The Washington herald., 1921-12-18

WAS owen an unusual opportunity not
l IooE ags To viEt around the different
llants Of Henry Ford out In Detroit, OF
seeing that gentleman himself in action on
Two or three occasions and OF talking with
bin at some length. In all of this expert
ence the most interesting thing to me was
an attempt to measure Mr.. Ford, to see
tuss whsre he personally ftted into the
rrest machine he had created, to get a line
on ths manner In which he worked.
hrst found bin at Dearborn, ten miles
out Of Detroit, at which point he has re-
cepey established the Rouge River >.
which Is probably destined to becon, q
most remarkable Of all his production units.
AZ Dearborn, also, he has built model
town, the houses constituting which he has
sDid at csst 10 the men who work for him.
he could not get water from the city. so be
built a model 6ltrstion plant. Dearborn
vss a tiny village In the fat country out
side ofDetrott and II boosted a little weekly
paper, the Dearborn Independent.
Ths editor Of this paper, Mr.. Ford told
n. came TO his once one day, admitted that
be was IN . jam with relation TO the pub
1
NJ. Ford said that he would think the
proposition over. That night he discussed
10 with Mrs Ford, and che asked him what
b wanted With a paper. He said that he
hadn't the slightest idea what purpose h.
could put Il to, but that he thought he
wo1lt buy IL. The next morning be told
bis manager to draw $500 in cash, and
vhn the publisher came around to hand 1t
to him. Thus he got into journalism.
Out IN Dearborn Mr.. Ford has a Ions.
low building, part Of It two stories hish
but most Of II but single story In the
tvo-story end Of # Is located the plant
which turns out bis paper. In the one story
eItsnnon are the shops In which work those
technical men who wrcstle with the .1-
prinental work that is incident to the
operation Of a great enterprise Between
the quarters Of these experimental workers
and those Of the editors OF his magazine
there Is a single Office room with a plain
oak desk and little other furniture. which
is sort OF den for Mr.. Ford himself
He has other elaborate Offices elsewhere.
but Il is from this bit Of den located here
between bis two hobbies that he directs the
mass Of his huge business.
THERE were a dozen Of rs in the Office Of
i Mr.. Ford's editors when he came in to
meet us-sauutered In unheralded and went
around shaking hands in his quiet, unosten
tstious way Having reached the end Of
the circle, he sat down and began chatting
casually with the man next to him. A
blu.-syed, white haired. bony faced sort
H.. ss
rv-boned. English Scotch Irish type that
came TO America early and made the model
for such individuals as Uncle Sam. He
locks more like William G. McAdoo than
anybody else / know. 1t is the live WIRE,
,d,uturous, pioneer type. But Mr.. Ford
reminded me In addition Of philosophical
carpenter student l had known as boy.
II am charged with inconsistency, he
was saying because / do not agree with
N. generally accepted principle that it is
the duty Of the parent to make financial
provtsion for his offspring and at the same
tim. make my son my heir and assiHant'
hold that making such provision is usually
bur,ful to the offspring rather than helpful.
An that the child requires from the parent
4, to he brought to the age Ct usefulness ann
10 he si,.n an opportunity to work ost MS
ovn destiny. Whatever money.is given to
hi. child 1. likely to interfere with his WORK
and Is, therefore. likely to be harmful TO
him.
Now VIXEN l make these assertions the
.,.xer to me always Is that l have not
,nnlied nv theory to my own son. My an
,rsr "a that my own son has worked into
~. iob which was ogically his Job. He
40. grown up in the Ford plant and knows
a., nroblsms as does almost nobody else
He Ia the logical man to assume certain re-
,uonsibilities and to perform certain tasks
II 4, because he is the logical man to per-
form those tasks that they are given him
40 do, 1t Ia In the performance of those
,..l. Tint he can be more useful than he
sould b. anyhsrs else. 1t Is this fact and
not nj, inheritance Of money which puts
him where he Is. / do not believe in par
emit. Accommodating money and leaving it to
their children"
Mr., Ford chatted with about the roll
ins stock on his railroad, which he thought
was far too heavy for economical hand
ling, citing the bicycle as the ideal car
rier, q machine capable of transporting ten
times It. weight. He said that 1t was
remarkable fact that more bicycles were
being used today than in those times twenty
rears ago when everybody seemed to be rid