Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-08-28
FORD
GREAT CALAMITY
Sees Surrender Of Industry
IF Strikes Continue; To
Close Plants.
(By The Associated Pres,.).

Detroit, Mich, Aug. 2S.-"Industry.
the country over, must throw up its
hands In surrender within a few
weeks II the rail and Goa strikes con-
tinue, Henry Ford declared Saturday
in announcing the decision of the Ford
Motor company to close its plants
here and in many other cities on
Sept. 16, because of the fuel situation.
Mr.. Ford held financial interests
responsible for the Industrial tieup,
declaring he money tbarons were
tina public officials, state and national,
were impotent in the crisis"
THE strikes would end" he de-
clared, when the majority of the
people are cold inc hungry enough
to resort to drastic 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,
ated the railroads, coal mines and
public utilities of the country"
The deadlock in strike negotiations
indicated. he declared. the existence
OF "a plot to unload the demoralized
and rundown railroads onto the gov
eminent at their W price and to
mulct the people through excessive
coal prices"
tBy The Associated Press.)
Detroit, Aug. 2S.-One hundred
and five thousand employees of tho
Ford Motor company throughout the
country will be without Jobs after
Sept. 316. In addition several hun
dred thousand other workers employ
ed in Industries, furnishing materials
for the Ford plants will be affected.
Henry Ford gave these figures Sat-
urday in announcing hat his three
suburbs and his assembling plants
throughout the country would be
closed On that date because of the
coal shortage.
The announcement was the most
severe f blow that industrial Detroit
has sustained since the industrial de-
preston of two years ~ 1t means,
according to- Mr.. Ford that $4,000
men employed in the plants Of the
company will be without work. Thir-
ETY. thousand others now working in
the various assembling plants scat
tered throughout the country will be
thrown out of employment. How
long the machinery in the Ford
Regrets Necessary Action.
MI. Ford's statement follows:
The coal situation has become i'm
possible. For the last several weeks
we have seen a situation approach
ing that we feared would force us 10
close. I greatly regret having to take
this step. Edsel B. Ford president
of the Ford Motor company, and I
might before last, with every possible
data and information bearing On the
subject before US, we trOve 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
there never would be a time when we
would have enough coal to operate
the several departments of the plant
simultaneously. a-,
"We;@ therefore,, decided that OF
necessity we must close down oonel
or later. We wish to keep enough
coal highland to keep our furnace.
and coke ovens warm; to let them
get cold would cause us a loss OF
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Al
Sept. Is will mark the time when we
will have only enough o left tc
keep our furnaces and ovens warm
Our reserve took by that time
will have been completely exhausted
Last night we wired 900 houses
that supply us with material to 6tOT
shipment and this morning letter.
and kilograms were sem out to abou'
1000 more.
We appreciate the great loss Il
will mean to these hundreds of sup
ply houses, bu. it Will also mean {
tremendous loss to us. At present w
are producing $500 cars a day ant
we al sell $500 a day. We hav,
to close down at a time when we ar,
doing a greater business than eve
before in our history"
Effect Of the Ford shutdown will
be felt in industry in every part o
the country, according to officials o
the company. The number OF work
ers employed by firms supplying tn
Ford company with various parts an,
raw materials including iron an,
steel. was v%ariously estimated at from
- mi1lion'D --