Show FORD PLAYS LONE HAND IN DISPUTE by BYRON PRICE chief of bureau of associated press washington Washl naton D C tho the case of henry ford furnis a prime illustration ot of how the incidental ci ennitt enmities les within industries as well as the traditional and overshadowing enmity between industry and labor have been raised to white heat beat in the great melting pot of the like steel coal oil and all of the other great pillars ot of american commerce the automobile industry la Is passing through a test teat from wh which I 1 cb I 1 it t may never emerge the aadne F ord has hag been looked u upon pon as the worlds leading personification n of rugged Individual ls in business busine so ile he has eyed his business ali revala front rom a fay far distance never aspiring to be one of the boys always managing to be different through his lincoln motor corn com pay ile he does hold nominal membership in the national automobile chamber of commerce the trade association which dratted drafted the auto altol obile code but he has no representation among the chambers officers and takes no part in its conduct some years ago age he went so far ar as ag to attend one ot of the champers chambers annual banquets in new york to all other motor manufacturers the great event ot of the year ile he was welcomed with trumpets and made the lion of the evening ile ho did not appear to like it and he never went again so with his employee emp loyes whom he views as individuals rather than as a class and everybody knows knowd how he broke with the bankers a dozen years ago and set up a ford tre treasure as chest in detroit to finance his operations in a manner all his own there thera has been a keen understanding 1 landing in washington of oe the dilemma confronting mr air ford when its hla competitors and others in the trader trade got together on a code some strong words have been spoken but in the main the attitude toward him has been one of noticeable restraint As officials of the tae arta heard the story ford found himself in threefold three fold difficulties lie ile was asked to cooperate with ti the ie rest of the trade possibly to end up by opening his books to the national automobile chamber of commerce and that was against hla his whole philosophy ile he saw the possibility of such EL a scrambling of interest as might eventually drive him back to the accepted form of bank financing which he swore long ago to have pone lione of the more thoughtful around uie were not surprised when he hesitated and took time to th think it over in the midst of the thinking over word trickled into washington that air ford might find it possible to go along as a patriotic sacrifice it if the president would preserve the individualistic touch by openly fiend amending ing for or him and more or leas publicly asking tor for his help the president was in hyde park general johnson anxious to get ford in but uncertain how far to go got on the telephone mr roosevelt did some thinking over of his own for a great many things were involved johnson decides to watch and walt wait not the least was the potential resentment of the great majority of the trade should ford be singled out tor for special attention the decision after further di discussion s r between mr air roosevelt rooseve it ind and general johnson was to watch and alid watt wait one other element should be taken into account to round out the picture some ot of the tha best informed in washington believed from the start that whether mr air ford came under the blue eagle or not was less important than appe appeared axed the reason was that thousands of f ford dealers over the count country Z had signed the code on their ov own n presumably taking much of the edge oft off whatever ford might try jo do to the N R A or whatever the N R A might do to him |