Durant started making horse-drawn carriages in Flint, Michigan.
We all know what the U. S. Census Bureau does, right? It counts noses.
And those noses, properly scrambled or unscrambled, give marketers targets for selling goods and services, and legions of genealogists clues and info about their ancestors.
But what does it have to do with auto industry?
Perhaps most importantly, the every-ten-years national census ultimately determines how many members of the U. S. House of Representatives there are for each state, and since the number is capped, how they are divided up. States that gain population take Reps away from states that are losing.
So Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois—some of the remaining key domestic-make auto-producing states—are losing population and Sun Belt states are gaining. If Detroit loses a Representative to, say, Arizona, the domestic auto industry will have less a voice in Congress.
All of the above is just to put the Census in perspective for the car guys and gals who read TheDetroitBureau.com, no doubt telling this elite group some things they already knew but probably hadn’t thought about lately. Once again, it’s a “ten” year and the census enumerators will be upon us shortly.
Still, we were surprised to see “our” U. S. Census Bureau issue a, gasp, press release today (December 8), extolling this as the birth date of William C. Durant (1861-1947), the super salesman financial wizard who created General Motors in 1908.
In its entirety, the Bureau’s release reported:
Profile America — Tuesday, December 8th. Today marks the birthday of one of the giants of America’s early automobile industry. William Durant started by making horse-drawn carriages in Flint, Michigan. Then, sensing the potential of self-powered vehicles, he switched to building motorcars in the early part of the last century. He went on to help found both Buick and Chevrolet, and put together General Motors in1908. During his career, Durant headed GM twice, and during the 1920s, built a car bearing his name. In spite of the current difficulties facing the U.S. automobile industry, cars and trucks play a huge role in our daily lives and the economy of the nation. There are more than 244 million motor vehicles on the nation’s highways. Profile America is in its 13th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
As an automotive historian, I could quibble a bit about some fine points in the paragraph above, but what the heck.
Frankly, I’m not sure what the Census Bureau is doing issuing such press releases, but it is nice to know someone in Washington cares, really cares enough, about the U. S. auto industry and its history.