Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-03-23
BY HENRY FORD:

liz ASdSoH why DtiieNe 'tnaC tnt
tractor has great future ahead of II
10 because / believe that it will in
crease happiness and make life more
worth the living for more people
throughout the world than any other
device which has ever been given to
mankind.
Believe it will make farming what
1t ought to be-the most pleasant the
most healthful and most profitable
business in the world
This may at first appear like an ex-
aggeration but when you think what
the tractor will do for millions of peo-
pie all over the world, 1t doesn't seem
so.
Compare the Chinese coolie who
works IA to is hours a day carrying
great loads and who drops down, ex-
hausted, in his hovel for few hours
sleep only to awake and repeat the
daily grind-compare him with the
American manufacturer or workman
who labors eight to 10 hours a day us
ually under comparatively pleasant
conditions and then goes home with
from IA to 16 hours out CT the "a in
which to sleep, improve himself and
enjoy life.
The difference between the two is
this. The coolie is worlling under the
same condition that men worked un-
der thousands of years ago, before
they began to use their brains to de-
wise machines and harness power to
work for them SO that they might pro-
duce more than they could with their
hands alone.
The coolie earns little and must
work long hours because he produces
little with his physical strength I'M
aided by power and machinery.
The American workman earns more
and works fewer hours because power
and machinery. enable him to produce
more.
As result, he gets more of the
things that he wants and more time
In which to enjoy them. The coolie
gets. none of the things he wants with
the exception of enough food and shell
ter TO enable him to exc out a mere
existence. And he sets no time in
which to enjoy life.
In every age and in every section of
the world the happiness and prosper
ity of the people, generally speaking,
can be measured by their success in
dcvising machines and Harvesting
power so that each individual can pro
duce more with less effort.
OF course there have been exceptions
to this rule. In every age and in every
country there have been a certain class
who have been able to live idly and
1ix1lpip,,clx at no, ,~F h.
producing class. But | am speaking of
the great class of real producers.
Then again. in modern times the
producers have not always received the
benefits of the increased production
which machinery and power have made
possible. Too often the larger percent
age of these profits have gone into the
pockets of the few men who happen to
own the power and the machines.
But this is being rapidly corrected.
Today the American work man works
shorter hours, lives better gets more
Of the things that make life worth liv-
ing than any other class in any coun-
try in any age. And as time goes on
he will get greater and greater per-
centage of the profits which his work
brings.
In this development from physical
labor to labor of power and machines.
the farmer has Jagged behind.
Brute strength was the first power
TO be harnessed and put to work Prob
ably the farmer first did it. He hitched
an OK or horse to his crude plow
or cart and made them work
But he stopped there, as far as the
development of the use of power was
concerned. Many new and wonderful
tools and implements were devised to
aid him. But for centuries he contin-
ued to operate them either by hand
power or by horses.
The coming of the gas engine helped
him as far as the stationary work was
concerned. But still in all of his field
work-by far the most important work
he was limited to the speed and
strength of horses-until the tractor
came
And all this time producers in other
fields were outdlistanoing him.
Mining gradually came to be done
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