The New York herald., 1922-09-17
FORD PLANTS CLOSE.
100000 MADEIDLE
Workers Told to Save Their
Money and Buy as Little
ss,r, Coal as Possible.

! srecioi Dispatch to TIE New YORK HERALD.
/ DETROIT. Sept. 16.-Henry Ford has
! shut down his great plants at Highland
Park and River Rouge and thrown ap-
proximasely 100000 into idleness This
lnumber includes the men here and those
| in. the subsidiary plants of the Ford In
| terests
AT the Highland Park plant no notices
were. posted announcing shutdown. but
| inst before they finished their work on
each shift the men were notified 10 re-
main away from. the. plant until recalled,
save their money huy as little coal as
| possible cit is said there is none for sale
in the city, ana watch the newspapers
for announcements when they are to
come back.
Hollow gaiety marked the conduct Of
tho great majority Of the men as they
emerged from the plants They talked
fast-in fifty-seven different languages
| and gesticulated wildly in trying to ex-
tract from the foremen the information
those officials did not possess-namely.
when work and pay would be resumed.
Some OF them laughed and joked about
their forced layoff, but it was noticeable
that they did not patronize the stands
and small stores that ordinarily ,claimed
some OF their money on Saturdays.
and children and there was no pretense
| of uiconcern among them.
| AT the Dearborn offices executives
WERE awaiting throughout the day for
word from Henry Ford himself as to the
\ probable duration Of the shutdown. He
/ was expected to make formal state
| ment during the day, but he had not
reached the plant at 5 o'clock this after
noon. IT was given out that efforts to
| Inaafa him ba n mo with foi In
libut Mr.. Ford could give authoritative
| information. it was stated.
Chester Crllver'' manager of the EN-
ployers' Association said tonight:
There will. of course. be sporadic cases
of Ford-men obtaining work with other
automobile concerns. or even in other
fields. The association chart shows a
decline of .2705 OF the number of: men
employed during the week ending.
| Thursday of that number 1900 were
Ford men,
Mr.. Culver also pointed out the fact
that no serious conditions attended the
| last Ford shutdown.
Harvey Campbell secretary of the
Board of Commerce. to-day offered to
Mr.. Ford the services OF the Boards
committees and staff to assist in re-
lleving the conditions which caused
shutdown of the Ford plants. Mr..
y
THE. Detroit Board Of Commerce
offers you the services of its com
mittee organizations and the entire
persone OF its staff in the solution of
the problems causing the shutdown of
your plants.
while the protracted suspension or
operation OF your plants may become
a. national calamity. the immediate
/ local effect Is comparable to the stagna-
ton OF city of at least y quarter of a
million. This is more than your In
dividual problem. and all of the in
dustries represented in the board are
| anxious to help effect its immediate
solution"
A man close to the Ford interests
made this statement to-day;
",There is about one chance I'm a
thousand that the plants will reopen
| Monday The coal man has returned
| from survey or the coal fields and
he may have something to report that
| will change the entire situation. How
ever. this Is really only slim outside
/ hope"