New Britain herald., 1927-02-02
FORD AND PROSPERITY


 If any serious trouble suddenly should come to Henry Ford and his business, it is scarcely too much tc say that an industrial panic woult result" This is not the statement ot Ford manager, a Ford publicity man-lf he needs any-or anybody connected with the great plant al Detroit. IL is the calm and measur- ed assurance of that staid and ultra conservative publication, the Review of Reviews.
 Albert Shaw, the editor knows what he speaks when he talks. Con- sider the situation:
 In 1926 the Ford plant produced 1,S10,027 vehicles of all kinds, the net profits were in excess of S10o,- 100000, and the bank balance of the company approaches s4O0,o00,- 900. Can anyone say, in contempla- ton of such figures, that an indus trial disaster to the Ford works would not precipitate if not a panic, then at least a serious industrial de- pression? And all things consider ed, there is not much difference be- tween the two.
 There are some persons who are rot yet thoroughly convinced of the magnitude and effect of the auto mobile industry upon general pros perity. To these it need only be pointed out that it's qualifications are so immense, extending to all parts of the Union, that anything harming it could not help harlning everyone else, even to the corner grocer. What injures such a vast industry injures all Let a disaster occur to the Ford organizations and instead of other autom obile concerns profiting. such as the General Motors, they would be pulled into the maelstrom and we all would suffer. In 1873 it only required the failure of a Philadel- phia banking house interested in the construction of western railroads to plunge the country into panic; in 1893 failures of prominent concerns did the same thing for the country. If the Ford concern, or the General Motors, suffered similar blow to- day the results would be serious and far-reaching.
 Much depends upon management. Henry Ford has a maxim that ought to dispose of the contention that there is a cut throat warfare be- tween his concern and the General Motors. Time spent on your con- petitors is time lost on your busi- ness, '-he says. A queer maxim, sure ly, when compared with the time thus generally Host" by most busi- ness men. It works in his case, however, because of the domination of the market in his particular field If he should happen to be wrong and there ensues a serious blowout upon the motor indust rial highway, the losses would be as serious as if the railroads suddenly went into the hands or receivers, or any number of the la"ge systems did so. Of this there is no sign at the present time.
 The question Of what causes prosperity nowadays is buttressed 10 some extent upon the automobile industry, with the tariff somewhat in the background as far as this inlusty is concerned, We not only supply virtually all the automobiles for our own use, but we can compete with foreign automobile manutactur- CTS in their own lands as well as wherever automobiles are in de- mand. Tine tariff cuts no figure. The automobile industry is a mighty vehicle of prosperity which cannot to otherwise than shove the tariff ( ciscussion further into the back ground, where it has been steadily going in recent years.
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