The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-18
Sidelights On Henry Ford--And Anarchy

motive is guilty of murder and makes murderers of its men," a saying that l has been very much distorted many | times.
 It has been printed that no special provision was made to care for the | families of the Ford soldiers who went to the front. No "speciar' pro- vision was necessary. It was all taken | care of in the regular workings of the Ford organization.
 Many men testified in the Tribune case, and their wives testified. too, that when a man employed at F'ord's !, has to quit work for causes beyond | his control, such as sickness, jury service, going to war, or anything of | the kind, the Ford sociological de- partment automatically takes up the work of seeing to it that the family l Is looked after, and this operated in | the matter of soldiers, their. wives | testifying that they received pay | ments from the Ford company during | the absence of their husbands and
 the husbands testifying that their jobs were open to them, and in many | instances at advanced pay, on their | return.
 It was on statements contrary to
 this that the Tribune based its | charge that MT. Ford is an anar- l chist.
 I recall the winter of 1915-Feb-
 ruary. It was cold, and Detroit was
 having its worst time of many years
 caring for the needy. Every day men and women gathered by scores at the
 city hall seeking employment, food, | anything.
 | The cftv poor cor, rn fssfou well or- | ganized. was taxed to the utmost of
 its capacity. I was editor of The De- | troit News at that time and We were | printing stories about conditions,
 about the appeal for help. MT. Ford sent word to me that he | would furnish the money up to $50,- | 900 to feed anyone in need if would
 arrange to have the family investi-
 gated. would act quickly. and would l leave his name out of 1t. l That was on a Saturday night. By
 Sunday we had an organization of 16 women at work, and on Monday | morning notified the city that we | would care for any for whom they l could not provide. The city officials I listed all applicants on cards, and | each day sent us cards of all needy
 who were not provided for. Our investigators went out pre- 1 pared to give relief on the spot and | to report conditions. Others were en- | listed in the work and 494 families | were cared for out of the fund. were | made warm and their hunger satis- | fed until work could be found for | them.
 It did not require the s5o.o0O, only a small part of 1t, but that quiet mans practical way of solving a bad problem was impressive, and the 494 l families did not know to this day who
 it was that helped them out. I was interviewing MT. Ford one time for the paper. After the subject at hand had been gone over, I asked about the working of his profit shar- l ing plan. It was year or two after
 it had been in operation. "I don't deserve any credit for that now" Mir. Ford said. "Of course, I felt we wore taking some chances
 when we started it, but if you want to refer to 1t now call it one of two things selfish benevolence" or "benevolent selflshness." We would
 be fools not to continue for 1t pays so well. Nothing pays better than paying men good wages.
 1T believe 1t their due. A man should have enough to live according to the American standard, to raise 1 his family, to lay some aside against hard luck, I don't believe in giving men free hospitals, but I do believe | in paying them enough of the wealth they create 50 that If they have need of a. hospital they can pay their way | and feel under obligations to no | one'
 Get that and you get the logic of | many of MT. Ford's sayings, many | that are sometimes misquoted and | Ina kq a | not believing in charity. He believes | that if the industrial world would 1 deal with fairness in dividing up the wealth that is created there would be no need of charity.
 Yet, would you believe that men | even now are trying to prove him an anarchist? Henry Ford is the most patient, even tempered man I ever | met. I have never seen him angry 1 or even runled, although I have l heard of his being angry, very angry. very angry, once. He had told the men in charge of one of his new or | ganizations to put all the employees | on a basis of five dollars a day. A little later he was driving toward i the plant and saw an old woman ! trudging her way along the roadside | toward town. He gave her a ride and questioned her about where she lived, her means or support ana the | like. He learned that her son work | ed at the Ford plant and was about | to leave. The reason was one of | wages; the son was getting something l less than five dollars a day. | Leaving the woman at her home | Mir Ford hastened to the plant, | learned that his order had not been | carried out in regard to some men in | one department, and expressed him. | self so forcefully that no one now | ever forgets to immediately apply | an increase of wages when he sug- gests 1t.
 That plant has been put on a basis | of six dollars a day, the least paid | any one. In the Ford organization
 tho lowest salary drawn by anyone. | office boy or girls addressing en- | velopes, is S15O.00 a month. Going through the Ford plant one | sees blind men at work. There are | men there with an arm gone, with | one leg gone. with two legs gone, one | man with both legs and an arm gone; | men unfortunate in almost every conceivable way. They are at work | drawing a minimum wage of six dol-