Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-08
nv RUSSELL BARNES.

Ce0tTAlZeS, DeCOiIlcS u ldiid
with homes. farms and fac
- tories spread more or less
evenly over the countryside. as many
students believe 1t should. future his
torians may credit Henry Ford with
having pioneered the movement.
While theorists both within and
without the Government have been
discussing industrial decentralization,
. Henry Ford actually has been moving
important units Of his automobile pro-
duction into the country.
The tremendous Rouge plant, one
Of the greatest industrial concentra-
tons of all time, still sprawls its
enormous bulk along the western out
skirts Of Detroit. But all Ford's start
ers, generators, lamps, gauges, drills
and certain other parts are now pro-
duced in IA little plants with so miles
Of Detroit, scattered along the Rouge
and Huron Valleys.
Last year these little plants pro-
duced 100000 worth of parts and
tools, employed 2,5o0 persons and dis
bursed $1,500000 in wages to farmers
and small-town workers. This year
the totals will be larger, Henry Ford
says, because the plants have been
buster and wages have been increased
20 per cent.
More Than an Experiment.
The totals of production and wages
are mentioned to show that Ford's
IA country plants represent serious
ventures, actually in operation, not
experimentation or indulgence in an
expensive hobby.
There is nothing in common be-
tween Fords little plants, which are
among the most efficient and modern
units known to industry, despite their
location in the Michigan countryside,
and the semi-medieval, handwriting
shops John Ruskin and William Nor
ris, for example, tried to set up against
nineteenth-century English industri-
alism.
For beauty, working conditions and
convenience the Ford country plants
could hold their own against any ever
built. Nesting beneath green trees
beside blue water, set in beautiful
lawns among flowers and shrubbery,
gay awnings spread against the sun,
the little factories look more like mod
ern sanitariums than efficient auto
mobile plants.
The carrying of manufacturing back
into the Notwithstanding down
the barrier between factory and farm
which has featured the last century
Of Western civilization-has become
Ford's most serious interest outside
keeping his automobile enterprise
prospecting He built his first little
plant in 1919 at Worthwhile. Then he
added IS others More are to be built,
he says. as fast as suitable locations
for efficient production can be found.
Particularly is the Detroit manu-
facturer interested in developing proc
esses for the production Of industrial
materials from farm products. He
recently opened at Tecumseh, Mich,
on the site Of century old flour mill,
new little plant to convert soy beans
into automobile materials.
Farm Ally Of Factory.
11lC 4dllA dllO GllC 1dCUOTy dTG
natural allies" Ford said. "One is
incomplete without the other They
never should be separated, for each
has the power to heal the other of any
economic ills that may befall"
Before considering advantages of
country manufacturing, as they have
shown themselves in Fords rural
units, it might be instructive to look
at some of the plants. One can get
a good idea Of their operations by in
specting the six that lie along the
Rouge.
1t is also fitting that one go to the
Rouge to see the little plants, because
they mark return to origins. Ford,
as boy, built a crude waterwheel
along the river. At that time grist
mills dotted its length. Ford is now
replacing those long -dead mills with
automobile parts plants, restoring to
the region its old industrial balance
and prosperity.
At Nankin Mills the visitor finds
the most "old American" of Ford's
country units. The shell of an old,
clapboarded, white grist mill, framed
In massive. hand-hewn beams, houses
a battery of semi-automatic screw and
rivet machines. They are driven by
electricity developed by generator
set in glass-inclosed powerhouse at
tached to the front of the mill
AL Fords little plants are water
powered. Some of them have stand
by electric power service from outside,
but the main reliance is on turbines
driven by the Rouge and Huron Rivers.
In the new plant at Worthwhile,
where the Rouge does not develop suf-
ficient power for the machines and