The Redwood gazette., 1937-06-17
INTERESTED IN ACQUAINTING


here, the Ford Motor company is entertain
ing small groups of business men from sur
rounding communities from time to time
this summer. A group of local business
men went through the plant last week. as
guests of the Redwood Falls Motor company,
dealer.
Probably very few Of the thousands of
persons who drive past the Ford plant each
day realize the tremendous investment it
represents, or the extent of it's operations.
1t truly is an example of big business, the
modern industrial system of mass produc-
ton.
The day we were there, 1888 men were
working which is slightly over the average
of 1000 per day for the year. Their wages
gross $2,04O,000 per year, which by way of
comparison, is only little less than the total
volume of retail business in Redwood Falls
as reported in the last business census.
Ones opinion of the 40 hour week is
modified somewhat in passing along the as
sembly line where men move with clocklike
efficiency each to perform his small but vital
function toward the manufacture of the
cars which pass by in an endless chain.
There are no timeouts for breathing spells,
no afternoon coffee or chances to steal a
smoke. There is no rush but steady mon
otonous task to perform in a noisy, though
light and spotlessly clean factory. Five
eight hour days week is fair assignment
of it. The men are we'll paid and seem well
satisfied with their jobs. Judging by the
employees parking lot out back, practically
all drive Ford of their own.
Forty-one thousand cars and trucks
were assembled last year in the main manu-
featuring building which sprawls over 1913
acres but the huge hydro-electric plant and
the steam plant which are located below the
bluff, almost at the waters edge, are equally
interesting and important in the manufact-
uring process. Four miles of tunnels run
below the river drive and under the plant
where there is so year supply of the best
sand for the manufacture of glass. The
glass making equipment is now being re-
vised, major part of the job being to heat
furnaces to 2,700 degrees, an operation
which requires six weeks. 1t is interesting
that the discovery of the sand deposit was
made after the plant was built.
There was no effort made to sell us
V-8s or Ford policies or spread propaganda,
yet one could not help being impressed with
the tremendous industry Henry Ford and
his men have built up in few decades in
this land of opportunity. It is impossible to
estimate how many persons benefit as lab
orers, farmers, merchants and investors by
the tremendous volume of business such a
plan creates, directly and indirectly. Min
nesota will be wise not only to treat well the
industries it has but to encourage others to
locate in the state.
FOR SAYING THAT ERNEST SIIP-
son was paid to free Wallis Warfield Simp-
son so she might marry the Duke of Wind
sor, Mrs. Joan Sutherland, who apparently
is of some small social Importance in Eng
land, was required to make public apology
when hailed before London court last week.
The item has no particular Importance
except as we in southwestern Minnesota
may be interested in the affairs of foreign
ex-king, but what splendid punishment it
was for the loose-tongued gossip. Too bad
that all who suffer from scandal mongers
cannot enjoy similar retribution.
1t is so easy to pass on stories about
ones acquaintance, even ones friends, with
those familiar prefaces, IT'S too awful to
tell but did you hear" ut came quite
direct that" and each time the story
grows in lurid detail and supposed authenti-
city of source, while the victim, often inno-
cent but in any case deserving of better
treatment, suffers in silence.
MIR. Simpson has at least quieted one
gossip. Perhaps he set precedent.
THE POSITION OF N. w. ELSBERG
in the state highway department is as en-
viable as it is unique, in that he cannot be
forced to fire efficient employees because
they don't stand in well with the political
powers of the state. Strangely enough, the
party-controlled legislature strengthened
his position by giving him definite term,
free from danger of removal for purely poll
tical reasons.
1t is unfortunate that more state de-
partment heads are not free to conduct the
business of their departments in the best in
terests of the state, free from political
hangers-on. Once their efforts at efficient
are stallmated by political in
reference, the enthusiasm for productive
effort, economy and progress is eliminated
and the department drifts while employees
merely draw their salaries.
STORIES OF LEGISLATIVE PRAC-
tees which amount to the rankest form of
bribery are so prevalent in the state as to
thorough, unbiased investigation
Of the engineers" who are said to guaran-
tee passage of almost any kind of law, for a
price.
Undoubtedly the stories are exagger-