Ford vs. Weeks

If a business man and a politician set out to abuse one another, who would win? Henry Ford and John W. Weeks attempted a practical solution of this question. There is little doubt that Henry Ford won. But the question is not answered. Mr. Ford accused Secretary Weeks of being "a Boston bond broker, in politics for a pastime." Others were outspoken in declaring that Mr. Ford's abuse was political--with the sole object of promoting Henry Ford as a Presidential candidate in 1924. The whole matter rose out of Muscle Shoals. During the War the Government built a dam at Muscle Shoals, Ala., and two plants for the manufacture of nitrates for explosives. The project is not yet completed. To hasten affairs the Government also constructed a temporary steam plant, the "Gorgas plant," 90 miles away on the land of the Alabama Power Co. The power company reserved the right to purchase the plant later at a fair valuation or to have the Government remove it. The whole project cost about $100,000,000.

Months ago Henry Ford offered to lease all three plants for 100 years, making an initial payment of $5,000,000 and paying installments that may aggregate $214,000,000. The offer was placed before Congress. It is still there. Nothing has been done.

Last month the Alabama Power Co. finally demanded that the plant be sold to it or taken off. Secretary of War Weeks (in charge of Muscle Shoals) notified Mr. Ford and Mr. Ford kept silence. On Sept. 24 the Gorgas plant was sold to the Power Co. under the terms of the contract for $3,471,487.

Secretary Weeks asked Mr. Ford if his offer would stand for the remainder of the Muscle Shoals project, with this difference: that the $3,500,000 received for the Gorgas plant be deducted from Mr. Ford's initial payment of $5,000,000.

Last week an official statement came from Mr. Ford's office.

The Ford Philippic. "My offer stands before Congress, and I shall not have any further dealings with John W. Weeks. . . . Long ago Mr. Weeks matured in his mind the plan to break up Muscle Shoals and dispose of it piecemeal. . . . This plan was formed by John W. Weeks for the purpose, as he thought, of injuring Henry Ford. . . . But the injury has shot past Henry Ford and has landed on the farmers. . . The only thing I could do at Muscle Shoals which I am not now able to do elsewhere would be to make fertilizer for the farmer. And that is the sole reason why John W. Weeks and scores of corporation lawyers have exerted their cunning to prevent me. ... It would be well worth while for the waterpower and fertilizer financiers who control this situation to pay $100,000,000 if thereby they can retain the endless millions which they now make through exorbitant prices. My offer is still before Congress. I shall not withdraw it. There is nothing whatever for me to explain. There is nothing that John W. Weeks can explain though he talks from now until he leaves public life. . . . Let him explain to the farmers."

The Weeks Reply. The Secretary of War, "trembling with rage," rushed with this attack to a Cabinet meeting. When he had cooled off he issued a statement edited at the White House: " Mr. Ford this morning issued a personal attack upon me. . . . His statement is filled with reckless assertions. It may be that Mr. Ford ... is not himself possessed of the full facts of the situation." He then explained: 1) that the Gorgas plant cost less than $5,000,000 of the hundred millions expended at Muscle Shoals; 2) that under the contract made by the Wilson Administration with the Alabama Power Co. the Government had the choice of selling the Gorgas plant for $3,500,000 or junking it, which would have yielded about $1,000,000. He continued: " I have never opposed Mr. Ford's securing the use of this waterpower or any other equipment we have, provided he is able to give such assurance of its being devoted to this particular purpose [manufacture of nitrates]. That he could ever economically make nitrates by steam power is denied by every expert adviser. The fact that he says his offer is still open would seem to indicate that he does not regard the Gorgas steam plant as necessary to him."

The Significance. Mr. Ford's attack on Secretary Weeks can hardly have been delivered for purely business reasons. The emphasis that the statement places on the supposed injury to the farmers has the force of an appeal for the farmer vote in 1924. Mr. Ford made the first frontal assault on the Coolidge Administration, and Mr. Weeks bore the brunt of the attack.

Secretary Weeks is often described as being in appearance typical of the War Department. Not dashing, his is the warfare of defense. " His big and shining dome looks like a fortress," says Mark Sullivan, famed Washington observer.

When it comes to defending himself against the attacks of Henry Ford, it must be remembered that Mr. Weeks of Massachusetts is no fool. He is a self-made man who has made his million. He also made his way with the people through Congress to the Senate. When he was the colleague of Senator Lodge he said: " Lodge is the statesman, and I represent Massachusetts."

Born on a New Hampshire farm, Weeks went abruptly from school-teaching to Annapolis at the age of 16. After some service on the high seas he entered business in Boston and soon became a broker (Hornblower and Weeks), then a financier. During Senator Harding's campaign. Senator Weeks gave "sound advice."