Business: Ford Week

To Henry Ford, automobile maker, comes much publicity. Last week the following Ford items appeared in public prints:

¶ Dearborn's Mayor Clyde E. Ford revealed that his second cousin, Detroit's manufacturer Henry Ford, had offered a home for the garbage of Detroit and vicinity. His plan: to reduce garbage to grease, fuel and fertilizers at the Ford plant. Turning garbage into grease may sound to inexperts like catching mumps to cure measles, but to the Detroit city fathers it means a saving of several million dollars. The city will collect the garbage, deliver it to the Ford reduction plant; all further costs will come out of the Ford pocket. A Ford-operated garbage-to-grease plant has effectively reduced London's garbage disposal costs.

¶ Colvin & Co. last week surprised fellow brokers by offering to the public stock of Ford companies in Germany, Denmark, France. These foreign Ford shares had been considered almost unobtainable over here. Especially surprising were the German and Danish offerings, since 60% of German Ford is held by Ford Motors Co., Ltd., of England, and nearly all the remainder by I. G. Farbenindustrie. Less than 7% of Danish Ford shares were offered to the public in Denmark and Holland.

¶ "As the most prolific producer of automotive equipment in the world, I think your company should bear a large part of the abandoned car problem." Thus, last month, wrote George U. Harvey, aggressive president of Queens Borough (New York City), to Henry Ford. Last week he got his answer: a Fordman would call on Mr. Harvey, confer with him on what to do with old cars abandoned along Queens highways. A solution, adopted in Detroit, was suggested: haul the cars to jails and let prisoners break them up. ¶ The Ford plants turned out in August 205,634 Model A cars and trucks, a record for August. In only one other month, October 1925, has Ford production passed this figure.

¶ Austingrad, industrial city projected by the Soviet, will centre around a great Ford plant, will be built by the Austin Co. of Cleveland (see p. 29).