The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-02

that created the Ford car Is as de- void of puzzling parts and intricate machinery as the car itself
 It may be that the difficulty that one experiences in arriving at true understanding of Mr. Ford Is due to the fact that he deliberately draws a herring across the trail in case he finds a man getting too close to him. You know me too we'll" he once said to a man who had been intimately associated with him for years; thereafter 1 am going to see to it that no man comes to know me as intimately as you do." But personality Is something that can not be hidden at will. The every at tempt to conceal it Is in itself a revelation.
 It Is not due to any conscious ef- fort on the part of MT. Ford to pre- that makes him difficult of under standing.
 Opposing Natures
 The baffling thing in him is the puzzling mixture of opposing na- lures.
 There ragos in him an end less conflict between ideals, emo tions and impulses as unlike as day and night-a conflict that at times makes one feel that two per sonalities are striving within him for mastery, and neither able to win a final decision over the other.
 These variations in mental moods and attitudes are generally accom- panied by outward changes in phys ica appearance. Today he stands erect, 1.-the, agile, full of life, happy as a child, and filled with the child spirit of play. Out of his eyes there looks the soul of genius, a dream CT, an idealfst--a soul that is af- fable, gentle, kindly, and generous to fault But tomorrow he may be the opposite. He will have the appearance of a man shrunken by long illness. The shoulders droop, and there is forward slant to the body when he walks as when man is moving forward on his toes. His face is deely lined, and the lines are not such as go to make up kindly, open countenance. The af fable, gentle manner has disap- peared There is a light in the eye that reveals fire burning within altogether unlike that which burned there yesterday. He has the ap- pearanee of a man utterly wearied and exhausted, and yet driven on by a relentless and tireless spirit.
  there evidently lies concealed a boundless supply of nervous energy.
 Periodical COnvuIsiOns
 His executives came to recognize an outward physical change, such as have just described, with it's cor responding mental attitude, IS the signal of a storm-sudden and ter rible as those which break over the tropics. As a rule, not many days would elapse before the organiza tion would be in the throes of one of it's periodical convulsions. And only a Ford man who has gone through them has any idea what these convulsions are like old poli- cies are swept away. New policies are set up. Departments are turned inside out and upside down, or, all together done away with. Men are transferred by the score-sometimes by the hundreds. Desks are removed on one or two occasions with an ax. The men who worked at them return to find them gone, and pos sibly their jobs gone also. Men are discharged without warning, and no reason given them in response to their inquiry.
 While the storm was on there was little to do but to watch it and keep out of the way of the light ming.
 When the blow was over, then those of us whose duty it was. would get out the ambulance and pick up the injured. Men discharged or tenn porarily displaced were quietly put back to work; others who had been hastily transferred to jobs unsuited