Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-02-14
Man Who Commenced on Very
Modest Scale IL Years ago
Has Confidence in Workers

share the Profits Of his present i'm
mense manufacturing establishment;
! amCng the employees who have hu'
their Drawn and muscle TO depend
upon. He knows from experience
whether or not financial aid 10 an
honest. loyal workingman will tend
to pauDerize him, az Andrew 'ar-
ncgie has said ii would.
But the bicycle repair shop was
only an incident in Mr.. Fcrds early
struggles Before that lie was chief
engineer for the Edison lighting plant
heEe, and a mighty good one he was.
He resigned the job To experiment
with motor inventions. establishing a
shop on Washington boulevard. The
bicycle repairing was done TO furnish
| bread and butter while the invention
work was going on. His idea that gas.
oline could be made to run a carriage
without horses was regarded as so ri
diculCus by his acQuaintances that
they dubbed him Crazy Ford" But
he demonstrated presently that he was
not crazy.
Capital Was Tinid.
Ford took one OF his horseless cor.
riages out on the ice of Lake st. Clair
one winter and scooted a mile a min.
ute. Then he organized a company
to build such things. That was a
harder task than inVenting the ma
chine. Few people wanted to put
money into such a wild" venture.
lie had none to invest himself. and
he insisted upon retaining majority
OF stock to represent his patents. He
wanted lawyer to draw IN the in.
corporation papers and other legal doc.
uments. He asked Rackham Brothers,
legal firm Of not very wide practice,
To do it. Then he desired to pay
them in stock. They preferred to take
5000 In cash. Ford didn't have that
much to spare, so they regretfully ac-
ceBted the stock and forgot 1t. Last
year they drew $4,000, 900 in dividends.
The comDanv began business June
3, 1903, with 100000 capital. Eight
years later IL opened up negotiations
with one of the biggest banks In Louis
Vile to carry the Louisville balance of
.tle company, branch having been
opened there. The president of the
bank never heard of the Ford motor.
not reading much Yankee news. He
sent on printed formed to be filed
out, asking as to the company's stand.
ing. One of the printed questions
asked how much cash the company
carried The answer was, "Six times
as much as you do r. 4
Works Hard Himself. q. 4 -. ... 4
Public opinion Of Henry Ford, in
his home city. is pretty we'll expressed
in remark made by DIR. Robert J.
baskerville of the Michigan National
Guard, who is such dead ringer
for Ford that the latter's acuuaint.
ances often start to talk shop" with
him when they meet him and who
since the announcement Of last Mon.
day has had to fend off hundreds Of
oongTatulatory handshakes.
The reason feel most honored by
being Henry Ford's double DR.. Bas-
keryille said, lis because he is exactly
the same Henry Ford he was when he
kept bicycle repair shop. Success
las not turned his head a bit"
Hundreds OF stories are told of Mr..
Ford's democratic ways. Probably
nine-tenths of them are true. He is
probably the hardest man for news.
paper reporter to reach in Detroit But
that is not because he sits in a mag.
Efficient office with corps of sentries
guarding him. II is because he actu-
ally is busy. He is chief engineer of !
his plant. He designs the cars and
oVerseers In large part their construc-
ton. He works with his own hands
Ia the chemical laboratory of the fac
tory, testing steel and preparing for |
malas by which the steel companies |
must make the metal which goes into
his cars. II the steel doesn't toe the |
mark he sends it back. He has a pri, I
vate workshop in the big office build
ing in which he works daily, much as !
90 his employees. except that his work |
is that OF originating and working out
ideas. He is his own inspector in
chief.
Every Sunday he goes through the
immense plant from end to end, look.
ing over everything. seeing that ma.
are properly oiled and taken
SdlS VI, anu IHdI HauSHI is dWtSS III |
any department. Office work he
leaves to competent managers. 1t Is
the actual making of the cars that re.
quires his personal attention.
A Workman Who Went Wrong.
One of the best proofs that his re-
cent announcement Of profit sharing
y it'll his employees vas a move of the
heart and not business play of deem
intent was an incident of a.year or so
ego 1t was reported to him that GER
tain automobile parts were being sto,
len from the factory daily in quaint
lies.
He had a watch put on the depart
ment A young employee was detect
ed in the thefts. The watcher follow
ed him to where he sold the goods,
then to the Office of a loan shark.
saw him pay the money and large
part of his salary besides to the
shark, and then reported to Mr.. Ford
Mr. Ford thought a brief moment.
then called his car. Soon he was in
the Office of the loan shark He paid
the Indebtedness of the young man,
took receipt, returned to the plant