Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-10-23
HENRY FORD Tells HOW He PAID HIS Way OUT


ciple that l could express in a few
| words"
Faith. the Solution.
'Oh. yes there is said the manu-
facturer, sitting up in his chair. very
finger in emphasis Yes, there is
thing in the bible. in Hebrews. Hi
Faith. Faith is the substance of
things hoped for-the evidence of
things not seem Faith is the thing
! that makes reality Of what a man
hopes for. I had faith that the coun-
try and conditions in our industry
! would right themselves-and they are
| doing it every day"
The manufacturer gazed out of the
| window a moment, and then:
Our difficulties" he went on. like
heritage Of the war. War is not only
damnable for the lives it costs. but
| also for its after effects on society.
on civilization. Every form of human
activity is stimulated artificially.
Drink makes mans senses keen
er-he sees, hears and feels things
that are not real, but abnormal; he
bases his actions on thoughts, ideas
and impulses that are not sound.
| That's just what war does to business
| and industry The banker. suddenly
handling millions where before he
handled but thousands. becomes loose
would have thought unsound. The man
! ufacturer. faced by ever rising costs
of materials, comes to take little heed
| to expense and seeks only to make
profits over costs. Labor, getting I'M
precedented wages, instead of increas-
! ing effort and production reduces it.
trying to get still higher wages. War,
! by its unwholesome stimulation, under
mines everything.
Our organization suffered along
\ with the rest. We took lot of war
work-Eagle boats, motors. helmets.
tanks and other things. This opened
up holes in our organization. We need
| ed help. office and shop. yet in en-
ploying we could not be as finely dis
eliminating as we had been in peace
times. An immensely increased over
head expense was built up--stressed
| conditions seemed to compel it. In
peace times it would be a dead weight.
| utterly useless Consequently, with
| the war over. we knew that as the
country settled back to peace condl-
| tons some stern readjustments would
| be necessary. It must come-and we
were on the LOOKOUT Tor us beginning.
Beginning Of Storm.
THE first indications came early In
| 19o0-here and there business or
manufacturing failure. They were
chiefly concerns manufacturing luxu-
ries or manufacturers Of staple com
modities that had organized during the
war and had not vet got footing.
People were ceasing to buy; firms of
| this character were first to go to the
wall Soon failures became more gen
eral. That meant something to us.
1t raised a question: When will the
| ommodities-when will they cease
buying Ford cars!
I'VE didn't have long to wait ~
June sales were falling off at great
rate. Everything began to slow down.
Yet in the face of that, do you think
I the suppliers of raw materials would
cut their price or that labor would give
more for unparalleled wages? Not for
second Material men demanded more
and labor seemed to give less and less.
Cost of manufacturing went soaring
ut was up to us to do something.
| SO, in September. we cut the price OF
the car. On the face Of things the cut
wasn't justified We still had large
supplies of stock, bought at high prices.
The cut brought the price below the
cost of manufacture. All over the coun-
| try we were condemned; other manu-
facturers said we were crazy. But the
whole country was on an inflated. dis
| torted basis and we felt that. if we
cut the price of the car. we could de-
mand that material suppliers cut thier
prices to us. That would tend to stop
the price raising orgy. other prices
would slump off and the reimbursement
would come with minimum discomfort
! to everybody.
ITO an extent the cut brought the
desired result. Sales took bound
A few other manufacturers cut. But.
soon. sales fell off again and, as a
whole. the artificial conditions contin-
ued We soon saw that more drastic
treatment was needed.
I'VE made up our minds that our
next step toward lowering prices must
be more powerful and decisive. Dur
ing the fall one plant after another.
the country over. had been closing
| down and. as winter set in. cessation
of industry became general. But We
kept right on. full tilt. Sales did not
Justify our large production. but we
month. because, when the halt came.
we wished to have as much as possible
OF our stock manufactured into cars.
We wanted the next bump, when it
came. TO be one that no one selling us
supplies could fail to understand.
S50,O0O,0OO Per Month
"Now. to see what happened. you
must understand that our company
buys in tremendous quantities Right
now we're buying S50,OOOOOO worth of
! materials month. There are humid
reds Of concerns from which we take
the major part of their output. Back
of them are other firms who sell the
greater part of their output to the sup
pliers from whom we buy. So. when
we pun the switches in the Ford plant,
and stop our machinery. the same thing
happens in thousands Of smaller plants
the country over It's just like when
you stand dominoes close together in
row-if you knock over the first one,
the whole line falls. AS long as we
kept on buying, these plants would con-
tinue to hold prices up. Some of them
did cut, but, on the part Of most of
them, we felt. it was only bluff to
make it appear that they had reached
the new low basic price for peace
times.
"We saw that if the lowering proc
ess was to be FASTENED at all. we must
do something drasic. So, late in De-
cember, we closed down, resolved not
to resume production until we could
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