My Life and Work by Henry Ford (surface ebook reader TXT) 📖

that is, they are useful and they are respectable and they are honest.

 

The time has come when drudgery must be taken out of labour. It is not work that men object to, but the element of drudgery. We must drive out drudgery wherever we find it. We shall never be wholly civilized until we remove the treadmill from the daily job. Invention is doing this in some degree now. We have succeeded to a very great extent in relieving men of the heavier and more onerous jobs that used to sap their strength, but even when lightening the heavier labour we have not yet succeeded in removing monotony. That is another field that beckons us—the abolition of monotony, and in trying to accomplish that we shall doubtless discover other changes that will have to be made in our system.

 

*

 

The opportunity to work is now greater than ever it was. The opportunity to advance is greater. It is true that the young man who enters industry to-day enters a very different system from that in which the young man of twenty-five years ago began his career. The system has been tightened up; there is less play or friction in it; fewer matters are left to the haphazard will of the individual; the modern worker finds himself part of an organization which apparently leaves him little initiative. Yet, with all this, it is not true that “men are mere machines.” It is not true that opportunity has been lost in organization. If the young man will liberate himself from these ideas and regard the system as it is, he will find that what he thought was a barrier is really an aid.

 

Factory organization is not a device to prevent the expansion of ability, but a device to reduce the waste and losses due to mediocrity.

It is not a device to hinder the ambitious, clear-headed man from doing his best, but a device to prevent the don’t-care sort of individual from doing his worst. That is to say, when laziness, carelessness, slothfulness, and lack-interest are allowed to have their own way, everybody suffers. The factory cannot prosper and therefore cannot pay living wages. When an organization makes it necessary for the don’t-care class to do better than they naturally would, it is for their benefit—they are better physically, mentally, and financially. What wages should we be able to pay if we trusted a large don’t-care class to their own methods and gait of production?

 

If the factory system which brought mediocrity up to a higher standard operated also to keep ability down to a lower standard—it would be a very bad system, a very bad system indeed. But a system, even a perfect one, must have able individuals to operate it. No system operates itself. And the modern system needs more brains for its operation than did the old. More brains are needed to-day than ever before, although perhaps they are not needed in the same place as they once were. It is just like power: formerly every machine was run by foot power; the power was right at the machine. But nowadays we have moved the power back—concentrated it in the power-house. Thus also we have made it unnecessary for the highest types of mental ability to be engaged in every operation in the factory. The better brains are in the mental power-plant.

 

Every business that is growing is at the same time creating new places for capable men. It cannot help but do so. This does not mean that new openings come every day and in groups. Not at all. They come only after hard work; it is the fellow who can stand the gaff of routine and still keep himself alive and alert who finally gets into direction. It is not sensational brilliance that one seeks in business, but sound, substantial dependability. Big enterprises of necessity move slowly and cautiously. The young man with ambition ought to take a long look ahead and leave an ample margin of time for things to happen.

 

*

 

A great many things are going to change. We shall learn to be masters rather than servants of Nature. With all our fancied skill we still depend largely on natural resources and think that they cannot be displaced. We dig coal and ore and cut down trees. We use the coal and the ore and they are gone; the trees cannot be replaced within a lifetime. We shall some day harness the heat that is all about us and no longer depend on coal—we may now create heat through electricity generated by water power. We shall improve on that method. As chemistry advances I feel quite certain that a method will be found to transform growing things into substances that will endure better than the metals—we have scarcely touched the uses of cotton. Better wood can be made than is grown. The spirit of true service will create for us. We have only each of us to do our parts sincerely.

 

*

 

Everything is possible … “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

 

THE BOOK ENDS

 

INDEX

 

Absentees discharged,

Accidents, safeguarding against; causes of Advancement, personal

Advertisement, first, of Ford Motor Co.

Agents,

Agriculture, a primary function

Ainsley, Charles

Alexander, Henry, drives Ford car to top of Ben Nevis, 4,600 feet, in 1911

Antecedents, a man’s, of no interest in hiring at Ford factory Assembly of a Ford car; first experiment in a moving assembly line, April 1, 1913; results of the experiment Automobile, public’s first attitude toward Automobile business, bad methods of; in its beginnings Bankers play too great a part in business; in railroads Banking,

Bedridden men at work,

Benz car on exhibition at Macy’s in 1885, Birds, Mr. Ford’s fondness for

Blind men can work,

Bolshevism,

Bonuses—_See_ “Profit-Sharing”

Borrowing money; what it would have meant to Ford Motor Co. in 1920

British Board of Agriculture,

British Cabinet and Fordson tractors, Burroughs, John

Business, monopoly and profiteering bad for; function of Buying for immediate needs only,

Cadillac Company,

Capital,

Capitalist newspapers,

Capitalists,

Cash balance, large

Charity, professional

City life,

“Classes” mostly fictional,

Classification of work at Ford plants, Cleanliness of factory,

Coal used in Ford plants from Ford mines, Coke ovens at River Rouge plant,

Collier, Colonel D. C.

Competition,

Consumption varies according to price and quality, Convict labour,

Cooper, Tom

Cooperative farming,

Cork, Ireland, Fordson tractor plant

Corn, potential uses of

Costs of production, records of; prices force down; high wages contribute to low

Country, living in

Courtney, F. S.

Creative work,

Creed, industrial, Mr. Ford’s

Cripples can work,

Cross, John E.

