Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-12-26
new YEAR OPENS With A GREAT
SURPLUS OF MA TERIALS OF ALL
KINDS ON HAND, SAYS H. FORD

material surplus will be absorbed il
the natural course Of events and tht
year 1927 should be one OF normalcy.'
"You mean year as prosperous a!
1926?"
well, 1926 was abnormal" he re.
piled.
The query apparently suggested &
second thought.
What is prosperity, anyway" ht
asked meditatively.
"a real prosperity is that in which
all participate and in which all are
consumers When man consumes he
must produce, and when there is the
proper balance between production
and consumption prosperity is bount
to follow"
The rumored six cylinder car was dis.
missed with the remark, Nothing tc
it,"
"You know" Ford went on, 1--WE die
thousand of them. Two of them are
now in our museum"
Ford also denied that he was at pres
ent financially interested in rubber
growing. He added, however, thai
some developments in the future might
attract him to that field.
II do believe he said, chat rubber
should be grown on this continent"
Concerning automobile production in
1927, Ford expressed the opinion that
the output would be about normal
He was careful to point out again
however, that 1926 was abnormal. "Of
the total 1926 production of cars of all
makes he went on, 80 per cent OF
more were re-possessed by the sales
agencies for non-payment. The trade
anticipated a e-possession ratio of /
per cent of all the machines sold on
the deferred payment plan. This con-
dition shows that portion of the
the people are buying things they
cannot pay for
Concerning credit and debt, the mo-
tor manufacturer said:
There is point up to which credit
is constructive, but beyond that point
it becomes destructive
"The habit of never wholly owning
anything we use, never having that
personal attit u d e toward quality
quality which use and ownership give,
is Simply to cease working for oneself
and became something like a mort,
gagged servant"
"This is a situation for which nc
good word can be spoken.
when a man has been sold on the
installment plan up to or beyond his
income, he is automatically out of the
market and he does not contribute
to the prosperity of the community.
He is just as much out of the market
as if he were saving his money for
six months to pay cash for something
he wants, but with the difference that
under the installment plan the seller
doesn't get the money and the buyer
doesn't get the goods
The five-day week has proved its
economic value and already has re-
suited in 100000 wage increases rang
ing from 40 cents to $150 a day, Ford
said. "It gives men and women time
to consume what they produce" he said.
people have more leisure must have
more clothes. They must have a
greater variety of food, more trans
portation, more service of various
other kinds. Thus the industrial value
of leisure as promoter of the con-
sumption of goods and as a stimulant
to business has been proved.
"The five-day week was not inaug-
urated from purely humanitarian mo-
tives," Ford continued 'It had it's in
ception in the conviction that people
consume more in their leisure than in
their working time, and thus create a
demand for more production.
Proper management utilizing mod
ern machinery and tools, has made it
possible for the worker to accomplish
in five days what heretofore required
sid days. And this is being done
without crowding the worker - with
the same expenditure of energy