Wheels by Arthur Hailey Page B

judgment about what to refer elsewhere, so that an executive mind could concern itself with policy and ideas, unencumbered by detail which others, in lowlier posts, could be trusted to handle. That was why few of the thousands of letters yearly which individual car owners addressed to heads of auto companies ever reached the person whom the sender named. All such letters were screened by secretaries, then sent to special departments which dealt with them according to set routines. Eventually the sum of all complaints and comments in a year was tabulated and studied, but no senior executive could cope with them individually and do his job as well. An occasional exception was where a correspondent was shrewd enough to write to an executive's home address-not hard to find, since most were listed in Who's Who, available in public libraries. Then an executive, or his wife, might well read the letter, become interested in a particular case, and follow through personally. The first thing Adam Trenton noticed in his office was a glowing orange light on an intercom box behind his desk. It showed that the Product Development vice-president had called, almost certainly this morning. Adam touched a switch above the light and waited. A voice, metallic through the intercom, demanded, "What's the excuse today? Accident on the freeway, or did you oversleep .”
    Adam laughed, his eyes flicking to a wall clock which showed 7:23. He depressed the key connecting him with the vice-president's office five floors above. "You know my problem, Elroy. just can't seem to get out of bed .”
    It was rarely that the head of Product Development beat Adam in; when he did, he liked to make the most of it. "Adam, how are you fixed for the next hour .”
    "I've a few things. Nothing I can't change around .”
    From the windows of his office, as they talked, Adam could see the early morning freeway traffic. At this time the volume was moderately heavy, though not so great as an hour ago when production workers were heading in to factories to begin day shifts. But the traffic pattern would change again soon as thousands of office employees, now breakfasting at home, added their cars to the hurrying stream. The pressures and easings of traffic density, like variations in the wind, always fascinated Adam-not surprisingly, since automobiles, the traffic's chief constituent, were the center of his own existence. He had devised a. scale of his own-like the Beaufort wind scale, ranging from one to ten degrees of volume-which he applied to traffic as he viewed it. Right now, he decided, the flow was at Volume Five. ,, I'd like you up here for a while," Elroy Braithwaite, the vice-president, said. "I guess you know our buddy, Emerson Vale, is off in orbit again .”
    "Yes .”
    Adam had read the Free Press report of Vale's latest charges before leaving the newspaper beside the bed where Erica was sleeping. "Some of the press have asked for comments. This time Jake thinks we should make a few .”
    Jake Earlham was the Vice-President Public Relations, whose car had also been parked below as Adam came in. "I agree with him," Adam said. "Well, I seem to have been elected, but I'd like you in on the session. It'll be informal. Somebody from AP, the Newsweek gal, The Wall Street Journal, and Bob Irvin from the Detroit News. We're going to see them all together .”
    "Any ground rules, briefing .”
    Usually, in advance of auto company press conferences, elaborate preparations were made, with public relations departments preparing lists of anticipated questions, which executives then studied. Sometimes rehearsals were staged at which p.r. men played reporters. A major press conference took weeks in planning, so that auto company spokesmen were as well prepared as a U.S. President facing the press, sometimes better. "No briefing," Elroy Braithwaite said. "Jake and I have decided to hang loose on this one. We'll call things the way we see them. That goes for you too