The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1922-09-01
FORD PLANTS TO
CLOSE SEPTEMBER is
Bitter Attack on Financial Circles
Made by Motor Car Manufacturer.

try, the country over, must IuIoW
up its hands in surrender" within q
few weeks, if the rail and coal strikes
continue, Henry Ford declared to-
day in announcing the decision OF
the Ford Motor Company to close ita
plants here and in many other cities
on September 16, because of the fuel
situation.
Mr. Ford held financial interests
responsible for the industrial tie-up,
declaring the money barons' We're
manipulating the labor unions, and
that public officials, State and Ma
tional, were impotent in the crisis.
The strikes would end, he contin-
ued, when the majority Of the people
are hungry enough to resort to dras-
tic action"
Continuance of these disturbances
to the economic life of the nation is
due simply to the greed and avarice
Of Wall street." Mr. Ford asserted,
adding that these interests 'domi-
mated The railroads, coal mines and
public utilities of the country"
The deadlock in strike negotiations
indicated, he declared, the existence
of plot to unload the demoralized
and rundown railroads on the gov
ernment at their own price and to
mulct the people through excessive
coal prices"
One hundred and five thousand
employees of the Ford Motor Com
pany throughout the country will be
without jobs after September 16. II
addition, several hundred thousand
other workers employed in industries
furnishing materials for the Ford
plants will be affected.
Henry Ford gave these figures to-
day in announcing that his three big
motor plants located in Detroit sub
urbs, and his assembling plants
throughout the country would be
closed on that date because of the
coal shortage.
The announcement was the most
severe blow that industrial Detroit
has maintained since the industrial
depression of two years ago. 1t
means, according to Mr.. Ford, that
$4,000 men employed in the High
land Park, River Rouge and Dear
born plants of the company will be
without work. Thirty thousand 9th
ers now working in the various as
sembling plants scattered throughout
the entire country, will be thrown
out of employment. How long the
machinery in the Ford plants is to
be stilled Will depend entirely upon
the coal supply of the future, the
Detroit manufacturer said The state
ment issued by Mr.. Ford, announcing
the proposed shutdown, was the story
of his losing fight during the last few
months to insure a fuel supply suf-
ficient to keep his workers at their
machines
REOPENING INDEFINITE.
Mr.. Ford declared he "had not the
remotest idea" when the plant could
be reopened. 1t was announced that
the normal daily consumption of coal
in the Ford industries was $500 tons,
and although declining to state the
hand of fhic fiT11n off |
cials said it would be impossible to
do more 'than keep the furnaces and
ovens warm"
Only comparatively small num-
ber of the employees of the Ford
plants will be retained in service dur
ing the shutdown, it was announced. !
Crews sufficient to keep the furnaces
warm will be held, however.
Mr.. Fords statement follows:
"The coal situation has become
impossible. For the last several |
weeks we have seen a situation ap-
preaching that we feared would
force us to close. We greatly regret
having to take that step. Edsel cd
sci B. Ford, president of the Ford
Motor Company and 1 returned from
our Eastern trip night before last,
with every possible data and infor-
nation bearing on the subject. We
strove until daylight, trying to
find some way out without closing
down.
Every way we turned we were
confronted by the situation that un-
der the present handling of coal thete
never could be time when we would
have enough coal to operate the sew
eral departments of the plant stimuli
taneously.
1--WE, therefore. decided that of
necessity we must close down sooner
or later. We wish to keep enough
coal on hand to keep our furnaces