The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-16
Redistribution of Capital and Wealth

duNf OT tNO dEo III tillS WY mas
led TO a good deal of discussion about
the manner in which the capital and the
new wealth which are represented by this
industry are redistributed To no small
extent the demand for steel and iron prod
uots which has come from the automobile
manufacturers has prevented demoraliza-
ton in the iron and steel industry The
automobile, the railroad and building op-
erations which require structural iron
anG steel products have enabled these
manufacturers of iron ard steel fairly
well to tide over a season of some de-
preston.
The various articles which go into the
equipment of the automobile, including
rubber and some kinds of canvas, have
furnished a very large market for manu-
facturers whereby quick and satisfactory
return of capital to banks and to the
public has been made. So 1t is said that
| the reasonable view of the effect of this
very great investment of capital in the
| Industry and in the purchase of cars has
proba bly, on the whole, although to some
| extent indirectly, been of benefit to the
American people. 1t has stimulated in
dustry in many lines and 1t has provided
| employment at good wages both to skilled
artisans and to laborers, many of whom
have deposited their surplus earnings or
savings in savings institutions.
Another Point of View
| The decision recently made and an
| nounced by Henry Ford of his purpose to
| make a distribution of millions of his
profits to his employees has been much
discussed from the economic and from
| the plihanthropic point of view. But
| there is another aspect of this unprece-
dented action to which occasional atten-
| tion has been called by business men and
| by some whose business is finance. In re-
| cent years the statement has been fire.
| bat 40 ttr,,a to,
| single individuals, or even single small
group of individuals, can accumulate for
tunes which Will compare in magnitude
with the fortunes obtained by some of
those who have been associated In the pa st
J with syndicates and with great Industrial
I or mining operations. Sometimes the re-
mark is made that no man can honestly
accumulate in lifetime a fortune much
/ in excess of S5,0OO000. That figure was
, first arbitrarily mentioned by the late
| Leopold Morse of Boston, at a time when
| he represented the Boston district in
Congress.
| Ten or twelve years ago Mr.. Ford was
mechanic. Out of an idea consistently and
| persistently followed. supplemented by as
| fine a capacity for organization as any
of the great organizers of recent .'ears
| ever displayed, Mr.. Ford built up busi-
| ness which enables him to distribute
1
| lines of economic philanthropy. At the
rate of increase which has characterized
his business, even though Mr.. Ford con-
/ tinues for the next 10 years to make vast
| distributions of this kind from earnings,
he should be numbered among the very
| rich men of the United States, as, in fact
| he is today. Yet no one has ever inti-
mated or even thought that Mr.. Fords s
| success was gained in any other way
! than by the most honorable business con-
duct. His career shows that 1t is .till
| possible to gain one of the worlds great
| fortunes in this time of wonderful tri-
rmps of invention and by the utilization
| of the highest kind of organization
powers.
Possibilities for Great Wealth
Recently John d. Rockefeller stated
that the time was at hand when there
would be very great development of the
as yet only surface developments of the
natural resources of the United States
Development of this kind has always In