Evening star., 1940-10-17

pODiloAACu =
ut this mon M
political" season
of the year with DA''o
the doubtless diSinterested purpose
OF informing the American people
about the control of various Ameri-
can enterprises.
The New Dealers have lost few
opportunities to stir up class envy
and class hatred by calling atten-
tion to the wealth of particular in
dividuals. In this instance, the
mon political" Securities and EX-
change Commission calls attention
to the fact that Henry Ford and
his family constitute the best eX-
ample of one-family control OF an
American business because that
family controls stock valued at
about $625 100000
Had Original Idea.
In the first place, Henry Ford
DIDN'T do any Wall Street manlpu-
lating of stock issues to get his
wealth and, in the second place,
he didn't go to the political powers
the money to get subsidy or spe-
cial privilege so he could build up
his own company He committed
the objectionable crime OF having
an idea-an original idea. He in
vented the loW-priced automobile
In America. He borrowed money
from a few friends and then made
y, taly of II o. ~ n
vention at a price low enough so
that millions of Americans could
enjoy the highways and the trans
portation facilities which the early
flivver and the later models gave
them.
Thus Henry Ford made success
which, according to communlstlc
philosophy, is big mistake. No
individual should be allowed to ac-
cumulate wealth, the Russian doc
trine says, even If he has the brains
to do it and the honesty to accom-
plish it without stepping on any
body else's preserves.
Henry Ford and his family can't
eat S625 100000, nor can they spend
1t. AS matter of fact, very little
Of these assets are convertible into
cash at once, because they are in
the form of plant and machinery
and real estate and in organization
which can function only as long as
management brains enable 1t to
complete with the other large auto
mobile companies.
Keeps Business Going.
II Henry Ford had taken all his
stock and sold it for cash in the
market and quit his business with
q fortune of S625, 900 and put
1t into tax-eXempt SecuMties he
would never have gotten his name
in the papers in this campaign as
q target for the ass-conscious New
Dealers in Washington. He might
have been welcomed instead into
the groups Of contributors to New
Deal campaigns whose wealth never
seems to be Objectionable when it
comes to collecting campaign funds
or distributing ambassadorShipS aft
er election. But instead he has
preferred, though more than 10
years of age, to keep his business
going and to maintain high wage
levels-he was the first to boost the
workers pay in the auto industry
a couple of decades ago. This, it
seems, is all wrong now, or else
the statistical wizards of the Sc
curities and Exchange Commission
were merely indulging in HARM
less orgy of figures.
The work on such compilations
originated no doubt long before the
campaign started, but the effect of
the publicity now is to create class
hatreds and class prejudiceS. No
Governor of any State has as yet
said that Dictator Stain would re-
joice If the New Deal were con-
tinued in power, but nobody has
to say it-this fact is we'll known,
namely, that the Roosevelt admin
istration, by its fomenting of class
hatreds, is doing exactly what the
Communists want done in America
and bring about discord and dis
sension SO that the masses may be
melted to feel that all wealth and
property is illegitimately acquired.
Never Had Monopoly.
Private property should, of course,
be managed by its owners as
trusteeship. Society has enacted
laws demanding that competitors
shall not injure each other by un-
fair means or deprive anybody of
free opportunity. Henry Ford has
never had a monopoly in the low
priced auto field. First there came
Chevrolet and Plymouth and later
WHY'S now Nash. Bill
lions of dollars of demand for steel
and rubber, for machine tools, parts
and accessories, to say nothing of
road building and collateral activi-
ties, have been created, and so have
billions of dollars of jobs-all as
consequence of Henry Ford's in
eenuity. His $625, 900 900 of stock
Is a tiny fraction of the total pay
rolls he has made possible for
American workers in the last 20
years. And. as a matter of fact,
Henry Ford's genius really stimu-
lated the building of the entire
mechanical industrial system of
mass production, without which we
would not be able to organize today
the biggest defense program in the