The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-11-28
CHAPTER XIII The Ford Indebtedness

The Ford Indebtedness Henry Ford has millions in reserve. owes no man dollar-and Is hope lessly in debt.
 If the Ford indebtedness were such that it could be met by writing q check 1t would have been paid in full long ago. But it isn't that kind of an obligation. There are things con nected with the formation of his ex- ecutive scrap heap which leave the impression that Henry Ford Is more or less unfamiliar with some of the finer ways of expressing his appre- citation of the services rendered him.
 It is unfortunate that he has left the impression that the dollar is hie favorite standard of measure when he comes to estimate the value of human service. lido not mean to say he has never paid in any other way. In many instances he has shown friendly and, generous consideration beyond the payment of wage or sal ary to men in his employ
 In other instances men have been rewarded in a way that has left him in their debt. He has paid them lib erally, given bonuses, bestowed costly gifts. They started poor with him and ended rich. They began in hum ble positions and were advanced to places of honor and responsibility and paid princely salaries If they
 have gone into the scrap heap later, why should they complain? What
 more could he or any other man dc for them than he has done2 But there are things in human re- lationY which some men prize above money.
 There are ways of throwing man on the scrap-heap which leave him with high regard and friendly feeling for the man who threw him there. And there are ways which dc not. As rule 1t is the landing at the end of the fall that hurts. But sometimes resorted to there were painful and unnecessary wounds in flicted by the petard with which a man was hoisted. It wasn't the end of the fall, but the beginning of it that hurt.
 A statement regarding Mir. Ford has been put into print and copy righted to this effect:
 "He is as selfish a man as God permits to breathe" suppose should give credit to the author. of that statement in case I wished to repeat 1t. But l do not care to re-
 
 as I see it. MT. Ford is not selfish according to his light. If he knows as a rule, but one way to pay, it must be admitted that in that way he pays generously. The pity Is that he is blind to the value of. some higher things This, as l see it, Is the most outstanding and at the same time the most regrettable of the defects in a man in whom there is so much to be admired.
 So far as I know, his creditors dc | not regard the debt due them witf anger and resentment. but rather with pity and regret. The operation that removes the scales from agman's I eyes may hurt less than the awaken l ing to the fact that his Illusions ars gone, and he must see things as they are.
 l The Ford Motor company is owned and controlled by Henry Ford. HeSi.
 at present it's brains and the origina- tor of it's policies.
 1 But the Ford Motor company as fl ] stands today is not the product of a single mind-far from it. Into its development has gone the thought oi some of the keenest minds in the ] industrial world. Let it be freely
 granted that MT. Ford gave to the or ganization an inventive genius, an in. sight into the future of the automo- l bile business, dominating will and personality, yet it must be remem- bered that there were many things ir
 the game that he did not understand in the beginning.
 It seems incredible that he, tn.
 modern wizard of finance. ever coult | have been so impracticable.' so un ! informed on things concerning whicf | ha SaauS fo he SO well informed to. | day, as to urge the building of { l vault at the factory in which to de. posit the surplus earnings of the com rany. He learned a number, of thins' about the game as he went along. BN
 and by he made sensational touch. | down. but there were some rattlins good players in the wedge formation that put him over the goal. James Couzens was. and is. one ol l the all-American stars in the finan cial game himself. Amasterful man