operated, and even has a special High Efficiency Whirlamatic Hand Pump in case of emergency power failure!

There's practicality!

There's real manufacturer co-operation!

You asked for it! Here it is!

Superdee is on the march!

Are you?

Cordially,

G. Wrattan

Sales Mgr.

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S GARAGE

Dear Mr. Wrattan:

I am enclosing an order for one of your new Superdeeluxe jacks.

I have read the stuff about your new Supramatic Machine. This one doesn't take as much space, and seems to be pretty good.

But I can't afford it.

Yours truly,

J. Schramm

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: W. W. Sanson, Pres.

Dear Mr. Sanson:

Well, we've sold three of them.

G. Wrattan

 

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: G. Wrattan, Sales Mgr.

Dear Wrattan:

We've got to do better than this or we'll all be lined up at the employment office in just about six months.

How about a big advertising campaign?

Sanson

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: W. W. Sanson, Pres.

Dear Mr. Sanson:

It won't work. This machine would theoretically improve just about any fair-sized repair shop's efficiency, but it's still too expensive.

To judge by the response, we now have an acceptable Handler here. In time, it's bound to take hold, despite the cost, and obtain wide acceptance.

But this won't happen in six months.

G. Wrattan

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: W. Robert Schnitzer, Mgr. Special Services Dept.

Dear Schnitzer:

Since you ran the computerized market simulation, on the basis of which we made this white elephant, I suggest you now find some way to unload it.

I would hate to be the man whose recommendations, presented in the guise of scientific certainty, were so disastrous that they destroyed the company that paid his salary.

A reputation such as that could make it quite difficult to find another job.

Sanson

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: W. W. Sanson, Pres.

Dear Mr. Sanson:

I have been giving this matter a great deal of thought, and have analyzed it on the Supervac-666.

The trouble is, the average individual does not use the available automotive repair facilities to a sufficient extent to assure the garage owner of enough income to afford our machine.

This is roughly analogous to the situation in the health industries some years ago.

I believe we might find a similar solution to be useful in this case.

W. R. Schnitzer

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: W. Robert Schnitzer, Mgr. Special Services Dept.

Dear Schnitzer

I frankly don't follow what you're talking about, but I am prepared to listen.

Come on up, and let's have it.

Sanson

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: G. Wrattan, Sales Mgr.

Dear Wrattan:

Schnitzer has one of the damndest ideas I ever heard of, but it might just work.

I am getting everybody up here to meditate on this, and want to find out how it strikes you.

This could be a gold mine, provided we can get the insurance people interested.

Sanson

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: G. Wrattan, Sales Mgr.

Dear Wrattan:

You will be interested to know after that discussion we had about Schnitzer's idea, that the insurance people are closely studying it. I could see whirling dollar signs in their eyes as I gave them the exact pitch Schnitzer gave me.

If they do go ahead, the banks will take a much rosier view of our prospects. We may weather this thing yet.

Sanson

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

"In Unity, Strength"

Since 1906

 

Dear Car Owner:

How many times have you suffered inconvenience and delay, because of auto failures and breakdowns? Yet how often have you hesitated to have your car checked, and repairs carried out that might have prevented these delays and breakdowns—because you were short of cash at the moment?

You need no longer suffer this inconvenience. Now you can prepay your car repair bills!

We call this our Blue Wheel car repair insurance plan. We are sure it will pay you to send in the coupon below, right away.

We can afford to make this offer because many cars will need no repairs, and the premiums for those cars will pay your repair bills. Send in the coupon today!

Cordially,

P. J. Devereaux

President

 

 

Schramm's Garage

1428 West Ave.

City

 

Dear Joe:

About that oil change and new filter: I've got Blue Wheel insurance now, so take care of it.

While the car's in there, check that pull to the left you mentioned.

Jack Bailey

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S GARAGE

To: Jack W. Bailey

413 Crescent Drive

City

 

Parts: 6 qts oil$3.90

#14-66 oil filter$4.95

#6612 brake shoes,1 set$12.98

total$21.83

Labor: change filter

drain oil

put in fresh oil

install brake shoes

grind drums

total$24.00

total$45.83

Blue Wheel$45.83

Paid-J. Schramm

Note: Your transmission needs work. I can't work on it this week,

because I'm swamped. How about next Wednesday morning?

