Business & Finance: Ford Dickers

There was a time when Henry Ford was apparently intent on doing every kind of business incidental to the manufacture of automobiles. He provided himself with his own steel mills, his own glass works, his own credit corporation for financing retail sales, even his own railroad (the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton)—all the elements of a great vertical combination, except that for the most part they were, not combined, but erected. More recently he has apparently reversed his intent. As early as 1929 he disposed of his railroad. Last week he was actively dickering...