OCR Text |
Show sjxjrts reporter of the Oetrolt free cinder-covered Ice on Lako St. Press. It was sent to me in March, 1947, -with the compliments of J. R. Davis and the Ford Motor Company. Com-pany. Mr. Davis was a high official, offic-ial, top sales manager, I believe. This was after Ernest Breech and the new management took over. It Is entertaining and informative reading, not just a puff story for Ford, but lively history of the whole of Detroit, auto industry, snorts, and politics. Quoting it, I'll just call it the book. It took a sports reporter to learn early auto history, because at first it was considered a sport, and ignored by business and financial reporters. The book quotes James Couzens, one of Ford's early stockholders, and later mayor of Detroit and U. S. Senator, as saying, "How his mind works is more than I can understand. For example, let us say you and I are standing at the corner of Woodward and Michigan and we should agree to meet each other at the corner of Griswold and State. The only means we would know would be to walk half way around the block. But not Ford. By some process, un known to us, he would go right through the walls of buildings and would be there on a direct line waiting for us. " Garet Garrett noted the same quality. Writing of the creation of the model A, he told of the decls Ion as too what design distributor to use. Numeroous suggested ones were placed on a table and Ford asked to decide. He just glanced at them, pointed at one, and said, "That one". When the engineers got through making fancy tests, they found he was right. Again, when asked to manufacture manufac-ture airplanes for World War II, he was given a fighter plane to evaluate. He just glanced at it, and said he could build a thousand a day. Aircraft experts called him crazy. But before they got through explaining why it couldn't be done, it was being done. He had a way of setting the Intelllgensia too gibbering with a single off-hand remark. He annoyed annoy-ed them no end, yet they couldn't prove him wrong. The "ignorant mechanic" seemed to know more, Instinctively, about money, machin ery, and people, than some experts ever learned. Told that the model T was no longer the car people wanted, he remarked that regardless regard-less of what they wanted, he'd build what they ought to have. But he couldn't make them buv it, as things turned out. And then there was his historic remark that s to color, people could have any color they wanted as long as 't was black. He had to do things his way. He was a born autocrat. The book recounts many things about Ford, among the other early auto men. Stories of GM, Chrysler, Studebaker, and Durant are just as good, but we're talking about Ford this time. There was his old Clair, at 92 miles an hour, in Jan uary, 1904. There was the Peace Ship, in World War I, which he outfitted and sent across the Atlantic; At-lantic; which was not permitted to land in England, and finally found berth in Stockholm. They called it crack-pot then, yet years afterward some people held that it was the most sensible thing about that war. There was his fight with the bankers after the war. There was the squabble with the NRA, and Gen. Hugh S. Johnson. John-son. Ford never signed the code, nor displayed the Blue Eagle. There was the controversial magazine, mag-azine, the Dearborn Independent, which he killed when he called off his fight against the Jews, which had been a disgraceful episode anyway, in my opinion. Wanting to hire Lindburg for test flying at Willow Run, he was told this must be cleared with the White House. Ford showed his contempt con-tempt for Roosevelt by hiring Lindbergh and ignoring the White House, and Roosevelt never said a word. So ran the hectic career, with many things left out of this story, until one night in April, 1947, and here I Insinuate myself into it again. That night, about seven o'clock, I was alone at my car agency. My associates of the time. Glen Chris-tensen, Chris-tensen, Merritt Floyd, and Kent Shurtz, had all gone home. Two Ford road men called in and said, "We have the unpleasant duty of asking you to resign". I said, "I'm sorry about that. I had great hopes for the future of this business". I didn't resign just then, but asked that they ship cars to fill all orders on hand. They agreed to this, and the agency finally was wound