Ford's Four Years

In the dank rubber-growing state of Para last week a party of stocky little Cayapas Indians went on the rampage, invaded the village of Cardoso, killed 21 persons, cannily kidnapped three children as hostages to protect themselves from pursuit. From the state capital, Para's authorities despatched a detachment of 30 soldiers to what remains of Cardoso, which they were expected to reach in about eight days by river boat and rail.

Same day came another call for help. Rioters were attacking the adminstration buildings of the Ford rubber plantation, 500 miles away on the Tapajos River. U. S. citizens were in danger. Para officials waited for no river boats, commandeered a giant Pan American Airways plane, filled it with swarthy policemen, sent it roaring over the treetops to the rescue.

The rubber plantation of Ford Motor Co. in the state of Para contains 2,500,000 acres, lies along the Japajos river, may be reached directly by ocean-going steamers. A Ford city-port is already building at the village of Boa Vista. Operation actually began in 1928. Ford authorities agreed to clear 1,00 acres of jungle a year for the first four years. And just as Moscow authorities have vowed to speed up their Five-Year Plan, Ford managers have sworn to speed their Four-Year Plan. Dictator Stalin's most optimistic hope is to complete his Five-Year plan in four years. Henry Ford's managers have an added incentive. In recent months British East Indian rubber interests and Brazilians who feel that the Ford concession should have been give to no alien, have been circulating rumors that the whole Ford rubber plantation was about to be given up (TIME, Dec. 15). Tropical diseases were making too great inroads. Seedlings were not growing. But last month, two years after the contract went into effect, officials of the Companhia Ford Industrial do Brazil could announce that nearly 3,500 acres of jungle had already been cleared, 1,990 acres planted; nearly 196,000 seedlings were sprouting in the nurseries.

Haste to beat the Four-Year Plan was responsible for the riot calls to Para last week. Loud have been the grumblings in the plantation at company officers' attempts to enforce paternal Mr. Ford's rules for his Brazilian kingdom: "No liquor. No women."

Jungle clearing, rubber planting had gone so swiftly that Ford managers served eviction notices last week on several villages of Brazilians, including one that boasted an orphan asylum. The villagers answered by flying to arms, marching against the Ford adminstration buildings with loaded muskets. No one was killed, but before the flying Para policemen arrived, many buildings were wrecked.

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