Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-06-16
$5O,0O0,0)O A YEAR
IN "FLNVER Joke
Ford Plant, 20 Years Old To.
day, Has Proved Wonder of
Industrial! World.
BY JASON CONRAD.
special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
DETROIT, June 1.-THE fivver
Joke is twenty years old today. And
Henry is getting s50,OO0,00O worth
OF laughs out of it year.
Twenty years ago the dream of
Henry Ford, mechanic-he wasn't
even an automobile engineer-be-
gan to come true. The Ford fac
tories are now celebrating the con-
clusion of the second decade of their
existence. Their dominating head is
celebrating the fact that they have
made him the richest man in the
world and national figure.
The Ford company today is at the
zenith of it's prosperity and is carry
ing out an expansion program of
enormous magnitude. Twenty years
ago on this date the first Ford unit
went into operation. The company
back of it was incorporated at only
100000, OF which it had been pos
working capital There were but
twelve stockholders. including the
originator and inventor.
Annual Turnover, $500, OO0, 900.
Today the company has built up
$500, 100000. Henry Ford originally
owned but % per cent of the stock.
He had to sacrifice the remainder to
the urgent need for cash capital. But
in 1907 he bought in enough of the
standing stock to bring his hold
ings to 5S1z per cent
In 1908 the model ct" Ford was
first put on the market. After its
success was firmly established, Mr..
Ford began to put his own ideas as
to the relationship between capital
tablished a minimum wage scale of
SIS a day for all employees and with
this went his profit sharing plan.
Those measures turned both automo-
tive and other industries upside down
for a time. 1t was confidently pre-
dicted that the scheme would not
work. Yet year later he announced
that IL sales reached a certain figure
every purchaser of a tin Lizzie"
would receive a rebate. The sales
passed the necessary mark and checks
went out to hundreds of thousands of
happy purchasers.
All stock in Ford Family.
In 1919 Edsel Ford became presi-
dent of the concern and purchased
controlled now by the former me-
chanic, whose schemes were deemed
| impossible, and his son. In that same
year the company was reorganized
under Delaware laws with a capital
| of Sl00,000,000.
Beginning with 1,7OS cars a year
| in 1908, the output has grown until
now the company turns out 1900 900
! cars and trucks a year. The current
year probably will see this figure ex-
| ceeded. This will equal the produc-
| ton Of all other makers in this coun-
| try combined. More than 100000
! fivvers are now in use. More than
| 100000 have been manufactured.
Twenty Employees on First Pay Roll.
| Ford's employees now number more
! than 100000. The pay roll started
with less than twenty names. The
| Highland Park plant here covers 800
| acres and the River Rouge. plant
| covers 1900 acres and has the larg-
! est foundry in the world.
After continued battles for mate
rails Ford determined on a self-sup-
porting policy. The company now
owns thousands of acres Of coal lands,
a railroad to tap them, forests. blast
furnaces. machine shops, body plant,
saw mills, coke ovens, a cement mill,
a paper plant, plate glass factories
and a. locomotive shop. The COM
four. There are 5000 authorized Ford
dealers and $1,000 Ford service sta
tions. There are several foreign
branches.
Ford Works Tremendously Hard.
Few industries have ever paid such
large rate on original investment
Few have paid such n tremendous
sum in salaries, and few have given
such opportunities for workmen to
secure advancement or to work year
in and year out with practically no
Iay-offs.
Henry, who will be sixty on July
80, is still on the job eighteen hours
day planning and creating even
greater opportunities. He can do
more than plan, for he has more than
5000, 900, 600 in cash in the banks Of
the United States.
The Ford factories now are turning
out approximately 6.SOJ cars a day
under a system Of factory manage
ment and efficiency which has been
the despair of imitators. His COM
petitors estimate his profits at $50 a
car.
The flivver joke is an old joke, but
good one-for Henry.
Copyright 1927