Middletown transcript., 1915-07-31
2lDDLETOwN. DEL, JULY 81 1915
THE MAN WITH A VISION

and manufacturer OF the one automobile |
out of fifty that has gotten globe
girdling reputation, the Ford!
This marvellous, self-made man, whose
modest autobio graphy fairly dragged |
from him on the late Industrial Commits
sion examination, needs less than twelve |
lines of print to record, was farmer
boy with few years training in the |
common school, and a short course at |
business school.
At seventeen he became an apprentice
in machine shop at Detroit, the city |
that was later to be the scene of his |
signal mechanical and business triumphs |
and where he began in 1898 making the |
auto whose name is now a household
word all over the land
Mr.. Ford has not only shown great
original mechanical genius in perfecting
the auto that bears his name and its
scarcely less remarkably systematised
manufacture, but he has also displayed
great business sagacity and skill, for
his creation, the Ford Automobile Com
pany, stands without a peer in the
manufacturing world for its amazing
achievement of doing in one year bust
ness of $9O,OOO,OOO on a capital of
$2,OOO,OOO
But Henry Ford is doing something
besides making autos-he is making
manhood, character, MEN diviner
product that will endure when the last
Ford auto, together with all the handi-
work of men, has sunk amid "the wreck
of matter and the crush of worlds"
So it is, that Henry Ford's title to
fame is not that he is superb illustra-
tion of Americas finest product-a self
made man, the story of whose success
sounds like fairy tale from out the
Arabian Nights; nor that he has merited
Edison's praise as lone of the great
est Americans" 1T e Sc surely
grounds ample enough to support any
fame-but that, keeping his plain native
Democracy, he has nobly aspired to
serve his fellow-men rather than by
grinding them down like Carnegie or
a Rookie feller ignobly to amass many
millions
Mr.. Ford's juster wage and profit
sharing plan, is destined to work an
economic revolution, and will, when
generally followed, solve the much
vexed problem of the proper relation OF
Capital to Labor.
Read the words of this wonderful EN-
ployer of labor who voluntarily re-
nounces the inordinate gains of the
great captains of industry" in order tc
be just and generous:
1--WE believe it is better, wiser and
more just to make many men comfort.
able than to make few very rich "
Again this idealist with vision, talk.
ing, according to the accepted doctrines
and practices of Capital, Utopian folly
in every breath:
1.-The knowledge that market
rates of wages were not sufficient
for men to properly care for self
and dependents, and the envir-
Onment in which its employees were
thus made to live, gave rise to mem
tai anxiety and physical condition
that made it utterly impossible for
the human agency to deliver all of
the effort that it was capable of in
fulfilling the best and larger func-
tions for which it was designed at
work, at home and in the commu-
nifty.
'"The company also had the cour-
age to seize ali opportunity for
breaking away from oldtime habits
and customs that were possibly ap-
plicable to other periods.
mo man can bring up a family
and hope to own a home on the or
binary rates of wages"
81 do not think any man can do
good work mentally and physically
for more than eight hours per day. ."
eff employers of labor have a
genuine interest in the improve
ment of the condition of labor, no
conditions that are irksOme or dis
tasteful will be laid upon the men. "
"Our experience leads US to con-
clude that the interest taken in en-
ployes as to their individual welfare
is most desirable from every stand
point, not only that of the employe
and his family, but of the business
itself.
1--WE cannot expect aman to give
us his best efforts when he is in
debt and has not enough to keep
his family on.
The sooner men can be taught
that labor is just as much of an as
set, and more, than machinery and
buildings, the sooner labor will be
properly recognized "
How much nobler these words, an
the deeds that illustrate them-a wag
mora than twice that eisevhere naif