Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1921-08-18

in 1919 we had borrowed S7O,0OO,-
600 on notes with which to buy out
all other interests. Of this we had
paid back S87, 100000, leaving $685.
100000 still to pay, and falling due
April 10. Then, because of adjust
ments pending, we still had the final
installment Of the 1920 Federal in
come tax 20 pay, which, with the in
stallment due April Is, this year,
made SIS, 100000 due the govern
ment. Also, we intended to pay our
men their usual bonus on last years
work, which would amount to ST.
000,00 more. So, all in all, between
Jan. I and April Is, we had to meet
obligations totaling $58,000,000.
Tells Of Resources.
what did we have to meet this?"
asked the manufacturer, of himself,
as he sat up, leaned forward, his eyes
atwinkle
cat the time" he went on, 1--WE
had only $20,000,0 00 in cash. That,
/ think, is where the Wall Street
bankers went wrong-they couldn't
see where we could get $4,000, 600
more to meet our obligations. 1t was
THEN best bet that we couldn' t-they
didn't know our men here or the
spirit behind our organization-and
the motor manufacturers face over
spread with q smile. Faith and pride
in his organization is one Of Henry
Ford's outstanding characteristics
"Wall Street was all stirred up
over the misiufOrmatiOn that we had
to make a loan," Mr.. Ford continued.
THE fact was, we didn't need a
nickel. That's where the faith comes
in. Spread over the country we had
immense quantities of raw materials,
parts and finished cars and l had
faith knew-that our organization
could turn them into more than
enough cash to meet our needs.
''I'll show you what we did," said
Mr.. Ford, turning to the desk and
pushing across pencil and paper.
'Put down Cash on hand, $780,
100000 We wished, as usual, to
pay a bonus to our men on last years
work.
This would take approximately
ST, 000, 900, which we wished to pay
as soon after January / as clerks
could make out the checks. That was
our only immediate outlay-we had
almost enough cash to pay it three
times over.
"Then we turned our attention to
liquidation. When we closed down,
we had on hand approximately. 3d.
600 finished cars. At Highland Park
we had been shipping out cars and
parts to dealers and branches as fast
as they were finished. This plant was
cleared of materials. Every depart
ment closed down. But we have 35
branches scattered over the country,
at p Of which we both manufacture
parts and assemble At these the
manufacturing Of parts stopped, but
the assembling of finished parts went
on adding, week after week, through
january, to our finished cars. That
was why, during January, there was
a Ford famine in Detroit and to fill
orders we were driving cars here
from Chicago and Columbus, o.
His First Move.
"Our first move was to sell some of
our cars on hand. In our contracts
with dealers, they agree to take a
certain quota each year, each accord
ing to his district We shipped to
each dealer enough cars to take care
Of approximately 20 days sales. Dur
ing January we sold nearly 10000
cars, which showed US what we could
do when we tried and, from then on,
sales steadily mounted above produc-
ton. Assembling went on at all the
branches and, on January %, we re-
opened the Highland Park plant and
began building up production there,
but still sales kept ahead of produc-
ton. Between January and April
1 we turned S24, 100000 worth of
stock into cash-put that down.
"Then we looked over our foreign
accounts and found our agents at
foreign ports owed US 100000,
which we collected. We had also
sold by-products for which we had
accounts receivable of S3,700,000
more, which we got in-put down
those two items. On top Of that, we
sold $7,900,000 worth of Liberty
bonds. If you total those you'll fine
they come to $50, 100000, more than
| enough to meet our impending Obllga