New-York tribune., 1918-05-01
Ford Fares to War
Detroit Mans Profit Sharing Scheme Is Proof
Against the Lure of Higher Wages in NUM-
tions Factories-Ils Workers Sticking"

hundred thousand men a year. More.
oyer an ever changing force was prob
ably not more than SO per cent effi-
clent. FIFTY per cent applied to thirty
OF lorty thousand men makes an APP
pallng product.
Leaving the practical side of the
matter for the moment, the aItruistic
side of the Ford scheme is revealed in
the fact that it is the lowest paid la
borers who receive most of the So
called profit
Ordinarily, shared profits and bo-
muses. are based on what the laborer
earns. With Ford the more you earn
the less your profits.
Ford's System
For IS Day Wage
This seems like rewarding incom
potency. Ford considers it, rather.
recognizing humanity He started
with the postulate that an income of
IS day was the irreducible minimum
OF decent life. Viewed as mere indus
trial units, he had thousands of men
who were not worth S. u day. They
could be easily replaced four years
ago at the then minimum wage of "a
cents an hour. These men were, in
fact, majority of the force. The diff
ference between that wage and SIS
day Ford made up and called it profits
On the other hand, the man whose
skill was such that he actually was
worth IS day or more was held to
be entitled to some substantial rccog
milton.
He gets it, but in smaller degree
than the humber worker. At present
the minimum Ford wage is ss.44 for
an eight-hour day. The man who gets
that wage receives in addition a daily
share of profit of $1.56. The highest
pa,d Ford workman receives wage of
S6.SS a day and a profit of 81 cents,
making his total income $3.50.
So, you might say, Ford holds that
the man in his most skilled workman
is worth SIS day and the skill in him
$3.50.
Professional social engineers main
tain that this it all wrong-that it is
tlabby instead of hard and practical,
that it is mercy rather than justice.
Whatever it is it works, and in four
years it has disbursed $65,0O0, 1000, call
it profits or what not, over and above
regular wages. The method may be
fiabby, but nobody disputes the solidity
and substantially of $65,00o,o00.
Few Are Fired"
Under Ford Plan
Once man gets into this circle of
Ford benevolence, justice, mercy, char
ity, whatever you will, he has to be
very hardened sinner or very ingenious
to get himself elected. Firing
Ford man is as much of an event to
the man as it is to the company. Once
having got hold Of q man, the Ford
idea is not to lose that $40 Investment,
even if little more has to be added
to save it.
1t is an excessively rectangular peg
that won't fit into some hole IN the
Ford organization. 1t has been found
that the very qualities which cause
man to fail at one kind of work are
often Just the ones that enable him to
succeed at another. No mere foreman
is permitted to waste men any more
than material.
Ford has found way to keep in
touch with his men, to know and un-
derstand their problems to search out
their personal equations, to see llfe
from their points of view--to keep the
human unit from being lost and
wronged in the human mass. How he
does it, l will have, perhaps, an op-
portunity to tell later.