The plan was to ensure quality of products at a modest price to each of its participants. It might have worked, too, had it not been for the problems encountered in deciding who was and who was not eligible for membership. The "monopoly" was set to roll, so to speak, but it was not without its detractors. Among the industry's better automakers there was one who rebuked the A.L.A.M. He was not the one most people remember today in this role. It was not Henry Ford. His name was Thomas L. Jeffery.
Back in the days of the bicycle boom, when the Pope brothers acquired the relevant patents to dominate that industry, there was one dissenter who refrained from recognizing the patents, and refused to pay the royalties associated with them. Thomas Jeffery was that dissenter, and manufacturer of the Rambler bicycle. Later, his company in Kenosha, Wisconsin, produced one of the best automobiles on the road, the original Rambler. Jeffery had not cared much for the bicycle patents employed by the Popes, and he promptly ignored their later automobile patent, as well.
Jeffery was not alone, but he was probably the only major player who refused to play along. There were many lesser manufacturers, too small to be sued, and too insignificant to be noticed by the A.L.A.M. These carmakers went right on manufacturing their cars as if nothing was any different with or without the presence of an A.L.A.M. The so-called monopoly actually had very little effect on most of these small manufacturers.
The A.L.A.M. published an illustrated annual volume of detailed comparison statistics for the public, titled the Handbook of Automobiles (see article: Older Books II: More reading choices from the past). It is valuable for what it contains, but is perhaps even more noteworthy for what it does not contain-the vital statistics for all the small "odd man out" automakers. This attempt by A.L.A.M. to list all the "pertinent" manufactures in any given year, therefore fails to represent, or even account for, these small producers. Many of those manufacturers believed their cars held nothing in common with the one described in the Selden patent. In retrospect it can easily be seen that they were right.
And then, too, there was that "other" detractor, the one who assumed the role of the giant slayer in this David and Goliath story. Henry Ford had not established much success in his efforts when he applied for membership in the A.L.A.M. His application was denied on the basis of his history of failures and his lack of capital with which to continue.
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