Free Wheels by Arthur Hailey Page B

simple, but framed so it could not be ducked, Adam felt like protesting to Irvin: Why pick me? Then he remembered Elroy Braithwaite's instructions earlier: 'We'll call things the way we see them .”
    Adam said quietly, "Yes, they have fulfilled a function. In terms of safety, Nader booted this industry, screaming, into the second half of the twentieth century .”
    All four reporters wrote that down. While they did, Adam's thoughts ranged swiftly over what he had said and what came next. Within the auto industry, he was well aware, plenty of others would agree with him. A strong contingent of younger executives and a surprising sprinkling at topmost echelons conceded that basically -despite excesses and inaccuracies-the arguments of Vale and Nader over the past few years made sense. The industry had relegated safety to a minor role in car design, it had focused attention on sales to the exclusion of most else, it had resisted change until forced to change through government regulation or the threat of it. It seemed, looking back, as if auto makers had become drunken on their own immensity and power, and had behaved like Goliaths, until in the end they were humbled by a David-Ralph Nader and, later, Emerson Vale. The David-Goliath equation, Adam thought, was apt. Nader particularly alone, unaided, and with remarkable moral courage-took on the entire U.S. auto industry with its unlimited resources and strong Washington lobby, and, where others had failed, succeeded in having safety standards raised and new consumer-oriented legislation passed into law. The fact that Nader was a polemicist who, like all polemicists, took rigid poses, was often excessive, ruthless, and sometimes inaccurate, did not lessen his achievement. Only a bigot would deny that he had performed a valuable public service. Equally to the point: to achieve such a service, against such odds, a Nadertype was necessary. The Wall Street Journal observed, "So far as I know, Mr. Trenton, no auto executive has made that admission publicly before .”
    "If no one has," Adam said, "maybe it's time someone did .”
    Was it imagination, or had Jake Earlham apparently busy with his pipe-gone pale? Adam detected a frown on the face of the Silver Fox, but what the hell; if necessary, he would argue with Elroy later. Adam had never been a "yes man .”
    Few who rose high in the auto industry were, and those who held back their honest opinions, fearing disapproval from seniors, or because of insecurity about their jobs, seldom made it higher than middle management, at best. Adam had not held back, believing that directness and honesty were useful contributions he could make to his employers. The important thing, he had learned, was to stay an individual. A misguided notion which outsiders had of auto executives was that they conformed to a standard pattern, as if stamped out by cookie cutters. No concept could be more wrong. True, such men had certain traits in common--ambition, drive, a sense of organization, a capacity for work. But, apart from that, they were highly individual, with a better-than average sprinkling of eccentrics, geniuses, and mavericks. Anyway, it had been said; nothing would undo it now. But there were postscripts. "If you're going to quote that"-Adam surveyed the quartet of reporters -"some other things should be said as well .”
    Which are .”
    It was the Newsweek girl's query. She seemed less hostile than before, had stubbed out her cigarette and was making notes. Adam stole a glance: her skirt was as high as ever, her thighs and legs increasingly attractive in filmy gray nylon. He felt his interest sharpen, then tore his thoughts away. "First," Adam said, "the critics have done their job. The industry is working harder on safety than it ever did; what's more, the pressure's staying on. Also, we're consumer oriented. For a while, we weren't. Looking back, it seems as if we got careless and indifferent to consumers without realizing it. Right now,