Assembly packet — the Erskine export figure, kept unresolved

1926 – 1930

The two passages, side by side: The assembled document carries the Erskine in two voices, and this packet puts them together exactly as they stand in the banked files, so that assembly prints both on their evidence and harmonizes neither. First, the company history's account, as the Studebaker section carries it (its source there is the standard encyclopedia history of Studebaker): "The Erskine Six, a new small car named for him, was launched in Paris in 1926 and sold 26,000 abroad in its first season with many more in America."

The ledger: Second, the production record, as the Automobiles section carries it on the specification and marque records: "24,893 cars for 1927, 22,275 for 1928, 25,565 for 1929 and 22,371 for 1930 — 95,104 in all. The 1930 figure decomposes exactly: 20,619 cars finished as Erskines and 1,752 finished as the 'Studebaker Six.' A widely read marque history gives 1930 as 22,517 instead; the conflict is printed here at its size and not resolved. Two claims about the first season stand against each other and both print: the Studebaker company's own history, as the Studebaker section carries it, tells of 26,000 Erskines sold abroad in the first season; the production ledger counts 24,893 cars for the whole 1927 model year. The ledger governs the count in this section; the export figure stands as the company's account of itself."

The tension, stated once: Twenty-six thousand cars sold abroad in a first season is more cars than the ledger counts built in the whole 1927 model year — 24,893, for every market including the home one. Both figures cannot be literal at once, and the record reached does not say which mechanism reconciles them: export counting by orders or shipments against model-year production, a "season" that is not the model year, or a company's promotional arithmetic. Assembly prints both passages as they stand — the ledger governing every production count in the document, the export figure standing as the company's account of itself — with this packet's statement of the tension attached. No averaged figure, no silent correction, no dropped claim.

Sources:

1. Studebaker (banked), the Erskine passage — the company-history account of 26,000 sold abroad in the first season, carried there from the standard encyclopedia history of Studebaker.
2. Automobiles (banked), the Erskine production passage — the ledger of 24,893 / 22,275 / 25,565 / 22,371 (95,104 in all), the 1930 decomposition, the rival 22,517, and this section's own governing sentence, quoted in full above.