New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-31
BY ROBERT II. ROHDE.
lBy telegraph 70 TIE Tribune J

man has not changed in proportion.
While $4,000 would not go much
farther than paying the salary of the
magnificent butler who is TO preside
over his new million-dollar home,
Henry Ford will still be wondering
what to do with the great part Of his
Sl2,000,000 a year income.
His big income is Ford's great prob
lem. The efforts he has made to use
It TO the advantage of others have
gradually estranged him from the men
who supplied the first sinews for his
now gigantic business and whom he
has made rich.
Old Associates Desert Him.
One by one his early associates have
dropped out of the Ford Motor Com
pany, until now, so far as the per-
sonnet is concerned, il is only the ghost
OF it's old self The Dodge brothers,
onetime standbys, have quit and gone
to making a motor car of their own
make and name.
Jim" Couzens, whose business acu-
men brought the company out Of imam
cial chaos to a solid footing, no longer
appears on the letterheads as wee
president and general manager. Other
lesser figures of the original handful
OF stockholders and boosters either
have withdrawn or have quit boosting
The reason for all the internal dis
sension in the bonanza company
which reached its climax when Henry
l., 4 ht,fl
tween the warning armies and preach
peace from a parapet appears 20 lie
in the miracle mans ideas of speeding.
Those ideas. as his fellow townsmen
see them, are not hard to divine.
When Ford was making $50 month
he spent all he earned. When he made
$50 and when he was raised 70 SO
there were plenty Of ways for the in
crease TO 60. But when the millions
of a sudden began TO roll IN ne was
worried, for he never expected in al!
his life 10 possess so great principal
as the interest which his factory re-
turns TO him in a single day.
Henry Ford's fortune came 10 him
swiftly and it came almost at the tag
end Of life of stinting. He started
as a farmer boy and evolved into a
mechanic. Until he was past forty he
never knew a day in which he did not
have 10 count his nickels and dimes,
for the dollars which they made up
were hard to get
River Gave Automobile Idea.
If the Detroit River had been further
away perhaps Ford would still be
counting nickels and dimes instead Of
irving 20 figure out ways Of disbursing
20 ha
river and the small craft which were
scooting over it along in the late COS
that put the automobile idea into the
miracle mans head
Ford was most interested in the
naphtha launch which had been built
for Truman II. Newberry, who later
became Secretary of the Navy. The
launch was IS feet long and cost $4,000.
When il was stirred up it could make
twelve miles an hour. But il was nei-
Their the length, the size nor the speed
which fascinated Ford. The engine was
the thing II it could drive a boat, why
not a Underwriting wagon?
After he had observed the Dawn
Ford started work on his engine. He
got his first important financial sup
port from A. Y. Malcomson, a coal
dealer, who put $1,000 in all into the
embryo enterprise.
The mechanical side Of the Ford
triumph has been told The financial
side is not so familiar. Malcomson in
tercsted James Couzens, his book
keeper, who invested 81 400, put in a
Eote fer $1,000, and persuaded his sis
ter, a trained nurse, 70 take flyer
with a painfully saved 500. AS an
aside, Miss Couzens so far has taken
$4,000 from the Ford Motor Company
in cash dividends and still has $4,000
worth of stocks.
Next Malcomson persuaded John S.
GRAY, a builder Of marine engines, TO
invest $4,000, guaranteeing him
against loss.
Dodges Next Come In.
Then came the Dodge brothers,
Hiram and John, who had been run
ming a bicycle sales and repair shop in
Windsor, Ont, across the river from
Detroit. The Dodges managed to
scrape up $4,000, which has yielded
$4,000 900 in cash, aside from the S5,-
100000 which they still hold in stock.
John ". Anderson and Horace II.
Rackham, Of the struggling law firm OF
Anderson & Rackham, also put $4,000
into the company in its infancy. They
are not sorry they were impressed with
Fords prospects when they attended
70 the matter of incorporation for him,
for each has received $2.500.000 and
each holds a bit more than that in
stock.
Henry Runs His Own Business.
Henry Ford proved himself different
from the general run of inventors. AL /
most from the first he held 81 per
ceLt Of his company's stock and served
as president. He insisted on conduct /
ing business in his own way and in
following the ideas which came TO him /
after the one big idea with the mill f.
ions in ia cheap, one-model car that
would cover ground, regardless of size |
or looks.
Officially such matters are not dis |
cussed, but IL Is gossip in Detroit that
the reason for the detection OF the /
Dodge brothers was the Ford policy
Of paying minimum wage of SIS a
day to factory workers. Anyhow. the .
Dodges quit and are now rival motor I
manufacturers.
Then came the Ford scheme Of shar- /
ing profits with purchasers. which /
further estranged him from the men ,
who were waiting for yet more profits. |
IL was on the peace propaganda that |
Jim" Couzens stepped out.
Jim" is no longer the humble book /