"Motor Evil"

Forward thinking, even brash in his public policies is General the Honorable James Barry Munnik Hertzog, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. A former Boer commander who harried the British long and successfully from 1899 to 1902, General Hertzog only occasionally succumbs to his native Dutch caution, as he did last week upon contemplating the spectacle of stolid South African farmers hastening to buy U. S. motor cars on credit.* "The disease of purchasing motor cars," said he before the Orange Free State Nationalist Congress, "is a real menace to the welfare of the Union. The purchase of a car on credit has become the greatest danger to the Union. There is nothing today which so seriously threatens ruination for farmers as the motor car evil. "When a car is bought on credit the transaction ceases to be a private affair, as the state will eventually have to pay for the foolishness of these people. I would favor the withdrawing of all state land bank facilities from farmers who do not pay for their cars."

*Last year $12,000,000 worth of U.S. motors were exported to South Africa. Nearly all were sold on time-payment plans.