Joe Schramm

 

Dear Joe:

Sure. I'll have the wife leave the car early.

Jack Bailey

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S GARAGE

Dear Mr. Wrattan:

Please send me your latest information on your Automated Car Service Handling Machine.

I never saw so much business in my life. I am now running about a month behind.

Yours truly,

J. Schramm

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: W. Robert Schnitzer, Special Services Dept.

Dear Schnitzer:

We are now out of the woods, thanks to your stroke of genius on the prepayment plan.

Now see if you can find some way to step up production.

Sanson

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: J. Beggs, Vice Pres. Blue Wheel Plan

Dear Beggs:

What on earth is going on here? After making money the first few months on Blue Wheel, we are now getting swamped.

What's happening?

Devereaux

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: P. J. Devereaux, Pres.

Dear Mr. Devereaux:

I don't exactly know what's going on, but it completely obsoletes these figures of Sanson's.

We are going to have to raise our premium.

Beggs

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S SERVICATORIUM

Dear Wrattan:

Please put my name on the waiting list for another Handling Machine right away.

Yours truly,

J. Schramm

 

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

Prepaid Car Care

Dear Subscriber:

Owing to unexpectedly heavy use of the Blue Wheel insurance by you, the subscriber, we must raise the charge for Blue Wheel coverage to $3.75 per month, effective January 1st.

Cordially,

R. Beggs

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S SUPER SERVICATORIUM

Dear Mr. Wrattan:

We're going to need another Handling Machine as soon as we get the new wing finished next month.

Yours truly,

J. Schramm

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: P. J. Devereaux, Pres

.Dear Mr. Devereaux:

I have to report that ordinary garages are now being replaced by "servicatoriums," "super servicatoriums," and "ultraservicatoriums."

These places charge more, which is justified by their heavier capital investment, and faster service.

Nevertheless, it now costs us more for the same job.

R. Beggs

 

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

Prepaid Car Care

Dear Subscriber:

Due to increasingly thorough car care offered by modern servicatoriums, and to continued heavy and wider use of such care, we find it necessary to increase the charge to $4.25 a month.

Cordially,

R. Beggs

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S ULTRASERVICATORIUM

To: Jack W. Bailey

413 Crescent Drive

City

Parts: 1 set 22-638 brushes$1.46

Labor: clean battery terminals

set regulator

overhaul generator$21.00

total$22.46

PAID

Note: There's a whine from the differential we ought to take care of on the Machine. How about Friday morning? I don't see why there was more trouble with the generator and regulator. I think we ought to check everything again. Your Blue Wheel will cover it.

Joe Schramm

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S ULTRASERVICATORIUM

Dear Mr. Wrattan:

I want three of your All-Purpose Diagnostic Superanalyzers, that will test batteries, generators, starters, automatic transmissions, etc., etc. Rush the order. I can't get enough good mechanics to do this work.

Yours truly,

J. Schramm

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: P. J. Devereaux, Pres.

Dear Mr. Devereaux:

When I was a boy, I rode a bicycle with bad brakes down a steep hill one time, and got up to around sixty miles an hour as I came to a curve with a post-and-cable guard rail at the side, and about a sixty foot drop into a ravine beyond that.

This Blue Wheel plan gives me the same no-brakes sensation.

Incidentally, have you visited a garage lately?

R. Beggs

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: R. Beggs, Vice-Pres. Blue Wheel

Dear Beggs:

What we seem to have here is some kind of weird mechanism that just naturally picks up speed by itself.

Without our insurance plan, the garages could never have gone up to these rates, because car owners wouldn't or couldn't have paid them. Thanks to us, the car owners themselves now couldn't care less what the bill is. In fact, the higher it is, the more the car owner thinks he's getting out of his insurance.

The effect of this on the garage owner is to go overboard on every kind of expense.

Yes, I've visited a garage lately. I got a blowout over in Bayport, bought a new front tire, and on the way back noticed a vibration in the front end. Obviously, the wheel needed balancing.

However, when I tried to explain this to the Chief Automotive Repair Technician in Stull's Superepairatorium, he wouldn't listen. Before I knew what was going on, the car was up in the air.

Here's the bill:

Parts: 4 22-612 balance weights$1.60

Labor: Complete diagnostic$40.00

Wheel removal$2.00

Transport$1.50

Superbalancomatic$6.50

Transport$1.50

Wheel attachment$2.00

Car transport$3.25

Total parts and labor$58.35

Blue Wheel$58.35

PAID—L. Gnarth, C.A.R.T.

