Scientific Research and Invention 135 
automobiles. Both the car and truck alike con- 
tribute to the fullness of life on the modern farm. 
The truck permits rapid haulage to the railways and 
prompt shipping to whatever markets offer the best 
demand at the moment. The motor car not only 
saves the farmer's time (a vital matter in view of 
labor shortage) but also gives his wife and children 
contact with the social advantages of the town. 
Churches, lectures, schools and the theater are all 
available to the family which owns a car. 
As a consequence of this inventive triumph, road 
construction is going forward in the total yearly 
investment of $1,500,000,000 for construction and 
maintenance. American surfaced highways now 
total 625,000 miles, which is approximately one- 
tenth of all the highways in the world, surfaced or 
otherwise. 
The automobile industry has “hooked up” with 
other revolutionary inventions, the radio, motion 
and sound pictures, and the network of telephone, 
telegraph and the electric traction lines, purveying 
to the fundamental need of communication of all 
sorts. This is responsible for the great real estate 
developments that have taken place along parkways 
and suburban boulevards. 
The transformation into a motorized existence 
helps further to explain the increased “tempo” of 
production and the rapid accretion in value of the 
securities of all industries that have been affected 
by the speeding-up processes of scientific research 
and invention.