T H E A U T O M A T IC C A L E N D A R
It is only natural to say that the close of 1930 will add another
year, or chapter to automatic history. If the annual trade convention
continues to increase in importance and influence, and also continues
to be held in February, then it may become more
convenient to mark the chapters of our history
from one convention to another. But as it now
stands the tale of 1930 progress has already been
told and the time now intervening until the con
vention proper in February will simply be days
of getting ready. Recent inquiries have indi
cated that occasionally some member of the trade
is called upon to make a speech, and that a sketch of automatic history
might be very fitting in any kind of speech relating to the trade. But
material for such a historical sketch is very scarce. We may presume
that those men who are gathering material for a book on automatics
will look far and wide for material to construct an accurate and com
plete sketch of the industry up to date. Everybody will welcome such
a history. If properly written, historical studies can be made invalu
able to any industry. But there are very few in any language or
trade who are properly qualified to delve into the story of the past
and bring its lesson forward so that all may read and profit thereby.
The fellow who writes a helpful history, even of a trade, needs to
be somewhat of a philosopher. Lots of men can gather the facts of
history into an interesting story, but only a very few can draw the
lessons that history should teach. So we could well wish for the man
who writes this history from its bebginnings would have enough of
that stuff called philosophy in him to picture the real threads of pro
gress that have been woven down through the years. He ought to be
able to picture the mistakes and lost opportunities that have influenced
the development of the trade, too. For the bad things in the picture
may be worth more to us in the future than the things we like to brag
about.
There comes the story of personalities, too. Some of the men who
have been in this business for ten years and more could tell very in
teresting stories. But the historian will have to interview them per
sonally, for many of those who have been closest to the heart of de
velopments will not write the kind of story that is needed to preserve
an interesting history. So we need a historian to get busy now while
these men are yet alive and with the instinct of a true reporter, get
their full story before it is too late.
Before trying to see just what kind of a chapter the year 1930 has
added to trade history, it might be well to look backward and see some
of the chapter headings that go distant into the bygone years. What
ever may be the personal feelings of many concerning the influence
of chance machines at present, one of the big chapters in the early
history of the trade will be the story of these machines. And here is
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