I think you can appreciate how I felt about Stull's Superepairatorium. I shoved past the Chief Automotive Repair Technician, and got hold of Stull himself. He listened, looked sympathetic, and said, "If you want, I will pay all of this but $2.75, which is about what it should have cost. But that won't change the fact that at least half of these bills are going to be higher than they should be, and it's going to get a lot worse, not better."

"Why?"

"Do you think anybody that learns how to tell what's wrong by using one of these diagnostic machines, and that learns how to repair a car with hydraulic pressers and handlers at his elbow, is ever going to be able to figure out what's wrong on his own, or do the work with ordinary tools? All he's learned to do is work with the machine. He can't do a simple job. He's got to make a big job out of it, so he can use the machine.

"Now," Stull went on, "a good, old-style mechanic narrows the trouble down with a few simple tests. For instance, if the car won't start, he tries the lights and horn, sees how the lights dim when he works the starter, watches the ammeter needle, notices how the starter sounds, checks the battery terminals and cables, checks the spark, bypasses the solenoid and sees if that's the trouble—in fifteen minutes, a good mechanic with a few simple tools has a good idea where the trouble is, and then it's a question of putting in new points, pulling the starter to check for a short, or maybe working on the carburetor or fuel pump. To do this, you've got to understand first-hand the things you're working with. Then the know-how is in your brain and muscles, and you can use it anytime.

"But now, with these new machines, especially this damned Combination Handling Machine and Diagnostic Analyzer, the skill and know-how is in the machine.

"What kind of mechanics do you think we're going to turn out this way? How many of them will ever be able to do anything without using the machine? And since the machine costs so much, what is there to do but charge more?"

That was how it went at the garage. I thought that was bad enough, but this thing is snowballing, and there's more to it. After I left the garage, I happened to take another look at the bill and noticed that this Chief Automotive Repair Technician had "C.A.R.T." after his name. This struck me as peculiar, so I stopped at a roadside phone, and called up Stull. He sounded embarrassed.

"It's his . . . well . . . degree. It used to be a mechanic would have laughed at that. He had his skill, and knew, and that was enough. But now, with these machines, a lot of these new guys don't have the skill. Now they've got no way to prop up their feeling of being worth something. So, we've got this NARSTA, and—"

"You've got what?"

"N.A.R.S.T.A.—National Automotive Repair Specialists and Technicians Association. They award what amounts to degrees. They limit the number of people who can be mechanics, because anybody off the street could learn to run the machines in a few weeks.

"The mechanic who writes 'C.A.R.T.' after his name? Is he your chief mechanic?"

"Naturally."

"Why pick him for chief mechanic?"

"Because he has a 'C.A.R.T.' degree. If I use a guy with an A.A.R.T., or an A.R.T., I get in trouble with NARSTA. NARSTA says all its people are professionals, and have to be treated according to their 'professional qualifications.'"

"That is, how good they are as mechanics?"

"Of course not. 'Professional qualifications' is whether the guy's got an A.R.T., an A.A.R.T., or a C.A.R.T. He may or may not be as good as another mechanic. What counts is that C.A.R.T. after his name. That changes his wage scale, changes his picture of himself, and makes an aristocrat out of him."

There was more to this phone conversation, but I think you get the picture.

This mess is compounding itself fast. I talked to Sanson over at Superdee about it, but Superdee is making so much money out of this that Sanson naturally won't listen to any objections. Instead, he went into a spiel about the Advance of Science. Sanson doesn't know it, but this trouble comes because there is one science, and the Master Science at that, that is being left out of this. But I think if we put it to use ourselves we can end this process before it wrecks the country.

I have hopes that you know what I am talking about, and will see how to put it to use.

Bear in mind, please, that when the rug is jerked out, we want somebody else to land on his head, not us.

I might mention that I have recently had cautious feelers from one Q. Snarden, who turns out to be the head of NARSTA. Snarden wants, I think, to take over Blue Wheel.

He would then, I suppose, run it as a "nonprofit" organization. Do you get the picture?

Devereaux

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: P. J. Devereaux, Pres.

Dear Mr. Devereaux:

I don't know just what you mean by the "Master Science." But I have a good idea what we ought to do with this Blue Wheel insurance.

