Evening star., 1922-12-17
Much Ingenuity Is Required to Present
Deserving Causes for Fords Assistance
Continued From Last sunday.)
CHAPTER VIII.
BEHIND A CHINESE WALL.

BEHIND A CHINESE WALL.
! ~, nee you get to Mr. Ford you
will find him. of all men.
most affable and democratic.
He IL apt to leave upon you
the impression that he stands ready
to do anything for you. give you
:. anything, even to the half Of his
kingdom. He makes promises which
he sometimes keeps. sometimes for
gets. and sometimes fulfills in his
own peculiar way. He hates to say
NO" He has e way Of leaving you
with the idea that he Is in entire
sympathy with your proposition and
of delegating the unpleasant task of
! turning you down to some one else.
| To turn down a request made of US
is embarrassing. To grant a favor
J is pleasure. Henry Ford is man
| Of generous impulses 1 think he
| would prefer on all occasions to do
what he is asked to do. This. of
| course. is impossible. And SO, when
I 1t Is necessary to turn man down.
he seeks to relieve himself of the en-
| barrassment of doing so by referring
| the man to some one else, at the
same time indicating just how he
| would have the man and his request
| handled.
! He has sometimes given a man a
/ note to an executive, which was in
! reality a code letter, understood by
! the official receiving it. That note
was always the same, with slight va
, riations in the spelling of one word.
The fate of the individual. joyfully
and unsuspectingly bearing that
note. hung on the spelling Of that
word. If the note read, Please s-e-e
! this man." it meant he was to be
| favorably handled. If it read, "Please
sea this man." it meant that he
was to be let down as easy as posi-
| ble-dropped overheard into a sea of
. uncertainty, so far as obtaining what
| he wanted was concerned, there to
| wait and founder about until utterly
| discouraged. he gave up hope of at
| tanning his end. 1t always seemed to
me that a blunt mo" would have
been a much more considerate way
| of dealing with cases of f(this kind.
! X
! i"ENIAI. generous and democratic,
~ will be found the manner of
| Henry Ford. once you get to him. but
! the problem is to get to him. The
approach to him is. I believe, the
most guarded and most difficult of
! that of any man alive. He would
/ have it SO. People who do not un-
derstand blame his secretary -'or
! inaccessible But his secretary is to
be praised for the thoroughness with
| which he does the work assigned him.
A Chesterfield might suggest that
! which here ard there would add
grace and charm to the manner in
! which the job is handled. but he GER
tainly could do nothing to raise the
present standard of efficiency.
! Hardly a week passes that some
one does not come to me from 4
distance with the request that I be
! kind enough to assist him in OBTAIN
| ing an interview with Mr.. Ford.
| The answer is There is but one
/ approach to Mr. Ford and that is
through his secretary" And then
the question, How do 1 get to his
secretary" And the answer is,
Make an appointment with him,
! and take your knitting along. You
may have to wait
! Socially. Henry Ford has pre-
! ferred to remain in the class in
which he was born. He goes occa-