A Call to Arms

This article from an April 1906 issue of The Automobile is an editorial that urges the American automobile industry to take track and road race competition seriously. It calls on the success of the American bicycle industry when they took up the mantle of competing with Euro manufacturers in the 1890's. That argument posits that through competition the market and the industry grew in the United States. The Vanderbilt Cup is mentioned in this context as that event was the first major auto race in America and from 1904 through 1906 attracted impressive entries from France, Germany and Italy with the foreign marques dominating. American cars were for the most part not up to the task although the Locomobile had its flashes of brilliance.