Suppose I come up this afternoon about 1:30 to talk it over?

R. Beggs

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: R. Beggs, Vice Pres. Blue Wheel

Dear Beggs:

I have now had a chance to analyze, and mentally review, your plan for dealing with Snarden, and Blue Wheel. I think this is exactly what we should do.

We want to be sure to run out plenty of line on this.

Devereaux

 

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

A Nonprofit Organization

NARSTA-Approved

Dear Subscriber:

In these days of rising car-care costs, one of your most precious possessions is your Blue Wheel policy. To assure you the best possible service at the lowest cost, Blue Wheel is now operated under the supervision of the National Automotive Repair Specialists and Technicians Association, as a nonprofit organization.

Yes, Blue Wheel now gives you real peace-of-mind on the road. And your Blue Wheel card will continue to admit your car to the finest Servicatoriums, whenever it needs care.

But as costs rise, the charges we pay rise.

As we spend only 4.21% on administration expenses, you can see we are doing our best to hold prices down; but costs are, nevertheless, rising.

To meet the costs, we find it is necessary to raise our premium to $5.40 a month.

When you consider the cost of car care today, this is a real bargain.

Cordially,

Q. Snarden

 

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

(Nonprofit)

NARSTA-Approved

Dear Subscriber:

For reasons mentioned in the enclosed brochure, we are forced to raise our premium to $6.25 a month.

Cordially,

Q. Snarden, Pres.

 

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

Dear Subscriber:

Blue Wheel has fought hard to hold the line, but next year, rates must go up if Blue Wheel is to pay your car-care bills.

As we explain in the enclosed booklet, Blue Wheel will now cost $8.88 a month.

This is one of the greatest insurance bargains on earth, when you consider today's car-care costs.

Cordially,

Q. Snarden, Pres.

 

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

Dear Subscriber:

Blue Wheel is going to have to raise its rates to meet its ever-increasing costs of paying your car-care bills.

Future rates will be only $10.25 a month.

Cordially,

Q. Snarden, Pres.

 

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

Dear Subscriber:

Blue Wheel's new rates will be $13.40 a month.

Cordially,

Q. Snarden, Pres.

 

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

Dear Subscriber:

Blue Wheel is going to $16.90 a month effective January 1st.

See our enclosed explanation.

Cordially,

Q. Snarden, Pres.

* * *

BLUE WHEEL

Dear Subscriber:

$22.42 a month is a small price to pay to be free of car-care expense worries nowadays.

This rate becomes effective next month.

Cordially,

Q. Snarden, Pres.

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S SERVICATORIUM

To: Jack W. Bailey

413 Crescent Drive

City

Parts: 1 set 22-638 brushes$2.36

Labor: Super diagnostic$85.00

Giant Lift$65.00

Manipulatorium$55.00

Extraculator$28.00

Gen. transport$1.25

Treatment$12.50

Checkulator$4.50

Gen. transport$1.25

Ultramatatoni$5.00

Installator$15.00

Ch. transport$3.75

Checkulator final$6.50

Ch. transport$3.75

Car transport$5.25

Total parts and labor$291.75

Blue Wheel $291.75 PAID

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: P. J. Devereaux, Pres.

Dear Mr. Devereaux:

The other day, the turn-signals on my car quit working, and before I got out of the garage, the bill ran up to $417.12.

In today's mail I got a notice that Blue Wheel, with Snarden at the helm, is going to raise its rates to $28.50 a month.

This notice, by the way, piously states that administrative costs now only come to 2.4% of Blue Wheel's total revenues. Naturally, if they keep raising their revenues by upping the premium, administrative costs will get progressively smaller, in proportion to the total. The percentage looks modest, but that's 2.4% of what?

I was talking to a physicist friend of mine the other day, and he says the trouble is, the car-repair setup now has "positive feedback," instead of "negative feedback." When the individual owner used to pay his own bills, his anger at high bills, and his reluctance or even inability to pay them, acted as negative feedback, reacting more strongly against the garage the higher the bills got. But now, not only is there none of this, but the garages are used more the higher the Blue Wheel premiums—because people feel that they should get something out of the policy. This is positive feedback, and my physicist friend says that if it continues long enough, it invariably ends by destroying the system.

Already there is talk of government regulation, and of plans to spread the burden further by taxation. This is just more of the same thing, on a wider scale. It will only delay the day of reckoning, and the trouble when the day of reckoning comes.

