Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1630

Carbon of a letter of July 27, 1956, to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal, 44 Broad Street, New York, New York, enclosing letter of July 24, 1956 (as revised) to John D. Hertz, The Hertz Corporation, Chicago, Illinois. (See also Item 1736 which elaborates on this idea with publicity material received by Spencer MacCallum as a share owner in Hertz Corporation.)

 

 

Gentlemen:

 

     We take the liberty of enclosing for your attention copy of a serious letter, more or less humorously phrased, which the present writer has mailed to the Chairman of the Board of the Hertz Corporation.

 

     You will be at liberty to use this letter in any manner you may chance to see fit.

                                 Sincerely

 

____________________________________________

 

Dear Mr. Hertz:                            July 24, 1956

For forty years, I have owned and driven my own automobile. My only complaint is that I had to own the damn thing.

Now the sense of ownership is a pleasant sentiment that appeals to many people. It gives them a sense of exclusiveness and of having something to enjoy that is their very own. It made sense long ago when business was very little organized and each person had to do for himself almost everything that was done — and do it most inefficiently. But does it make sense now?

Business is more and better organized, now, with vast corporate organizations giving statewide, nation­wide and even international services to millions of people who do not themselves own any of the properties — the capital — by which they are served.

My complaint about the automobile is that the bene­fit I get out of using it is darn near canceled out by the responsibilities and headaches of owning it. To begin with, it probably doesn’t work for me much more than one hour out of the twenty-four; but my money is tied up in it twenty-four hours. On top of that, the thing has to be housed and kept in order right around the clock. I have to build a garage for it, and then keep the garage idle half the time while the car clutters up the streets and collects parking tickets the other half of the time, making me a criminal offender against the law of the land.

Then of course there is the matter of keeping it oiled and greased and inflated, while all too often it goes haywire in some vital function and I am exposed to the arts and mysteries and depredations of the re­pairman, in whose hands I am ignorant and helpless, unless I can take time out for a college course in automotive engineering for self-protection.

But what I am getting at it this. While I want the use of an automobile, I do not want to own it. As a professional man, I have my own business looking after the interests of my clients and customers. I can’t afford to take time out to own the automobile and do the thousand and one things required of an owner. Moreover, I would like to escape the periodical horse-trading — almost every year — that seems necessitated by freak style changes and power increases by the hun­dreds of horse-power, in which I have to play the part of the clown in contest with the gladiator over the price and trade-in allowance.

Of course I haven’t catalogued all the headaches, only just enough for you to get the idea.

How about you taking care of all these things for me? Surely, with your organization, you could handle it professionally, while I have to be the rankest ama­teur. Looking after thousands, even millions, of auto­mobiles in a systematic fashion, it would cut the cost at least 50 percent. So you could do all these things for me and thousands of others at a nice little saving. I would gladly split the difference with you, which would give you a profit of 50 percent on your turn-over and me a saving of 25 percent, which is pretty good, and yet little or nothing compared with the avoidance of headache.

So please get out your pencil and figure the thing down fine, and let me know by return mail how much you will charge per year for handling the whole matter. Of course, it will take you a little time to get going, and I will have to worry along until you are ready.

As soon as we get on the new basis, you will own all the automobiles, I and all the other Joe Doakses won’t have to do anything about them except to use them. I will write you my annual check, and you will give me a ticket or some kind of document (perhaps also an emblem to wear on my coat). When I want to ride, I go or phone to the nearest Hertz Station, pick up a well-serviced car, drive just like my own for an hour or a day, and turn it in to any convenient Hertz Station when I’m through with it instead of collecting parking tickets with it.

In this way, something like 90 percent of all the cars will be in actual service every day instead of standing making trouble for everybody. The using of cars will be enormously increased, and the number of cars enormously reduced. The streets will be open for safe driving instead of congested for storage. And, in these times of capital shortage and high interest rates, many billions of capital will be released that now, from ocean to ocean, stand idle at the curb.

You being the owner, and thus responsible, you will purchase naturally only the most serviceable, the most efficient and the safest kind of cars that can be made. With all cars well designed, well serviced and never obsolescent, highway hazard will be greatly re­duced.

Style changes will of course be limited to long term beauty and utility, uninfluenced by the popular craze for dangerous extremes and bizarre effects.

Your organization can really solve the parking problem and really earn the gratitude of Chambers of Commerce and other public bodies who, themselves, can only fumble it.

Please hurry up, Mr. Hertz. Situation is becom­ing desperate, and I am counting on you.

Very truly yours,

Spencer Heath, Director

SH/m               The Science of Society Foundation