Dalby, Prof. W. E.,

Deaf and dumb men at work,

Dearborn Independent,

Dearborn plant,

Democracy,

Detroit Automobile Co.,

Detroit General Hospital, now Ford Hospital, Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railway, purchased by Ford Motor Co., in March, 1921,

Development, opportunity for, in U. S., Diamond Manufacturing Co. fire,

Discipline at Ford plants,

“Dividends, abolish, rather than lower wages,”

Dividends, small, Ford policy of,

Doctors,

Dollar, the fluctuating,

Drudgery,

 

Eagle Boats,

Economy,

Edison, Thomas A.,

Educated man, an; definition of,

Education, Mr. Ford’s ideas on,

Educational Department,

Electricity generated at Ford plants, “Employees, all, are really partners,”

Employment Department,

Equal, all men are not,

Experience, lack of, no bar to employment, Experiments, no record of, kept at Ford factories, “Experts,” no, at Ford plants,

 

Factory, Ford, growth of,

Factory organization, function of,

Failure, habit of,

Farming, lack of knowledge in, no conflict between, and industry, future development in,

Farming with tractors,

Fear,

Federal Reserve System,

Fighting, a cause for immediate discharge, Finance,

Financial crisis in 1921, how Ford Motor Co. met, Financial system at present inadequate, Firestone, Harvey S.,

Flat Rock plant,

Floor space for workers,

Flour-milling,

Foodstuffs, potential uses of,

Ford car—

the first, No. 5,000,000,

the second, introduction of,

in England in 1903,

about 5,000 parts in,

sales and production—_See_ “Sales”

Ford, Henry—

Born at Dearborn, Mich., July 30, 1863, mechanically inclined,

leaves school at seventeen, becomes apprentice at Drydock Engine Works,

watch repairer,

works with local representative of Westinghouse Co. as expert in setting up and repairing road engines, builds a steam tractor in his workshop, reads of the “silent gas engine” in the World of Science, in 1887 builds one on the Otto four-cycle model, father gives him forty acres of timber land, marriage,

in 1890 begins work on double-cylinder engine, leaves farm and works as engineer and machinist with the Detroit Electric Co.,

rents house in Detroit and sets up workshop in back yard, in 1892 completes first motor car,

first road test in 1893,

builds second motor car,

quits job with Electric Co. August 15, 1899, and goes into automobile business,

organization of Detroit Automobile Co., resigns from, in 1902,

rents shop to continue experiments at 81 Park Place, Detroit, beats Alexander Winton in race,

early reflections on business,

in 1903 builds, with Tom Cooper, two cars, the “999” and the “Arrow” for speed,

forms the Ford Motor Co.,

buys controlling share in 1906,

builds “Model A,”

builds “Model B” and “Model C,”

makes a record in race over ice in the “Arrow,”

builds first real manufacturing plant, in May, 1908, assembles 311 cars in six workings days, in June, 1908, assembles one hundred cars in one day, in 1909, decides to manufacture only “Model T,” painted black, buys sixty acres of land for plant at Highland Park, outside of Detroit,

how he met the financial crises of 1921, buys Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Ry., March, 1921, “Ford doesn’t use the Ford,”

Ford, Edsel,

Ford Hospital,

Ford Motor Co., organized 1903,

Henry Ford buys controlling share in 1906, how it met financial crisis in 1921, thirty-five branches of, in U. S.

“Ford, you can dissect it, but you cannot kill it,”

Fordson tractor,

prices,

genesis and development of,

cost of farming with,

5,000 sent to England in 1917-18,

Foreign trade,

 

Gas from coke ovens at River Rouge plant utilized, “Gold is not wealth,”

“Good feeling” in working not essential, though desirable, Government, the function of,

Greaves, R. N.,

Greed vs. service,

Greenhall, Gilbert,

Grosse Point track,

 

“Habit conduces to a certain inertia,”

Highland Park plant,

Hobbs, Robert W.,

Hospital, Ford,

Hough, Judge, renders decision against Ford Motor Co. in Selden Patent suit,

Hours of labour per day reduced from nine to eight in January, 1914, “Human, a great business is too big to be,”

Human element in business,

 

Ideas, old and new,

Improvements in products,

Interstate Commerce Commission,

Inventory, cutting down, by improved freight service, Investment, interest on, not properly chargeable to operating expenses, Jacobs, Edmund,

“Jail, men in, ought to be able to support their families,”

Jewish question, studies in the,

Jobs, menial,

“John R. Street,”

 

Labour,

the economic fundamental, and Capital, potential uses of, Labour leaders,

Labour newspapers,

Labour turnover,

“Lawyers, like bankers, know absolutely nothing about business,”

Legislation, the function of,

Licensed Association,

“Life is not a location, but a journey,”

Light for working,

Loss, taking a; in times of business depression, Manchester, Eng.,

Ford plant at,

strike at,

Machinery, its place in life,

Manufacture, a primary function,

Medical Department,

Mexico,

Milner, Lord,

Models—

“A,”

“B,”

“C,”

“F,”

“K,”

“N,”

“R,”

“S,”

“T,”

changing, not a Ford policy,

 

Money,

chasing,

present system of,

what it is worth,

invested in a business not chargeable to it, fluctuating value of,

is not wealth,

Monopoly, bad for business,

Monotonous work,

Motion, waste, eliminating,

 

Northville, Mich., plant, combination farm and factory, Oldfteld, Barney,

Opportunity for young men of today,

Organization, excess, and red tape,

Overman, Henry,

Otto engine,

Overhead charge per car, cut from $146 to $93, Parts, about 5,000, in a Ford car,

Paternalism has no place in industry, “Peace Ship”

Philanthropy,

Physical incapacity