The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1921-08-12
DON'T STEAL, SERVE The
PUBLIC, rs HENRY FoRD'S
new RAILROAD FORMULA
Stop Wall Street Manipulation and
Carriers Can Raise Wages and Cut
Rates, Says Manufacturer-Law
Favor Investors Whose Aim Is To
Secure Profits

Favor Investors Whose Aim Is To
Secure Profits
In fourteen words Henry Ford
gives his 'smagic formula" for curing
railroad ills.
81 am not trying to burglarize my
raiIroad-Tm making it serve the
public"
The manufacturer was requested
by the Cincinnati Post to tell the
people how it is possible for him to
pay the highest rate Of wages to
workers and cut freight rates at the
same time. The answer is given in
a copyrighted interview published
by that paper.
ssUnder Wall street management
the only way they know how to make
money is higher railroad rates
which is the poorest way in the world
to get business" he declared. eve
cut freight and passenger rates 20
per cent and we boosted wages. And
1t won't take long to reduce the
rates so per cent. All railroads could
cut their rates in half. We have
shown them how. But I'm afraid they
won't do It,"
How to Save Railroads
Ford said that he wasn't magi-
clan" and "didn't WELD a magic
wand" Any railroad manager, he
claims, can do what he has done by
following these directions:
"Keep the railroad busy apd tue
equipment busy and all the afen or
it busy. On the Detroit, Toledo and
Ironton we are getting along fine
making money where the road never
made money before, making it be-
cause the men are busy and their
hearts are in their work.
"We eliminate waste and dead
wood. All railroads can-and should
do the same thing"
Then Ford said something that
reached the kernel of railroad inef-
ficiency-waste 1--WE found enough
scrap along the D., T. & to pay for
it's purchase.
s.Boost Wages; Slash Rates.
Asked what would be the first
thing he would do if he were given
all the railroads to operate, Ford re-
piled: ssBoost wages. slash rates, let
a lot of men go. I'd let some of the
men 20 back to the farm-tempor-
arily. They'd be of more use there
and be of greater value to themselves.
.sThere are too many men running
the railroads who let somebody else
do their thinking for them. We want
men who can think for themselves.
When Ford took over the d., i. &
7 he drafted able men from his mo-
tor car industry and let them run
the railroads. He thinks lot of rail-
roads would be better off if they
adopted a policy along that line.
.sThere is too much tradition in
the railroads-doing things in the
oldfashioned way, he said. see a
new era drawing, with this creed:
DO as much as you can, get smail re-
turns-and the money will come in
so fast YOU won't know where it Is
coming 'front.' will inundate sou.
.eroo Much Wall Street
Manipulation"
Ford has a clear apreclatlon o-
vbat ails the railroads and now 10
correct conditions.
"There is too much Wall street
maninulation-too much dead
weight he says. Railroads have
haan managed by stockholders who
on,v figure how much they can get
out of them for the moment--not
what they can do in the future. When
they want to make extensions they
must issue bonds and draw in more
money and more idle stock. The rail-
roads should earn and pay for their
own extensions. The laws werc made
solely for investors whose ins;dious
aim is to destroy indutry."