The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-04-27
VIEWING THE FARMER AS
 AN INDUSTRIALIST

When Henry Ford gets out of his proper sphere he is apt to talk foolishly, but in indus try, whether it is motor cars or something else, he talks sound common sense Ford is a mechanical genius and this of course had much to do with making him the worlds motor king, but if he were manufacturing sewing ma chimes, pianos or bathtubs, he would be success ful because he would apply the same methods that have made the Ford factories marvels of efficiency. For this reason when MT. Ford dis cusses farming what he says is worth study. He knows great deal about farming, both as a manufacturer of tractors and the owner of a farm which has never failed to show profit.
 In My Life and Work" which MT. Ford is contrbutin gto McClures Magazine in collab- oration with Samuel Crowther, he has this to say about farming:
 The farmer makes complex an affair out of his daily work. I believe that the average farmer puts to really useful purpose only about per cent of the that he spends. If any ever equipped factory in the style, say. the farm Is fitted out the place would be cuttered with The factory in Europe is hardly bad the average farm barn. There power is utilized to the least possible degree Not only is everything done by hand but seldom is thought given to logical arrangement. A farmer doing his chores will walk up and down a rickety ladder dozen times He will carry water for instead of putting in a few lengths of pipe His whole idea, when there is extra work to do, is to hire extra He thinks of putting money into improvements as an expense. Farm products, at their lowest prices dearer than they ought to be. Farm profits. their highest. are lower than they ought to be. It Is waste hat mak farm rrice and profits low.
 On my own farm at Dearborn wo do every thing by machinery We have eliminated q great number of wastes. but have as yet touched real We have yet been able to put in five ten years of intense night and day study to discover what really ought o be done Yet at time-no matter what the value of crops-have we failed to turn firstclass profit. We not farmers-we industriasts on the farm. The the farmer considers him self industrialist with horror of waste either in material in men, then going to have farm products low-priced that all will have hto eat. and the profits will be satis- factory that farming will be considered as among the least hazardous and most profitable occu- pations.
 Mir Ford has pointed out two of the chief factors which cause most of the farmers troubes--waste and inefficiency In spite of intensive campaigns of education, extension work by the government and agricultural and mechanical colleges, the organization of co. operative societies and other methods for put ting agriculture on business-like basis, the average farm at least in the south, is still con ducted in haphazard way. There is no reason why farm shouldn't be managed as we'll as a factory or department store, but the farmer in far too many cases regards his work as more or less gamble with the weather and the mar kets and wears out both himself and the mem- bers of his family by unnecessary toll.
 How many farmers are industrialists? Pre- cious few. Until farmers become industralsts the most important business in the word-that of feeding humanity-is going to be an uncer- tain means of earning livelihood, paying re- turns out of proportion to the amount of time and labor devoted to it.