The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-11-22
FORD'S FORTUNE IS.
CLEANEST NJ 0 N { Y.
{ Y { R ASSEMBLED.
Great Manufacturer Retains
Simple Life and Pleas
ureS of His Earlier
Days
tcontinuea From Page One,
NN"H""eu 1o" F"so
foundation. Perhaps the wish of the
People was father to the thought.
Followed by Crowd

NContinued From rage ohet
foundation. Perhaps the wish of the
People was father to the thought.
Followed by Crowd
Whenever he drove this odd look
ing contrivance a curious crowd fol-
lowed on bicycles, making uncompli-
mentary remarks. 1t was a crazy
thing" the outcome of crazy
idea" born of "half-cracked brain"
IT never would amount to anything
As a plaything-yes, 1t might be
made 10 go on a hard, level road.
But it never would r: owe of practical
value as a means of travel
On the East Grand boulevard, in
Detroit. there is bridge over the
Grand Trunk railroad tracks. The
approach is up fairly stiff grade.
1t was here the crowd was wont to
assemble to see il Henry could make
the grade. He made it. And he has
been climbing ever since.
That little car, with ffa gas pipe
cylinders, wooden fly wheel, and
leather belt transmission. had all the
mechanical principles in its makeup
that enter into the present Ford car,
1t was on this car that he rested and
won his famous Selden patent suit.
That first car was a crude affair.
Il certainly did not look like mill
lion dollars. Those who looked at
be sunk in it, but they could not see
how any ever could be gotten out
of it. Money to develop and perfect
his idea came in small sums, and for
the most part from men of small
means. Those who financed his
genius and had the courage TO stick
came out with millions. Mr.. Ford
does not believe in stock companies
now. They aren't necessary after you
have made the grade.
One meets around Detroit now and
then man who. with hands in
empty pockets, tells you with sad
far away look in his eyes. how he
had a chance to put some money
into the Ford company at the time
it was being organized, and just
came within an ace of dom 1t, too"
Alas! the ace-whatever that means.
Ford Is Dreamer
Henry Ford was. and still is. a
dreamer. But as far back as the
days of Joseph--and the greatest
dreamers of the world. by the way,
have been of Hebrew extraction
dreamers have not been held in high
especially in the days before their
dreams came true. As a rule they
climb alone steep and stony path
across which men delight in raising
barriers. Dreamers upset the rules
of prophecy. According to the laws
of logic and the rules of men who
walk by sight, these men who dream
and move as in a. sleep should come
to grief-and do not. suppose the
reason is that men who dream walk
by faith, not by sight. and faith
At 70 vi yVhn uRAa
thinks he must remove the noun
tains that bar his way. He who
dreams does not attempt to remove
the mountains. He climbs them. And
that after all is perhaps the best
way to dispose of mountains.
Joseph lived to see his dreams
come true and to receive the homage
of the men who ridiculedI and hated
him Will Henry Ford pardon me-
for discovering this striking resem-
blanee between himself and man
of a race in which he seems able to
see so few virtues and so many
faults?
The Ford Fortune
/ do not know how much Henry
Ford is worth. I am under the i'm
preston that. if he SO. desired. he
could convert his business into a
stock company and pay very satisfac-
tory dividends on billion capital
ization. / doubt whether any other
man ever made SO large fortune IN
SO short a time. 1 believe it to be
one of the cleanest, IL not the clean
est. fortune of it's size ever made.
AS rule, great wealth is quickly
made by gamble of some sort. or
by investments in a highly favored
and protected field, or by acquiring
a monopoly of some natural resources,
or py business methods which crush
competition.
Henry Ford has made his money IN
a free, open. unprotected and COM
petitive field.
The one possible blot on his record
in this connection Is the charge that
he has sometimes dealt ruthlessly
with smaller Independent concerns
which were making sosne parts Of
his car for him: that while he was
paying his own. labor a minimum