Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-05-07
MACHINERY The SOLUTION
Man Power Must Be Supplemented
With Tools.
HENRY FORD MAKES SENSIBLE TALK
In This Crisis, When Labor is Scarce
and the Necessity Of Increased Pro-
duetion Daily Grows Shorter. there
Must be Great Reliance on the Use
Of Tools that Will Multiply Effort.

Henry Ford tells us that We can win
the war IL we will only throw into the
balance the whole weight OF our in
dustries and tool power. In an article
contributed to the American Machinist
New York, April 1D Uncle Henry"
assures us that the victory will be 10
him who musters the best machinery;
for this war Is ''the greatest engin-
neering feat the world has ever
known" That it behooves us 10 see
that our factory management is per-
feet and that our use Of machinery Is
the fullest possible. Moreover, We
must organize to concentrate our in
dustrial resources upon essential war
work. What we need. Mr.. Ford says,
is leadership and labor. working in
confidence and harmony. He himself
has given a striking example OF how
production may be increased without
strikes or wage discussion; and he Is
entitled to speak with authority. He
writes:
THE United States produces half
the steel and half the coal Of the
world. Converted into machinery of
warfare. this would be decisive on the
west front.
Russia, with man power OF 1885,
900. 900. was almost entirely lacking in
machine power She modified 15.-
O0O, 900 men, but she sent them into
battle poorly equipped. armed with OBJ
solete rifles, small -calibre guns, and
in many cases only with clubs. This
poorly equipped and poorly armed
army was pitted against the vastly su-
prrior rifles. machine guns and large
calibre cannon which were turned out
in vast quantities by great factories
and a highly organized railroad sys-
Tern in Germany.
"I,ussia lost 100000 men and her
power collapsed.
THE lesson for US Is that not num-
bers nor latent resources, but better
machinery and better organization are
decisive i'm warfare.
"rrenches can be conquered and the
stalemate of the west front broken
if we develop and use the right ma
chinery. For n long time In the Mid
die Ages castles were impregnable
when men attacked them with spears
and catapults. but they fell easily TO
the new tools using gunpowder. To
me il seems out of place to send men
with bare bodies and rifles against
trenches of concrete fortified with
barbed wire. machine guns and can
non. A small tank can be made for
attack that will carry two men and
a machine gun with armor protection
strong enough to resist the hail OF
machine sun bullets and shrapnel
splinters. Such tanks, If standardized
to one model, could be produced at the
rate of one or two thousand a day.
Once production was started ninety
thousand tanks could be made In
three months. Distributed equally
along the west front, this would place
one tank to every eighteen feet. In
each tank two men shielded by ar
NOR plate with a machine gun would
nave the offensive power. of fifty SOL
dlers with rifles. That advantage
would come from possession OF the
better piece of fighting machinery.
Soldiers would stand in line to have
a chance to attack IN such outfits.
in our food problems also we have
failed to realize that the solution lies
in the increase OF tool power on the
land. The farms of England, France
and America have been drained OF
their men, first to fill the armies, then
to fill the munition factories. so that
today food production lags. For
three decades men have been leaving
the farm to get to the easier work or
the factories and on railroads where
engine power has removed the drudg-
cry OF heavy muscular labor. The
curse Of Adam to labor in the sweat
of the brow still rests upon farm
workers. It remains for America to
carry engine power to agriculture.
Until 1850 harvesting and threshing
were done by human muscles using
sickle, scythe and fail. Then America
invented the binder and harvesting
machine and shifted these two tasks
to the animal. Today America must
substitute engine work for human
and animal muscles on all kinds of
farm work.
"a tractor engine will plow. har-
vest. seed, pull binders. make hay. cut
ensilage, pump water churn. and do
the chores of the farm. 1t will null
tiply the power Of every farm work
er and give him new JOY and pride In
his work. 1t will keep the boy on
the farm. With the aid OF tractors a
reduced number Of farm laborers can
still produce q full crop.
"One tractor sent to France or Eng
land now will produce fifty times Its
weight and bulk in wheat and food
this year. One ship carrying tractors
is as good as fifty ships carrying
food next fall.
IN a properly organized factory
running on one model an ordinary
workman can build tractor In fifteen
days, and each tractor will add the
working power Of two or three men to
a farm during the whole year. Fifteen
thousand men can produce one thou
sand tractors day. or three hundred
thousand tractors a year.
I'VE shall get more food not by
bookkeeping and clerical regulation in
the cities. but by the use Of more and
better machinery on the land"
But success In producing great
quantities Of Industrial output from
our factories will never come, Mr..
Ford says, from absentee control.
The heads Of industry must live close
to their work: they must know metals
and machines and be ready to give
every man q square deal. He goes on:
oil