INDUSTRIAL SQUEAKS

If Wall Street is correct in the statement that Henry Ford is going into the oil business, the confusion and consternation caused thereby will be enormous. Mr. Ford, it seems, intends to establish gas stations which will sell gasoline exclusively to Ford owners at sixteen cents a gallon. The fearful consequences to the automobile, oil and autobody industries are easily apparent. The demands for Fords will be increased to such an extent that the Ford plant will probably be distended to the bursting point in order to satisfy it.

But, the imbroglio of oil interests will be even more absorbing. As gasoline can be produced at tens cents per gallon, there is no doubt as to the course open to the Standard Oil Company. A startling reduction will be the immediate results; the battle of price-slashing that follows will be the greatest in America's industrial history. And the fact that the battle will be waged between two of her most powerful magnates will add the more zest to the struggle.

The most interesting developments of all however, will appear among the various concerns which manufacture disguised and elaborated radiators for Fords. Instead of trying to make a Packard out of a Ford, they will have to devise Ford radiators, rattles and top which may be applied on a Packard. For the gas dispenser at the Ford stations, a man with a nose for cars will have to be evolved. The collapsible automobile appears to be in for its day. A few reefs handled in here and there, a disguised radiator, a squeaking device, and even the majestic Rolls Royce will sputter up to the filler and demand an injection of sixteen-cent gas.