Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-11-30
Why l Believe in the Tractor.
CBy Henry Ford.)

The reason why | believe that the
tractor has a great future ahead of
|itseis because / believe that it will in
crease happiness and make life more
worth liging for more people through
out the world than any other device
which has ever been given to man.
kind.
Il believe it will make farming what
it, ought to be-the most pleasant,
the most healthful and most profit
able business in the world.
This may at first appear like. an
exaggeration, but when you think
what the tractor will do for millions
of people all over the world, it does
not seem so.
Compare the Chinese coolie who
works IA to 16 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 ten hours day
usually under comparatively pleas
ant conditions and then goes home
with from IA to 16 hours out of the
"a in which to sleep, improve him
self and enjoy life.
The difference between the two is
this: The coolie is working under the
same conditions 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
produce 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 un-
aided by power and machinery.
9 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
shelter to enable him to exc out
mere existence. And he gets no time
in which to enjoy life.
In every age and in every section
Of the world the happiness and pros
perity of the people, generally speak
ing, can be measured by their success
in devising machines and harvesting
power so that each individual can
produce more with less effort.
: And all this time producers in
other fields were outdistancing him.
Mining gradually came to be done,
almost entirely by machinery.
Manufacturers devised wonderful
machines with almost human intelli-
gence and marvellous speed to- assist
them. A hundred years ago they har-
messed steam power as we'll as water
power to drive these machines, thus
multiplying ten to twenty fold the
productive capacity of each individ
ual.
And the result has been that the
farmer has been at a disadvantage.
His production in proportion to
the amount of work expended has
been small compared with that of
the city manufacturer or workman.
It has been limited by the physical eff
forts of slow moving, costly main
tanned horses.
= The life of plowman and the joys
of his existence may be poetic-to
poet long way off. But there is moth
ing more tiresome-more deadening
to the mind and ambition than to
tramp mile after mile and hour after
hour in furrow following a slow
team of horses with only an
occasional whack in the ribs from the
plow handles to vary the nonotony.
This is not theory with me, for l
was born and raised on a farm and
have followed the plow many weary
mile. l have been both farmer and
a manufacturer. So l know what an
advantage power and machinery has
given to the latter.
Can you imagine anything MOI
wasteful or inefficient for an intelli-
gent man to be compelled to spend
days and days following slow NOV
ing team without a chance in the
world of using his brains or his in
;+io+ivo to cnood nm that 1ynrlx hevnnd