The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America

In 1920, a Wall Street panic damages business and Ford’s sales drop. Ford reduces the price of his cars from $525 to $440, lower than the cost of production, but sales continue to decline. Meanwhile, he will soon need to pay $18 million in income tax and $35 million for stock purchased on credit from the Ford Company’s other holders. Rumors start to circulate that the company is trying to borrow money and being refused.

The newspapers report that the banks are taking over the Ford Company. Abner is saddened and shocked by this news. Ford keeps the plant in operation, waiting to put a secret plan into action.

Toward the end of the year, Ford sends letters to the over 7000 Ford dealers in the country, dictating that each of them must buy a certain number of cars and pay cash for them. Any dealer who does not comply will lose his agency. In this way, Ford forces the dealers to borrow money instead of borrowing it himself.

Now that the dealers are holding an oversupply of Ford cars, Ford closes the plant for a couple of weeks’ “reorganization.” The hard times Abner has always anticipated arrive; he uses the money in his and Milly’s savings account to cover expenses, which feels to both of them “like dying” (103).