The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-11
His Purpose is to Have
His Employees Earn
Wages That Will Make
ThemContent-Lawo of
Supply and Demand

900 men and women. The number va
ries at times from 1900 to $4,000 our
decision to- reduce the working day from
nine to eight hour will enable us to
'mploy about 1900 additional hands. and
we are glad to be able To do So.
we have never had any trouble with
our employees, and our policy has been
never 20 discharge n man. II a foreman
reports man Inefficient or iuattentive
we put that man Into what We term our
clearing house. This means that he ID
moved on from department to depart
mcnt. with Il far trial in each. until he
|irik"s the work he likes TO do and does
well II, having gone through all de-
psrtrncnts of the buFiness he 10 still a
loss to himself and to us, he Ia rega rded
IS having automatically worked himself
out OF our employment. We do all We
can to help each employee make good
and to increase his value to the company.
This procedure applies to every one, an
Guiding those In the office force
AS I said In the beginning we arc
making an experiment honestly and
with absolute fairness to the public, to
our employees and to the company itself.
We hope II will succeed. II 1t fails It
will not be because we have left undone
anything We could do toward making II
a success"
Now while all this il interesting to
trade and commerce an a whole, as
well as To- those directly concerned.
and while IL marks change almost
revolutionary In the conduct of a great
Industrial plant. yet hack ~ IL 10 the
personality which conceived the idea
the man who has had "A dream which
he liz row putting into practical work
ing, the man around whom revolves
the whole far reaching development.
And this man, OF course. IL Henry Ford.
Forty years ago he was doing chores
on his fathers farm at Dearborn, Mich,
six miles from Detroit. Twenty-Five
years ago he was drawing a mechanics
wages To-day he Is giving away mill
ions OF dollars as single years profit
| to his employees, and II retaining other
millions more for those who own his
company. What kind of man is he?
What are his habits, his ideas as to
life, his aims and purposes? What has
he been striving to do during the last
quarter of u century? Those ar. ques-
tons which every one IL asking to-day.
, In the first place. be 1t said, Henry
Ford seems to have been endowed with
mechanical genius as distinctly al great
painters. great musicians. great poets
are specially endowed for their rcspec-
tive careers In the world While n
farmers boy out in Michigan ne at
tended IA country school until the time
came for him to quit book study and
go regularly TO work in the fields and
orchards. He played games now and
then with other lads. but usually when
he had any spare time II was spent in
constructing machines, like a marvel
lous water wheel for the ediiicatiOn
and wonderment Of all his companions
Soon he grew large enough to 50
out with a threshing machine, and when
II got Off the road. while travelling from
farm TO farm, and ran into a ditch. or
got stalled by a bridge, II was always
young Ford who was called on to fg-
ure out how the heavy machine could
be- brought back to its proper place
in the world.
While he was still "A youngster his
parents moved from then farm into
Detroit. and there he obtained a Job
with the Edison Illuminating Company
as assistant engineer. He ran a dyn-
amo there, and spent most of his time
on duty in tinkering necessarily. for
he had an idea about gasoene engines
, One day he quit the Edison company
and went with tie Detroit Auto Com
pany, where he had n short experience,
for NJ the end of IA year he was out.
But Ford was not discouraged Early
|, in life he had married farmers daugh-
ter who lived in BEDFORD, a hamlc, nea r
Dearborn, and intensely practical in her
own way. Mrs Ford encouraged he.
husband, and aided him in seeing that
now lie had leisure in which to make
an automobile Of his own construction
something which he had thought OF
night and day for seven years
One Sunday morning Ford told her he
wanted to draw the plans for an auto
mobile which he knew would succeed
. Mrs. Ford brought him a sheet OF paper
hut II WAS too small, SO he took up :,
piece of sheet music and on the blanl;
back Of one ~ the pages rapidly
sketched an almost exact reproduction
of the Ford motor car as II is being
manufactured to-day Seven years were
to pass. however. before he could Use
the plans and build his first car. Blu,
at last came the time when he could
set To work. and he did 80. Since then
Ford has made automobile history, and
he Is making II yet.
, IL was not so many years ago that
, this man used to drive around Detroit
with his wife every pleasant evening In
a curious. hueSyl!kr coutraption that
the neighbors dubbed "Ford's folly
4, Despite his thirty years OF work IL
q factories Ford has never outSrowr
. his love of the country. AS a boy n,
-, learned to know many forms Of life /,
, be seen on his fathers farm, and h,
has always been especially fond %
bird life. Long ago he took possession
of farming lanos at Dearborn. his child
hood home, and he has added 10 then
until now he is said to hold an estate
Of some four thousand acres. Much %
1, is under cultivation, FOR to let II -
to waste would be a sin in tn, eve, %
this man, who well understands IN
| scarcity Of food In many households