up about three months later. But that night in April, the floor dropped out from under me. Strangely, the next morning, when we got our daily papers, they carried the news that Henry Ford had died. Nine o'clock in Detroit, seven ociock in ieita. wnai a coincidence! Yet that wasn't to be the end of the personal story. Seven years later, in February, 1954, one of the Ford field men was back in the plce, and he accepted ac-cepted my signature on the dealer agreement for Mercury cars. The thing had turned full circle. Yet then it was I who had a sober second thought, and ten days later, I wrote--lamy- vn resignation. And, folks, I hold that holding a Mercury sales apency for ten days, and quitting without selling a sin gle car is a record of some kind, too. Well, we might as well get on to the financial comment. That's what I started this article for. Ford stock has never been on sale to the public, but a few associates were sold some in 1903, and the stories of what it did for them racer, the "999", which he drove on are fabulous. The orginal stockholder were: Alex G. Maleomson, Charle J. Woodall, James Couzens, Miss R. V. Couzens, John S. Gray, the Dodge Brothers, John and Horace, Charles H. Bennett, John W. Anderson, Ander-son, Horace H. Rackman, Vernon C. Fry, Albert Stretlow, and Henry Ford. Henry Ford, on buying out John S. Gray, gained the controlling interest of 58 in 1906; In 1919 he bought out the last non-family stockholder, James Couzens, and thereafter he, Mrs. Ford, and their only son, Edsel, held all of the stock until Edsel died in 1943, His sons inherited some stock; and when the elder Ford died in 1947, much of it was turned to the charity foundation to avoid inheritance inheri-tance taxes. At the start of 1955, there were seven individual stock owners, including key executives. As to the first twelve, one of these realized $260,000 plus dividends divi-dends of $95,000, In sixteen years, on a $100 Investment. James Couzens, Cou-zens, on a larger Investment, sold out In 1919. He received Henry Ford's personal check in the a-mount a-mount of $29,308,857.80. This, from an investment of only a few thousand thou-sand dollers. He paid a little over seven million in income taxes, at 1919 rates, and put the rest in tax exempt bonds. Then he spent the rest of his life in firy denounciatlon of Henry Ford. Their quarrel brought about the closing of the Detroit banks which led to the closing of all the banks In 1932. (Economists say, however, that If Detroit hadn't started this, some other place would. It was in the cards the spiral of deflation had to run its course.) The Dodge Brothers sold out at a profit, too, and launched a company com-pany of their own, with a heavier, sturdier car than the model T. After their death, it was taken into the Chrysler family. The Ford car might, in fact, have become a General Motors car in 1908. Durant wanted it, and Ford was willing to sell then for eieht million. But he wanted cash, and "Wild Willie" Durant couldn't raise it, according to the book. But we're off the track again. There areo many threads to this story! The advent of Henry Ford II has brought a new order, and new profits to the company, and now it is eoine to sell stock to the public. The family, furthermore, is going to give up absolute control, and vest 60 voting rights with the new Investors. They will retain 40 control. How good an Investment Invest-ment will it be, now? First of all. it wont make the fabulous percentage gains the old stock did for the founders, inai would be an impossibility. And, there are, as yet, not sufficient figures available to judge it by. Breech's statement that 1955 profits pro-fits will exceed the profits of 21 years before World War II doesn't mean much. But we can make a - . ' :-" V V Kentucky whiskey lerever line is enjoy the call is for.. "pJ OLD , BRAND few calculation!. For comparison. Ford can only be judged with other large auto manufacturers. And we might as well use approximations, or round figures. After reclassification, there will be 53 million shares of Ford stock outstanding. Of this, 15. or nearly seven million shares will be offered, at first. The price is being guessed at about $C6 per share. So, compared with others, we find: General Motors has now, 278 million shares of common, selling at $50. This adds up to a capitili-zation