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25 - Henry Fords Own Story by Rose Wilder Lane · Henry Fords Own Story

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four of Henry Ford's own story. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain recording by Leanne Howlett.
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  Speaker 1: Henry Ford's Own Story by Rose Wilder Lane, chapter twenty four,
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  Speaker 1: The Greatest Good to the greatest Number. The response to
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  Speaker 1: that first Christmas gift from the Ford Company to its
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  Speaker 1: employees was another proof of forced theory that friendliness pays.
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  Speaker 1: In the following month, the production of cars broke all
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  Speaker 1: January records. Salesmen, with a new feeling of loyalty to
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  Speaker 1: the firm, increased their efforts, worked with greater enthusiasm, and
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  Speaker 1: their orders jumped. The fight with the association still raged
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  Speaker 1: in the courts and in the newspapers, but the factory
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  Speaker 1: wheels returning faster than ever before. More cars were pouring out,
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  Speaker 1: more people were buying. That year, the Ford organization made
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  Speaker 1: and sold ten thousand, six hundred seven cars. Ford had
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  Speaker 1: made good his prophecy that the new factory would produce
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand cars in one year. The phenomenal growth of
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  Speaker 1: his business had begun. His own fortune was doubling and
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  Speaker 1: doubling again. America had produced another self made millionaire. Ford
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  Speaker 1: himself believes that anyone who will pay the price he
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  Speaker 1: has paid can make a financial success as great poverty
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  Speaker 1: doesn't hold a man down. He says, money doesn't amount
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  Speaker 1: to anything. It has no real value whatever. Any young
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  Speaker 1: man who has a good idea and works hard enough
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  Speaker 1: will succeed. Money will come to him. What do I
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  Speaker 1: mean by a good idea, I mean an idea that
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  Speaker 1: will work out for the best interests of everyone, an
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  Speaker 1: idea for something that will benefit the world. That's the
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  Speaker 1: kind of an idea the world wants. This country has
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  Speaker 1: produced hundreds of men whose lives proved this statement, men
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  Speaker 1: who have built railroads, telephones, telegraph systems, great merchandising organizations.
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  Speaker 1: These men have subordinated every personal pleasure to their work.
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  Speaker 1: They have exhausted their minds and bodies, driven themselves mercilessly,
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  Speaker 1: used every ounce of energy and ability. And one the
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  Speaker 1: tragedy for them and for our country is that in
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  Speaker 1: winning the fight, most of them have lost their perspective
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  Speaker 1: on it. They themselves have become absorbed by the machine
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  Speaker 1: they have built up. The money they have amassed usually
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  Speaker 1: means very little to them, but business is their passion.
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  Speaker 1: With millions upon millions piling up to their credit, they
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  Speaker 1: continue to hold down wages, to protect their profits, to
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  Speaker 1: keep the business running as it has always run. That
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  Speaker 1: business has been built only because fundamentally it was for
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  Speaker 1: the greatest good to the greatest number. But in the
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  Speaker 1: long fight they have lost sight of that fact. Let
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  Speaker 1: a new project arise, which is for the general good,
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  Speaker 1: and it will hurt business, they cry in alarm. Ford
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  Speaker 1: kept his viewpoint partly because of his ears on the farm,
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  Speaker 1: where he worked shoulder to shoulder with other men and
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  Speaker 1: learned essential democracy, partly because most of his work had
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  Speaker 1: been in mechanics rather than in business, but most of
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  Speaker 1: all because he is a simple, straight thinking man. The
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  Speaker 1: tremendous Ford organization did not absorb him. He had applied
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  Speaker 1: his machine idea first to an engine, then to a factory.
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  Speaker 1: In time he was to apply it to society as
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  Speaker 1: a whole. That Christmas present of ours is paying better
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  Speaker 1: dividends than any money we ever spent, he said to Cousins,
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  Speaker 1: with a grin first thing, we know the men will
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  Speaker 1: be paying us back more than we gave them. Look
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  Speaker 1: here he spread on cousins desk a double handful of
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  Speaker 1: letters from the men. They like it, he said soberly.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them say they were worrying about Christmas bills
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  Speaker 1: and so on. Those checks took a load off their minds,
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  Speaker 1: and they're pitching in and working hard to show they
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  Speaker 1: appreciate it. I guess in the long run, anything that
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  Speaker 1: is good for the men is good for the company.
