Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1940-07-31
Henry Ford
Nv SAMIrEL b. PETTENGILL.

This week Gully 3Oth) Henry
Ford starts another year. The six
wears he has lived past three score
and ten have not been labor and
Sorrow". as the Psalmist wrote. Ac-
cording to MIR. Ford, ANYONE who
stops learning is old-Whcther at ~
or 81. Anyone who keeps learning
stays young.
! And 50 these lines are written
about the spirit Of 76,-of man VINO
has not only brought more new veal
III into the world than any man VINO
ever lived, and SO has earned his
rest, but one whose young and eager
mind is still marching toward new
frontiers.
/ Thomas Edison, the greatest lnVen-
tive gGEiuS of our time, was MS
friend. Edison, too, was young. we
don't know one hundreth Of one per
cent about anything, were almost
/ the last words of this man who had
sought for truth for l6 to 20 hours a
i day for 60 years.
! And so with Henry Ford at rs:
"Mark by words: A combination air
plane and motor car is coming. We
Twill grow automobiles. Weeds will
grow fuel. Furniture will be made
+ from straw. Rubber from goldenrod
or coal. We are going back to the
land. We will marry factory ana
farm. The education Of the future
! will be head and hand. l am still
/ learning. The greatest thing in life is
to keep your mind young. We are led
! by higher Power"
Humility, the actual belief in what
Our pioneer forebearers once called
"a experimenting Providence must
be a quarter Of greatness. And an
other quarter is kindness.
Last week l was in Detroit to learn
of Henry Ford. found man who
had come many years ago from the
farm. as had End. One day Mr.. Ford
and his wife came into the office
where this green country lad was
punching a typewriter. The boy got
ratified in the presence Of the great
est induStrialist on earth. Ford nCtic-
| cd his confusion. He put his hand
on his shoulder: Son, don't mind me.
If you and | went into the next room
and took off our clothes God couldn't
tell us apart"
That was go years ago. The boy
: is responsible executive now. But
he has never forgotten.
Ford and his organization have
made mistakes. John Lewis says he
has made many. But on net balance
what man of our time has done more
good to more human beings in the six
continents washed by the seven seas?
Ford started business when the bank
rs code was high price, small VOL
ume, and large profit per unit. Great
er perhaps than his mechanical and
organizing genius was Mr.. Ford'S
pioneer thinking in the field of bust
ness economics He was the first to
cut the Gordian knot of low price,
argc volume, and small profit. He
saw that it was possible to do the
mpossible,-increase wages and low
Ter costs. He is the father of Mass
Production. And Mass Production
las changed the world
Because he brought the price down
he made and sold 100000 of old
Model 7. whose claim to glory was
takes you there and brings you
: back" over every conceivable kind
of surface from the equator to the
! Klondike. Still more, Model T. built
the ribbons of concrete and lifted the
world from the mud City fathers and
county commissioners would never
have taxed their voters to build high
ways for Fiat or Rolls Royce. In
1908, the year Model I. came out.
paved highways. even in great cities.
were rare. And the last Model T,
made at the rate of 5000 a day, was
three times as good as the first and
sold for one-third as much.
Because Henry Ford sold cars at
low price all other manufacturers
; had to do the same, and that in turn
, built up the great petroleum indus
try producing in America alone n
billion barrels year.
3O,O00,000 motor vehicles, hundreds