capitili-zation of nearly 14 billion dollars, in addition to two issues of preferred. pre-ferred. Chrysler has about nine million shares outstanding, at $100 per. This totals $900 million stock value. Ford may have 53 million shares at $66. Total, nearly 3Vi billion. GM this year will earn abillion dollars about $4 per share, and pay dividends of $2.17 per $50 share. This is a 4.34 on present price. Chrysler will earn 70.6 million, and pay dividends of $4.00 per $100 share. Four percent, obviously. What will Ford earn, and pay, per share? It hasn't been made public, yet. We don't know. Of these, Chrysler has fewer non automotive sidelines than the others. Ford goes in for farm machinery, ma-chinery, and GM builds more than two-thirds of all diesel locomotives as well as 50 of all autos, and a majority of jet airplane engines. So even this comparison doesn't tell all. But it would seem fair for Ford stock to sell on a dividend yield basis between GM and Chrysler. At 4, the $66 dollar price would indicate a dividend of $2.65 per year. Conservative practice would justify this with earnings of $4.00 Give Ford an estimate of 1955 earnings, then, of $212 million. How to buy stock? Brokers claim they are buried with orders, even though It isn't yet for sale. "Little guys" are showing more interest in It than Wall Streeters. Many of the latter like their GM, which has increased in value six times over since 1949, and paid fabulous dividends, itself, since then. But with only 7 million Ford shares being offered, perhaps more than that many people will want some. Once listed on the stock exchange, it will seek its level through supply and demand. The small number of shares, against the big demand, may send the price up, to a lower yield basis than either GM or Chrysler. This would be of benefit to the initial buyers. Such a squeeze, if it occurs, could be something to see. In any case, it is improbable that you or I will be able to buy any at the start. Too many people want It. The Ford company wants wide distribution, and has chosen 1 seven brokeragge firms to place the stock. Still, all of these must have substantial old customers they'd want to please. One has announced its intention to pro-rate all orders on the basis of shares available. So. for a while, Ford stock may bo more a thing to watch than to buy. The heavy Indicated demand could send the price way up, once it is traded on the exchange. After that, it may be expected to fluctuate fluct-uate up and down with the trends in the industry, the fortunes of the Ford company, and in response to MtLLAHB COUNTY CHRONICLE Delta, Utah. Thurs. Nov. 17, 19S5. overall economic conditions an1 all the innumerable factors which cause stocks to mluctuate on the market all the time. ft 0q tf t "Make ii O rs ELECTRIC" n3i I GP More and more folks say "Make it Electric" at Christmas. They know how much Reddy can do for them . . . and how little he charges for each job . . . so, they call for more appliances, more electric tools to speed jobs and save work. Put Reddy down on YOUR list. Let him show you how many more jobs he can do for you ... at low, low wages. ED f fe s m m m ww -2- - Ell TELLURIDE POWER COMPANY L THE FINE t-ING O F DIOTI NOTION I TTio four moot daolrabio ftvoo wtuky could havo oro rrt4 f ! chart Sunny Brooh haa ovorytfcfngl Sunny p Crook YESI YES! YESI YESI KENTUCKY 6TRAK3HT KENTUCKY Bt-CNOeO SuknyBroo: eRA.o trrrrcKY mgskey tk&J SonrBootCo BOURBON WHI3KEV WHISKEY W the ci9 sum esccx company, cms:: cf katiskal cistuuss f2::u:ts c:p:iatich. ic.'ssviiiL ry. b:th ts fs::f. mrczw tuna whiskey ccstaikj m gkali umn spirits ! !! 1 0 0b44! TUt 01Jf mobile MnetyXifht for 19S! Never Ln mj dw car twrpt on the tern iBioolhly . , . to powerfully ... to mtgoificently I New Starfir. ttjling ttrpt far beyond the ordinary In loiury and glamor. New Jrtaway IlydrMatic combine tbe tmooih fioto of Said with the potitJT g of gear. And tbe new Rocket T-3S0 movet op in torque, bortepowrr and compreiun. la) rrery liuorioot detail, here It distinction. in anjr company! It's ofl dramatic di.play at oar showroom. To invito jm to teo it . . . and try it on the road. NEW NIN ETY -EIGHT VISIT THI "KOCKIT ROOM". ..AT YOU OLDSMOB1LI DIALESSI SUNSET CHEVROLET CO. DELTA FHCNE311 'OlOIMOIIll ri HINTS -SUIIIT INIMT ANOTHII IIAT tO.feUNan MUSICAL ON NIC-TV o SAT. NOV. It- |