I think we'd better pull the plug on this pretty soon.

R. Beggs

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: R. Beggs, Vice-Pres. Special Project

Dear Beggs:

Snarden goes before the congressional investigating committee next week.

When he is about halfway through his testimony, and has them tied in knots with his pious airs and specious arguments, then we want to hit him.

Have everything ready for about the third day of the hearing.

Devereaux

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: R. Beggs, Vice-Pres. Special Project

Dear Beggs:

Now's the time. Snarden has pumped the hearing so full of red herrings that it looks like a fish hatchery.

Pull the plug.

Devereaux

 

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: P.J. Devereaux, Pres.

Dear Mr. Devereaux:

The first ten million circulars are in the mail.

Beggs

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

"In Unity, Strength"

Since 1906

Dear Car Owner:

When car-care insurance cost two dollars a month, it was a bargain. Now it costs about fifteen times as much.

This present insurance plan is so badly set up that it forces up car-care costs. And when car-care cost go up, that forces up insurance premiums.

This is a vicious circle.

Before this bankrupts the whole country, Foresyte Insurance is determined to stop the endless climb of these premiums, by offering our own plan.

Possibly, after paying these present terrific bills, you will understand why we call our plan Blue Driver. But you won't feel blue when you learn that our monthly rates on this new insurance are as follows:

$90.00 deductible 90%$18.50

$90.00 deductible 75%$12.50

$90.00 deductible 50%$5.25

$180.00 deductible 90%$13.75

$180.00 deductible 75%$7.95

$180.00 deductible 50%$3.75

Compare this with what you are paying now.

We are convinced that the huge increase in car-care costs is due mainly to the fact that the system now used makes it nobody's business to keep costs down, and puts the ever-increasing burden just as heavily on the man who doesn't overuse the plan as on the man who does.

Our plan is different, and puts the burden where it belongs—on the fellow who overuses the plan. You don't have to pay for all his expenses. He can't get away without paying for them. This is how it should be. Moreover, this plan gives good protection, at a lower cost.

For instance, with our $90.00 deductible 90% plan, you pay the first $90.00 of the bill yourself. True, $90.00 is a lot of money, but in less that a year's time, you save that much or more in premiums.

The 90% of the plan means that we pay 90% of the rest of the bill. You only have to pay 10%. On an $825.00 bill, for instance, you pay $90.00, which you have probably already saved because our premiums are so much lower. This leaves $735.00. We pay $661.50 of this, right away. You pay only what's left.

This lets you pay the small bills you can afford, while we take most of the big bills that everyone is afraid of these days.

Meanwhile, the less you use the plan, the more you save.

The larger the share of the risk you are willing to take, the more you save. Our $180.00 deductible 50% plan costs only $3.75 a month.

Because we may be able to lower premiums still further, these rates are not final. But at these rates, you can see that this plan rewards the person who doesn't overuse it.

We are already using this plan ourselves, and saving $10.00 to $24.75 a month on it.

How about you?

Cordially,

R. Beggs

Vice-Pres.

 

413 Crescent Drive

Crescent City

Dear Mr. Beggs:

Here is my check for $7.95. I am signing up on your $180.00 deductible 75% plan, and saving $20.55 a month.

But you better not jack the rates way up, or I will go back to Blue Wheel. If we only burn one light in the house, heat one room, and eat cornmeal mush twice a day, we can still pay their premium.

Yours truly,

Jack Bailey

SCHRAMM'S SUPER SERVICATORIUM

To: Jack W. Bailey

413 Crescent Drive

City

Note: Time for oil change, new filter. Our Automatic File Checker also says it is time your car had a Complete Super Diagnostic and Renewvational Overhaul on our special new Renewvator Machine. Your Blue Wheel will cover it.

Joe Schramm

 

Dear Joe:

In a pig's eye my Blue Wheel will cover it. I'm a Blue Driver now, and I get socked 180 bucks plus 25% of the rest of your bill, and it sounds to me like I will get hit for enough on this one to buy a new car.

Keep the Renewvational Overhaul. As for the Complete Super Diagnostic, I found an old guy out on a back road, and he can figure out more with a screw driver, a wrench, and a couple of meters than those stuck-up imitation mechanics of yours can find out with the whole Super Diagnostic Machine.

