No Model Change

To no one's great surprise, the short will of Henry Ford, filed for probate last week, brought about no changes in his empire. Nor was there any indication that the Ford Motor Co. would have to float a public stock issue to pay the enormous inheritance taxes. It looked as if old Henry Ford had taken care of his death as efficiently as he had run his life.

The Ford stock he held--55%--was disposed of in two ways: his 94,955 shares of voting stock which control the company were left to his four grandchildren, Henry, Benson, Josephine and William, and their mother, Mrs. Edsel Ford. (Together they already hold 41.5%; Mrs Henry Ford holds 3.5%.) The 1,804,140 shares of nonvoting stock were left to the Ford Foundation, a charitable organization set up in 1936. (It had already been left the nonvoting stock of the late Edsel Ford.)

As Mrs. Edsel Ford now holds 12% of the voting stock--and will be trustee of the shares left to William and Josephine until they are 25--she holds technical control of the company. But in a few years, her children will hold control, thanks to their 84.5% of voting stock.

By leaving the nonvoting stock to the tax-free Ford Foundation, the company got around paying the huge inheritance taxes on it. They will have to pay only on the voting stock. Total estate taxes may run as high as $66,000,000. But most automen thought the company had the cash on hand to pay. No valuation was put on the estate. The guesses ran from $200,000,000 to $700,000,000. There was not much doubt that the Ford Foundation, with assets of over $200,000,000. is the wealthiest private charitable organization in the world.

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