Automatic Age

December, 1930
A u t o m a t ic A ge
13
where the true historian will have a chance to show himself. By this
time the gambling machine has become a delicate subject, and yet the
lessons—good or bad—which these machines have had for the trade
need to be carefully written for our benefit. The part that chance
machines have played in creating the professional operator of coin
machines has been an interesting one indeed but it would certainly
require an expert to properly balance that story. This chapter would
also require an analysis of the effects of chance machines upon public
opinion toward the industry, and what handicaps, if any, they have
placed on the development of automatic merchandising. It might be
profitable to go abroad also, and see what the German and British
automatic trades have done in an effort to solve the problem of the
chance machines from within. These and many more questions would
properly belong in a well written automatic history.
The rise and numerous increase of penny machines of every type
and description would be another interesting chapter, as would the
rise of merchandise machines in reality. Now that 1930 has brought
the question of sales methods for automatic machines so vividly to
the front, the fellow who writes our history should tackle the story
of what the pioneers in the industry have done in the way of experi­
ment in this field. Through the years the trade has kept the pro­
fessional operator to the fore as the key man of the industry. This
is an interesting fact and a good writer of history might be able to
dig up some of the pros and cons that have developed the professional
operator. The question of the best marketing methods for coin ma­
chines will be of greater interest than ever for another year at least,
and maybe at the end of 1931 the historian would have a much more
complete story to tell. But if we had the factors that have weighed
upon the course of the trade in the past, some costly experiments in
marketing might be avoided at the present.
The political story belongs in this history as a chapter, too, that is
the political strivings that have occurred within the trade itself. Right
now the strain of some of these political developments are being keen­
ly felt, as divisions in the trade keep alive rifts in the personnel of
the industry at a time when cooperation and unity is most needed.
It will be one of the hardest jobs in the world—like writing a political
history of the United States almost—to give us a true history of the
causes and effects of the political tides within our organization up
to now, if this chapter is ever written. A proper record of the facts
on this side of the story might be one of the most powerful factors in
bringing about much needed unity. But until some good historian
shows us the truth, the trade will have to go on it seems, paying the
heavy bills for strife and division within its own ranks.
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