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  Speaker 1: In the months that followed, he continued to turn over
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  Speaker 1: in his mind various ideas which occurred to him based
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  Speaker 1: on that principle. The Ford employees and agents now numbered
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  Speaker 1: tens of thousands. They were scattered all over the earth,
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  Speaker 1: from Bombay to Nova, Scotia, Switzerland, Peru, Bermuda, Africa, Alaska, India.
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  Speaker 1: Everywhere were workers helping Ford. Black men in turbans, yellow
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  Speaker 1: men and embroidered grobes, Men of all races and languages, speaking, thinking,
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  Speaker 1: living in ways incomprehensible to that quiet man who sat
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  Speaker 1: in his office in Detroit, were part of the vast
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  Speaker 1: machine out of which his millions poured. He thought it
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  Speaker 1: over that great machine. He knew machines. He knew that
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  Speaker 1: the smallest part of one was as necessary as the largest,
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  Speaker 1: that every nut and screw was indispensable to the success
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  Speaker 1: of the whole. And while he brooded over the mighty
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  Speaker 1: machine his genius had created. The thought slowly formed itself
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  Speaker 1: in his mind that those multiplying millions of his were
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  Speaker 1: the weak spot in the organization. Those millions represented energy,
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  Speaker 1: and through him, they were draining out of the machine,
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  Speaker 1: accumulating in a useless, idle store. Some way they must
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  Speaker 1: be put back. Everybody helps me, he said. If I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to do my part, I must help everybody. A
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  Speaker 1: new problem filled his mind. How should he put his
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  Speaker 1: money back into that smooth, efficient organization in such a
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  Speaker 1: way as to help all parts of it without disorganizing it.
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  Speaker 1: It was now a part of the business system of
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  Speaker 1: the world, founded on financial and social principles which underlie
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  Speaker 1: all society. It was no small matter to alter it. Meantime,
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  Speaker 1: there were immediate practical necessities to be met. His business
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  Speaker 1: had far outgrown the Piquette Avenue plant. A new factory
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  Speaker 1: must be built. He bought a tract of two hundred
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  Speaker 1: seventy six acres in the northern part of Detroit and
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  Speaker 1: began to plan the construction of his present factory, A
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  Speaker 1: number of huge buildings covering more than forty seven acres.
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  Speaker 1: In this mammoth plant. Ford had at last the opportunity
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  Speaker 1: unhampered by any want of capital, to put into operation
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  Speaker 1: his old ideas of factory management. Here eighteen hundred men
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  Speaker 1: were to work quickly, efficiently, without the loss of a
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  Speaker 1: moment or emotion, all of them integral parts of one
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  Speaker 1: great machine. Each department makes one part of the Ford
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  Speaker 1: car complete, from raw material to the finished product, and
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  Speaker 1: every part is carried swiftly and directly by gravity to
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  Speaker 1: the assembling room. But Ford's new idea also began to
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  Speaker 1: express itself. Here. He meant to consider not only the efficiency,
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  Speaker 1: but the happiness and comfort of his men. The walls
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  Speaker 1: were made of plate glass, so that every part of
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  Speaker 1: the work rooms were light and well ventilated. One whole department,
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  Speaker 1: employing five hundred men, was established to do nothing but
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  Speaker 1: sweep floors, wash windows, look after sanitary conditions. Generally, the
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  Speaker 1: floors are scrubbed every week with hot water and alkali.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty five men are employed constantly in painting the walls
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  Speaker 1: and ceilings, keeping everything fresh and clean. That winter, the
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  Speaker 1: Christmas checks went again to all the employees. Ford was
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  Speaker 1: still working out a real plan by which his millions
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  Speaker 1: could help Meantime, he divided his profits in this makeshift fashion.
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  Speaker 1: The following year, the company moved to its new quarters.
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  Speaker 1: In that atmosphere of light and comfort, the men worked
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  Speaker 1: better than ever before. Production broke another record. Thirty eight thousand,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred twenty eight cars in one year were made
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  Speaker 1: and sold, and the automobile world is waiting to hear
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  Speaker 1: the next announcement from Henry Ford. Set a trade journal
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  Speaker 1: at that time, whether or not he has another sensation
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  Speaker 1: in store is the livest topic of discussion in Detroit
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  Speaker 1: manufacturing circles, nay even throughout the world. Henry Ford was
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  Speaker 1: preparing another sensation, but this time it was to be
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  Speaker 1: in a larger field. He had startled the world first
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  Speaker 1: with a motor car, next with a factory. Now he
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  Speaker 1: was thinking of broad economic problems. End Chapter twenty four.