The Youth And Growth Of The Industry
The motor industry is in certain respects unique. Its development has been extraordinarily rapid, and in view of its extreme youth, the degree of importance to which it has now attained is truly remarkable.
According to Sir David Salomons, who was one of the principal pioneers, the industry may be said to have been born in France in the year 1894. It was not until 14th November, 1896, that the Act, which limited the speed of motor vehicles travelling on British roads to four miles an hour, was repealed. Until that date, the law required every car to be preceded by a man on foot carrying a red flag. From these facts we see that the location of the industry in its early days was largely influenced by legislative restrictions. In those countries which first realised the potentialities of motor transport, the young industry had its earliest chances of development. It was principally for such reasons that France so long predominated in the manufacture of private motor cars, and continues up to the present day to hold a position second to none in respect of the production of cars of high quality. In framing schemes of taxation, and even in such trifling matters as the adoption of local by-laws, legislators great and small are apt to disregard the effect that their actions may have on some essential industry. When Dublin alone among the capitals of Europe, with the sole exception of Constantinople, refused to license motor cabs to ply for hire, it is probable that the worthy citizens who sought thereby to protect the vested interests of the old jarvey, were quite blind to the far more vital consequences which would have ensued if their action had been generally endorsed. The same must be said of certain municipalities which have opposed the introduction of motor omnibuses, because they saw in these vehicles merely a possible antagonist to the established tramway system. Some of the worst examples of obstructive legislation have been found in certain British Colonies, among which Ceylon and Bermuda have attained unenviable notoriety.
In Great Britain, the development of the industry, while not entirely negatived, has been perpetually hampered by petty interference. The Motor Car Acts, framed to protect the public against a possible danger, have been more often used as a means of bringing funds into the local exchequers. The ratepayers have provided police who have often been employed mainly to detect those same ratepayers in the commission of purely technical offences. The law, which has prescribed a maximum speed limit of twenty miles an hour, has been totally ineffective except as an annoyance. There is probably not a motorist living in Great Britain, including those who took part in the framing of the law in question, who has not broken that law on almost every occasion upon which he has used his car.
