The Washington herald., 1916-10-22

year 1t will produce 1900 cars. The
Studebaker Company. which expanded
from horse-drawn machines to high-class
automobiles, reported earnings of $685.
S29 for the first six months of this year.
The Fisher Body Corporation is making
bodies at the rate of $4,000 a year, and
earnings are in excess of 100000 this
year. In the fiscal year just ended the
General Motors Company earned $3.50 per
share for its common stock and distribut-
ed dividends of so per share. The sus-
tanned prosperity of the company has
made II necessary to be Tecapitalized
this year and SIS, 900 900 is now set as the
total capitalization. The Maxwell Motor
Company a few weeks ago put the COM
mon stock on 10 per cent basis. The
Maxwell produced GOOOO cars this fiscal
year and will turn out 10000 next fiscal
year. 1t has orders for $1,000 cars already
against the output for the next fiscal
year. Chevrolet expects to produce 10000
cars month next year. The Studebaker
Company is turning out 10000 cars this
year.
Henry Ford Is to the automobile what
Bell is to the telephone. Curtlss to the
aeroplane. Parsons to the turbine. Hill,
Vanderbilt, Cassatt and other lumi-
naries to railroadiHg. Ford has
brought the automobile industry to
its present high stage Of prosperity.
To him belongs the credit for its
great expansion. His theories of
manufacture. first assailed and ridi-
culed, has been copied by every manu-
faCturer of cheap cars. Starting with
local support, Ford Is today a command
ing figure among national bankers. His
intensive cultivation of the automobile
industry furnished the strongest power
in It's uphill climb
In August. when Ford announced a
cut OF so in the selling price OF his
cars. the automobile world stood aghast
Over twenty of the large automobile
makers had previously advanced their
prices about 500 a car This they at
tributed to higher cost OF raw materials
Ford did not solve the problem Of lower
ing the cost Of raw materials. know
that Ford paid the top price for 10000
tons OF pig iron last April What Ford
did is what every efficiency engineer
tells business men to do. He lowered
the cost of production. He did not
cheaper his product. He increased the
capacity of his plant Each thousand
cars extra that Ford turns out acts to
lower the cost of his car. Thus, in or
der to make a cut of $50 a car, Ford has
increased the capacity of his plant to
iJJpyD cars a year. announcer TnOllNe dS
to the cut. Ford has Increased the num-
Der of prospective purchasers for his
automobile so that he can go ahead with
a million-car-a-year output with full as
surance of the complete absorption Of his
production.
His company owns property in every
big city of the country. He has plant
in Canada. He. is building a plant in
England and one in France. He is
steadily expanding. He is by far the
largest automobile factor in the industry.
He organized his company on June l6.
1903, with a capital of 100000 His COM
pany is now capitalized at $2000,OOO. On
October 25 1915, the Ford Motor Com
pany of Canada, of which he owns 20
per cent of the stock. made a dividend
disbursement of 900 per cent in stock and
a cash dividend of 50 per cent The
Dodge brothers. who were connected with
him, sold out their stock at that time
and secured $500 per share for their $40
shares, for which they paid 800 par value.
Ford's capitalization does not come near
his Investment
What is the cost of a Ford car to Ford?
That is a question patterned after the
cost of a Singer sewing machine, a piano
in fact, every commodity produced in
quantities. banker Identified with the
Ford affairs declared that every cent that
Ford gets over $17S for each car is clear
profit. The cheapest Ford sells at $S45.
so that there is 100 per cent profit. No
wonder that Ford has accumulated mil
lions Ford's profits last year were 81, ,O0O =
900 week, or 5000 per cent.
Ford built 5339l cars in the year ended
July 81 last. This represented an increase
of 225. .70S cars over the output in the pre-
vious fiscal year. His average daily ship
ments were 1876 cars, while on February
%. 1916, the Ford plant turned out and
shipped 2,490 cars This single day S
manufacture was greater than the entire
output the year Ford began business-19OS
when he produced 1,7OS cars. The Ford
output was valued at $235 coo, 900 at the
lowest estimate. Since Ford started In
business he has made ], ,4O6 997 cars. Ford
employed 81 men in the first year and
now has $3.50 men on his payroll at De-
tToit. Ford wanted to increase his capital
stock from 100000 to 800, ,O0O, 900, but the
State OF Michigan does not allow such