Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-10-23

J ! ! |
600 more. So, all in all, between jan
| uary l and April Is. we had to meet
| obligations totaling 5S,OOO,OOO.
Tells Of Resources
"What did we have to meet this p
asked the manufacturer, of himself, as
he sat up, leaned forward. his eyes
a-twinkle.
AT the time,'' he went on. I'VE had
only $2O,OOO,OOO in cash. That, l 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 their best bet that
we couldn't-they didn't know our men
here or the spirit behind our organiza-
| tion'-and the motor manufacturers
face, overspread with smile. Faith
and pride in his organization is one of
Henry Ford's most outstanding charac-
! teristics.
"Wall Street was all stirred up over
the, misinformation that we had to
make loan" Mr.. Ford continued.
That's where the faith comes in
Spread over the country we had i'm
mense quantities of raw materials
parts and finished cars and / had faith
i 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 end
pushing across pencil and paper.
| Put down Cash on hand. $20.OO0.-
OOO.'' We wished, as usual. to pay
bonus to our men on last years work
This would take approximately ST.
100000 which we wished to pay as
soon after January l 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 $4,000 fin
ished 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 department closed
down. But we have IS branches. scat
| tered over the country. at % of which
we both manufacture parts and as.
semble. 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 Ford car famine
in Detroit and to fill local 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 GER
| tain quota each year. each according
to his district We shipped to each
dealer enough cars to take care of
approximately 25 days sales. During
January we sold nearly 10000 cars.
when we tried, and from then on sales
steadily mounted above production.
Assembling went on at all the branches
| and on January % we re-opened the
Highland Park plant and began build
| ing up production there. but still sales
kept ahead of production. Between
January l and April l we turned S2i.-
! 100000 worth of stock into cash
put that down;
accounts and found our agents at for
eign ports owed US S3,OOO,OOO which
we collected. We had also sold by
products for which we had accounts
| receivable Of $3,70O.0OO more. which
we got in-put down those two items,
| On TOP Of that. we sold S7.9OO.OO0
worth of Liberty bonds. If you total
| those you'll find they come TO 500
300. OOO-more than enough to meet
our impending obligations. But we
| did not stop there.
THE war had led us into many ex-
| trayagances Of administration and ac-
offices and shops, and made economies
which I'll detail later. eliminating
everything non productive. Then we
had acquired the Detroit. Toledo l.
Ironton railroad. We saw possibilities
| OF reducing the vast amount which we
had formerly kept tied up. invested in
goods in transit We found ways to
| cut the time our goods are lntranslt.
BY that one move we released 10
| GOO. 900. took it from funds invested
in stock in transit and put II to other
uses. Thus. when April ] came round
we had sa7 100000 to meet Sos,0oo:.
900 IN obligations: We paid them all
weeks in advance.
Mr. Ford leaned back in his chair
and laughed.
New York bankers We're fussing
around here trying to get US to take
| a loan"
| But how could you create such I'M
mense sums Of ready cash by mere
economies / asked.
Call This mere"
| "Merc economies. Mr.. Ford re.
pcatcd. with emphasis on the mere.
There's nothing mere about our
economies-they'r the big thing. Take
| that item of SOS, 100000 released from
investment in goods in transit. We
were able to do that by a combna-
ton Of two things. BY using uor rail
road we were able TO speed up move
ment Of raw materials to the factory.
movement of finished cars from the
! factory to the dealers and better
! methods in the factory cut the time
| needed to manufacture the material
| into machines. Then we stopped
carving immense reserve supplies OF
raw materials The first economy
| made the second possible. Here's the
| way 1t worked out.
| ssBefore we got control of the D..
! r, & L. it required an average Of -
DAYS to haul raw material to the fac
tories. make it into cars and get them
| to the dealers. We had to buy three
weeks in advance of need and. with no
! way of knowing future conditions. We