Few were blind to the prospects in the motor industry at that time, if the financial interests of the country were estranged; but no one was able to withstand the developments. The fire of criticism cleaned out the dross. Organization, the big thing needed to eliminate the “game” and give the industry the foundation upon which the large “billion dollar business” subsequently was built, began to come into being. Men of energy and brains got to work. These characters have remained. There are those veterans of the industry who say that the year 1907 marked the start of the business on the basis of a real industry. In that year 44,000 cars was the total output, and the value of the product was registered at $93,400,000. This was the highest total of value for the output of the industry so far reached in the United States. The next year the industry built 85,000 cars, valued at $137,800,000, and quantity production, efficient buying of material, strict attention to cost production in the plants, effective steps toward standardization, engineering methods that abolished a great deal of weight, etc., began to be set standards among car makers. The official statements of the industry show how well the improvements fitted in. In 1909 the production of automobiles amounted to 126,500, valued at $164,200,000. The following year the output climbed above the 200,000 mark, and since then the production figures have mounted steadily. Automobiles were _sold_ and competition became keener, but the output increased. VALUE OF RELIABILITY CONTESTS. With the new era of development in the early nineties came into prominence farseeing manufacturers who paid heed to the thought that the best way to put a fit and efficient motor car into the hands of the public was to test the car, its material and its mechanical practices, in some officially conducted series of reliability contests. Besides, it was urged there was a “romance of business” attached to the motor car industry that would lead to a greatly increased amount of publicity in the press. The national annual reliability competitions grew into wonderful favor. Makers strove hard to win the reliability titles. The “Glidden” tours became the tests that attracted not only the attention of every automobile man, but the general public. The whole country became the testing ground. For several years these national events did well the work they were expected to perform. Automobile building received, perhaps, its most practical aid. Makers learned. They took advantage both of the mechanical data and the publicity. A complex but valuable adjunct of the national tours became popular—every region in which the American Automobile Association was a factor, and this organization continues to be a powerful aid to the industry, had its reliability or its endurance classic.