Don't worry about the oil change. I can unscrew the filter all by myself. I will pay myself $4.50 for the labor, and save anyway a hundred bucks on the deal.

If the transmission falls out of this thing, or the rear axle climbs up into the back seat, I'll let you know about it. But don't bother me when it's time to oil the door handles and put grease on the trunk hinges.

Jack Bailey

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S SUPER SERVICATORIUM

Dear Mr. Wrattan:

I just got your monthly booklet on "New Superdee Labor-Saving Giants."

Since the paper in this fancy booklet might clog up my new oil burner, I'm afraid I don't know what to do with it.

I am enclosing half-a-dozen letters from ex-customers, and maybe they will explain to you why business is off twenty per cent this month.

Yours truly,

J. Schramm

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: W. W. Sanson, Pres.

Dear Mr. Sanson:

I am sending up a big envelope containing letters from garagemen and their customers. These letters are representative of a flood that's coming in.

What do we do now?

G. Wrattan

 

* * *

SUPERDEE EQUIPMENT

Interoffice Memo

To: G. Wrattan, Sales Mgr.

Dear Wrattan:

I put this one to Schnitzer and his Supervac 666. It flattened them.

There's just one thing to do. We take a loss on this latest stuff, and get out while we're still ahead.

As for these questions as to how much we offer to repurchase Renewvators, Giant Lifts, et cetera, we don't want them at any price. Point out how well made they are and how much good metal is in them. That's just a hint to the customer, and if he deduces from that that the best thing to do with them is scrap them, that's his business.

Do you realize it cost me $214.72 to get a windshield-wiper blade changed the other day? They ran the whole car through the Super Diagnostic first to be sure the wiper blade needed to be changed.

As far as I'm concerned, this whole bubble can burst anytime.

Sanson

 

* * *

SCHRAMM'S ECONOMY GARAGE

To: Jack W. Bailey

413 Crescent Drive

City

Parts: 1 set 22-638 brushes$1.48

Labor: overhaul generator,

set regulator$8.50

total$9.98

Note: Time for oil change, new filter. We will take care of this for you next time you're in—no charge for labor on this job. Al Putz says there was a funny rumble from the transmission when he drove the car out to the lot. We better check this as soon as you can leave the car again. Once those gears in there start grinding up the oil slingers and melting down the bearings, it gets expensive fast.

Joe Schramm

 

Dear Joe:

Thanks for the offer, but I'll take care of the oil change myself. I want to keep in practice, just in case the country comes down with another epidemic of Super Giant Machinitis.

As for that rumble from the transmission, I jacked up a rear wheel, started the engine, and I heard it, too. It had me scared for a minute there, but I blocked the car up, crawled under, and it took about three minutes to track down the trouble. In this model, the emergency brake works off a drum back of the transmission. Since I brought the car down to your garage, one end of a spring had somehow come loose on the emergency brake, and this lets the brake chatter against the drum. It was easy to connect the spring up again. The transmission is now nice and quiet.

I am enclosing the check for $9.98.

Jack Bailey

 

* * *

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: P. J. Devereaux. Pres.

Dear Mr. Devereaux:

We were able to bring the rates on Blue Driver car-care down again last month. We are still making a mint from this plan, even with reduced premiums, and we are still getting enthusiastic letters.

I can see, in detail, how this works, by giving everyone involved an incentive to keep costs down. But I am still wondering about a comment you made earlier.

What is the "Master Science" you referred to, in first suggesting the idea of this plan?

R. Beggs

FORESYTE INSURANCE

Interoffice Memo

To: R. Beggs, Vice-Pres. Blue Driver

Dear Beggs:

I am delighted you were able to bring the premium down again. Maybe we will get this thing within reason yet.

What do you suppose the Master Science is? Isn't it true to say that Science first comes into existence when the mind intently studies actual physical phenomena? And the mind operates in this and other ways, doesn't it, when it is moved to do so by reasons arising out of human nature?

What is the result when the mind intently studies human nature?

Engineers, physical scientists, biological scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, and other highly-trained specialists do work that is useful and important. As a result, we have gradually built up what amounts to a tool kit, filled with a variety of skills and techniques.

They are all useful, but nearly every time we rely on them alone and ignore human nature, we pay for it.

All our tools are valuable.

But we can't forget the hand that holds them.

Devereaux

 

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