South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-06-27
Detroit Has Strangest School in the World;
Teaches Working Folks How To Spend More Money
Ford Has rs Teachers Show
ing His Employees and Their
Wives How to Live Better
Must Quit Slums If They
Get SIS a Day.
BY OTTO MCFEELEY.
Copyright, 1910

aire who will pay his men a minimum
wage of 50 a day will do before ne
gets through!
I don't think Ford is through yet
7 But one of the latest amazing things
he has done is to establish a new
kind of school.
It's the strangest school in the
world.
This strange school has 75 teach
ers
ployes how 10 spend more money and
how TO want more of life's good
things
The work is mostly among the
foreign workers
Millionaire Ford told us about this
school and why he started it during
the conference between him and
Judge Neil, the crusader against
child poverty.
Workers to- Live on More.
I'VE want all our people," Ford
was saying. "to desire more and bet
ter things, and demand a higher
standard Of life. They can't have a
higher standard until they demand
it"
''The ideas that / have had to op-
pose everywhere" remarked Judge
Neil. "are that working people
should be taught TO live on less. The
employment agent of Sears, Roebuck
q Co. told me that he went to Hull
house in Chicago and asked the So
cial workers there what amount is
necessary for a girl to live in Chicago.
Those social workers told him that
at that time no such knowledge was
available as they had been striving to
teach the girls to live on less"
AS these two men talked about
teaching mothers and working people
to demand more and TO spend more
money / thought of the a. b. c. con-
ference at Niagara Falls, where Mex
lean peonage is in the balance.
"a man cannot be efficient" said
Ford, "and do satisfactory work. if
he does not come to the job every
morning with health and happiness.
No man can do his best work If he
is worrying about an unpaid rent bill,
or with a loan shark in pursuit of his
wages.
I'VE haven't an expert charity
worker in the shop" Ford s&id. But
we have rs supervisors who are un-
der orders to go out to teach our
people TO live better and to want
more. These supervisors have all
worked in our Office or shop. They
have our ideas and are interested in
their work as parts of the shop or
ganization, which is a producing ma
chine, turning out automobiles and
better and happier people.
zone of our supervisors can wash a
boys face better than any woman"
Must Quit Slums.
Eighty per cent have "cOme clean"
This means that they are out of the
slums. out of the dark rooms, out
of the starvation habit and on the
road to a fuller and more complete
life.
Ford led the way for Neil and my
self to the moving picture studio,
which is an important feature of the
Ford automobile plant, and showed us
the movie pictures he likes best. They
show a Russian emigrant arriving in
Detroit; locating in a slum house;
getting job in the Ford plant; final
ly coming clean," all in a year and
never again TO be satisfied with less
than enough wages for health and
happiness and never again willing to
live on the peOn standard.
Ford employees cannot get the So
day wage until they have come
clean" as the teachers in this
strange school say in discussing their
work.
Have you bought many famous
paintings" asked Neil, as the pictures
of the transformation of the so-called
''wop" were flashed on the canvas
how an American citizen was created. |
Il wouldn't give ten cents for the !
greatest painting in the world" re-
piled Ford. II would rather see live, |
we'll fed children playing around !
their homes, with their own mothers
there"
Have YOU ever thought of estab- !
fishing public libraries?" asked the 4,
children's judge.
Il want TO do what I can to es-
tablish a library table and a case of |
books in every home in this coun- |
try"
What Bride Learned.
Neil and l spent the remainder OF |
the day with one of the new school |
teachers. This instructor received |
from his principal, the name of a |
man who had t'appIied for the IS |
wage" They went TO the home of |
this man. IL was a fve-room house |
two down and three up.
The man who Wanted s5 a day
lived with his bride and they slept |
in the kitchen. In the other first |
floor room were two beds and four |
roomers occupied these Each of the |
three rooms upstairs had a double |
bed and two men roomers occupied |
each bed
Through the Interpreter the bride
was instructed by the Ford teacher /
as follows:
Clear out the 5oarders. and room- !
ers.
Use kitchen for cooking and eating
only
Buy a library table and book case. /
chairs and rug for the first hoor front |
Buy rug and a clothes-tree for /
front hall.
Put her own bed in the front room
upstairs.
Buy bureau and dressing case for !
the middle room upstairs
Use seopnd floor "a X room for |!
Visit TO a Family.
The next family visited had .'come |
clean" There was the husband. his /
Young wife and a baby. Three months !
before he had applied for the IS a |
day. The Ford school teachers had !
found the family keeping four board |
ers in one room and the only -other |
room in the place was occupied by !
the man. the wife and the infant
Now there are no boarders. The
CONTINUED ON PAGE EIGHTY