Evening star., 1924-09-14
DOOMS COW AND HORSE
Henry Ford Predicts Farm Without Animal, an o,k Don.
in IS Days Per Year.
HORSE

Dig milling centers like Minneapolis?
All rleht then. why not slaughter our
animals and mill our wheat right ou,
IN our villages where the farmer
could work part time in tho factory
and the factory hand part time ou tte
larm. Our creamerieS, butter ana
cheese factories are doing this now.
our cotton mills are shifting 70 rhe
south, where they are near the raw
material. and ] am sending ny small
parts to the .:Ilagcs to Re made,
There Is 4 chans- ,:ominr-a rninglirr
or industry and .igricuiture--.ha, will
DO TINS country no end of good. Iso-
lation and inonotony have driven mil
lions from the farm to the city. but
under this arrangement farmers could
live in the villages, enjoy the benefits
Of community life and drive out to
their farms for planting. cultivating
and harvesting"
Bans Iron Horse Too.
Along with the horse and the COW
there is one other familiar feature OF
present day life which Henry Ford is
willing to aboliSh-the steam locomo-
tive. In the new world which hs
visions, the railroads will all be cleo
trif1ed, but he admits that that change
VIII come slowly. In the meantime
he is doing his share by eIectrifying
MS own road, the Detroit, Toledo and
Ironton
The steam locomotive" he said. "is
not much more efficient than that old
fashioned power plant-the horse
Lake the. horse, ii spends about 20 per
cent of its time out of use fin the
round house. and it takes five men to
1uel and oil and repair it. An electric
locomotive is in the shop for repairs
only about two weeks in the wear and
will pull heavier loads or else pull
an ordinary load quicker Moreover,
IT does not burn coal, and right there
1t lops off 40 per cent saving.
In our locomotive shop over in the
Rouge plant we are building the
largest electric locomotives in the
world. They will have 80 drive
wheels and 1000 horsepower each and
will haul freight 15 miles from the
Detroit. Toledo and Ironton switch
yards to the Rouge plant. In two
years most of our railroad will be
electrified; in four years all of it,"
How about other railroads."
EIectrifcation Slow.
That depends upon their managers.
Because of the system of stock hold
ing by which the railroads are
hnanced, their management is practi-
cally taken out of the hands of rail-
road men and put in the hands of
men who think of dividends and do
not give rap for future service. or
course, electrification requires a large
initial expenditure. which cuts dow.
dividends. and that-is why it is going
to be slow"
asked Mr.. Ford about possible de-
VeIopmentS in his own particular
held-that of the automobile. He
made two interesting predictions. the
substitution of aluminium for steel in
automobile bodies and of alcohol for
gasoline as a fuel.
aluminium for automobile bodies
is bound to come" he said. We are
getting around to it ourselves. Alumi-
mum Is going to be a substitute for
IRON and copper in such things as
railroad cars and electrical goods.
There is plenty of aluminium in the
earths crust, far more than there is
OF iron. The only trouble is in ex-
tractlng 1t cheaply, and that is where
cheap electric power will come in.
Alcohol for Fuel.
LAS far as automobile fuel is con-
cerned. l know that every one is
talking about our diminishing oil
resources. and while ! do not know
how much of this talk is based on
soild Facts, it is not very important
Tor we have a substitute for gasoline
which we could begin using tomor-
row-alcohol. Alcohol can be made
from almost anything that grows.
Enough alcohol can be obtained from
an acre of potatoes TO plow an acre
of land with a tractor for 100 years.
Incidentally. alcohol fuel. when it
does come. will be the salvation of the
farmer. He will have another mar
ket for his corn, and will not have to
rely on the meat packers to fix the
price OF hogs"
What are the prospects of saving
fuel by the development of an electric
automobile?
Mona There is no such thing.
Electricity must be generated by fuel
or water power. 1t is stored In bat
terles. to be sure. but its original
source is the same as any other
power, and it will never be used in an
automobile in the sense that alcohol
or gasoline is"
Copyright ay U. r. c. News Service, Inc)