Phoenix tribune., 1921-12-03
HENRY FORD VISITS
SECRETARY OF WAR
AT WASHINGTON D. c.
(Associated Negro Press


Washington, D. c., Dec. 2.-Henry
Ford, of Detroit, has been to town.
There is news with punch. You
cannot separate the name of Henry
Ford from news any more than you
can separate Henry Ford from the
world famous automobile that bears
his name. Newspaper correspondents
fly for him like chickens in the old
barnyard fly for corn. So insistent
and persistent have been the Knights
of the Fourth Estate in endeavoring
to get the dope" from Mr.. Ford, that
goodly portion of his very valuable
time in life is spent in playing the
ancient and honorable childhood game
of hide and go seek"
Mr.. Ford indulged in it on his latest
Washington trip. He came here by
special appointment to confer with
the Honorable Secretary of War, Mr..
Weeks, on the subject of purchasing
Muscle Shoals for so many and so
many millions of hard cash. Secre-
tary Weeks became suddenly ill, and
attaches in the war department called
up all the Washington hotels seeking
to find Mr.. Ford, when. he was to be
told the conference would be trans
ferred to the Honorable Secretary of
Commerce, Mr.. Hoover. When the
lamp of hope had almost flickered its
last flicker, someone discovered that
the great manufacturer and financier
was living in his private car at the
union station, where it was connected
with the District of Columbia tele-
phone system.
Eludes White House Scribes
Following the conference with Mr.. |
Hoover Mr. Ford made a personal"
call on President Harding at the
White House. The scribes saw him
go in the main entrance, and straight
way set about sharpening their pen
ellis to get the "big interview on the
retreat. They waited, and waited, |
and finally became suspicious, to say
nothing of alarmed; and on investiga-
tion discovered that he had long since
left the habitat of presidents through |
a basement side door.
Muscles Shoals Opportunity
Nevertheless, Mr.. Ford has made |
proposition to the government for the
pubchaes of Muscle Shoals that is re-
ceiving the most serious considera-
tion. With the completion of the pur-
case, the possibilities are so gigantic
in the field of economic development,
that the imagination is staggered.
Mr.. Ford has declared: "If the gov
ernment will sell its Muscle Shoals
project, l will put the South on the
map" Asked what he meant, Mr..
Ford replied that he would give en-
ployment to million men.
Herein enters the Colored American
in way that gives an entire new
vision in the field of racial develop
ment and adjustment. 1t is known
fact that eighty per cent of the labor
on Muscle Shoals dam, in Alabama,
under construction during the war
period, was performed by Negroes.
This included skilled and unskilled
labor
The government has spent more
than $1O5,O0O,O00 of the peoples
money on the project already, and
the entire proposition is now dormant.
Completed Muscle Shoals means mar
velous horsepower, by a system of
dams. Aluminium and nitrate will be
manufactured on a scale unheard of in
America. Aluminium is fast become
the metal of the age, and nitrate has
many uses, one of the chief being it's
fertilizing powers. It is stated on the
highest authority that the racial farm
ers of the South, at little cost, will be
able to double the capacity of their
farms in cotton and other products.
Therefore, who knows, AS Abraham
Lincoln emancipated the race from
physical bondage, so Henry Ford may
be the emancipator of industrial bond
age.
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