The Washington times., 1921-10-25
FORD REVEALS
H|SPANACEA To
ENDRA|L STRIKE
Would First Drive Out Unpro-
ductive Stockholders and Then
Delete Watered Stock.

With national railroad strike I'M
pending and discussion of the rail
road situation on every ones lips,
Henry Ford comes to the front icits
q statement of Just aohat he Tould
do If he aOere director general of tho
railroads of the country.
Ford's authorized and corrected
story ,Uas obtained u, an in'ervietc by
William Atherton De pm and is
contained in the Noveb issue Of
The Nations Business, jaSt off the
press. The story, in part, fotlops:
IF you were operating a railroad
such as the Pennsylvania or the
New York Central" l said TO Henry
Ford out at his office in Dearborn.
"how would you proceed7'
I'm any such case, l would i'm
mediately set about accomplishing
four things" he replied. II would
reorganize in such a way as to get
rid of the unproductive stockholder.
l would redesign the rolling stock.
l would expedite the delivery Of
freight / would discharge unneces-
sary employees.
First Purpose Is TO Serve Public.
1.-THE first thing to be done any
where Is to reorganize by getting
rid of unproductive stockholders.
The real purpose of a railroad Is t.
serve the public. There is no rea-
son why II should be diverted from
that service and set to doing an en-
tirely different thing-putting
money into the pockets of stock
holders who make no contribution
to the roads actual operation. Pay
ing dividends to these people Is =
LII 1l. k< fuA fx~rt
the railroads. The greater the over
capitalization, the heavier the bur-
den. It bears them down and pre-
vents them from serving their pur-
pose. In the end the public pays
these dividends. They are tax on
tn whole people.
There is a possible and practi-
cable system of financing railroads
by which those contributing the
money wiz be IN positions to aid di-
rectly to the success OF the under
taking. II the brakeman on a rail
road owns stock in 1t, he has an ad-
ditional inducement to competent
service. Better service is a valuable
by-product which win come from
his ownership of stock. IL the rail
road Is a success. II is due to him
and his fellow-workmen, and they
are entitled to the profit.
Railroads should not have to
go to banks for money. They can
be otherwise financed. In fact,
finance Is the wrong term to use.
We talk too much about finance.
The first thing is to make a rail-
road work. Make II possible for
people to use II as much as they
want to. Then there will be no
trouble about finances. The trouble
is that we start with finance and
expect finance to make the road
go. Finance can't do that. Finance
Is failure.
"Of course. IL such a course were
attempted we could expect a great
outcry for the protection OF In
vested capital. 1t would be said
that people had bought these
stocks for the financial protection
OF their families, their children.
Protection from what? From the.
necessity of earning their living.
Their children would be better Off
IL they had to finance themselves.
Proper financing would, OF
course. be easier on new roads. On
the old ones, however II should
be possible to retire the parasite,
noncontributing stockholder and
get the ownership into the proper
hands.
After removing this dividend
drain, the second step would be
to remove the great physical bur-
den OF the railoads--needless
mistake on the mechanical side, OF
weight of rolling stock is the prime
weight OF its rolling stock. Over
railroadinR Engines and cars are
four ~. five tif1n,os M heavy aa
they should be. A freight train In
several times the weight OF the
load u carries. and passenger
train is twenty times as heavy.
This dead weight must be moved
whether n train Is loaded or empty.
The cost OF pulling empty trains n
,aciicasly larga