“MY LIFE AND WORK.”

Shannon News, 6 November 1923, Page 3

“MY LIFE AND WORK.”

HENRY FORD'S* STORY.

“MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN.”

(By G. C. Lawrence). With, the possible exception of Mr. Rockefeller, Henry Ford is the richest man in the world to-day. , Just over twenty years ago he started business with a borrowed capital of £6,000. Last year his company earned £25,500,000 in profits. In the interval he lias made over six million motor cars. That in summary i s the achievement of Mr. Henry Ford. The story of Mr. Henry Ford's rise to fame is one of the romances of industry. He owes his advancement solely to his own efforts. When he was a boy the motor car was a luxury. Mr. Ford set himself to make it a necessity. This meant large scale production and distribution, with waste wholly eliminated and efficiency both of man and machine raised to the highest possible level. Acting on these principles, Mr. Ford has proved in practice that it- is possible at one and the same tim? to reduce prices, raise wagos, shorten hours and increase profits. A host of questions spring to the mind before one has read more than a very few pages of his fascinating autobiography “My Life and Work." The one that remains unanswered at' the end is this—can a system of production like that built upby Mr. Henry Ford be adopted by oldestablished and, to sonic extent, tradition-bound big business?

The theory of business on which Mr. Henry Ford has built his fortune merits the serious consideration of a business world, which is harassed and sßre-tired by circumstances and which admittedly is seeking some means or other of breaking down the barriers which make trade difficult, if not almost impossible. Mr. Rejd expresses his theory of business in the.one significant word “service. '' Labour discontent is one of the gravest problems we have to face in this country. We pin our faith in its solution according to our pet theor-ies—profit-sharing, co-partnership, bonus schemes, piece-work, welfare work, committees and Whitley Councils —in their way each of them has admittedly lessened friction. But we are still far from the ideal of a contented labour world. Mr. Ford tells us how he solved the problem. “We make no attempt to coddle, the people who work with us. We do not believe in the 'glad hand,’ Or the professionalised 'personal touch’ or element*’ Social arc not made out of words. They are the net result v" the daily relations between man and man. It is the right act sincerely done that counts. There is ' no need for the' employer to love the employee or for the employee to love the employer. What is necessary is that each should try to do justice to the Other according to his deserts. That is real democracy, which has nothing to do with the question ‘Who ought to be boss?’’’ “It is not the employer who pays wages, ’ ’ he goes the words might well be emphasised at every table —“he only handles the money. It is the product that pays the wages." What those wages arc in'the case of Ford’s employees is well known. In the early days they “paid whatever it was. necessary to pay." Then they paid a minimum of five dollars a day, later increased to six dollars.

Mr. Ford looks upon all his employees as partners. “No man is independent as,long as lie has to depend on another man to help him. It ought to be the employer J s ambition, as leader, to pay better wages than any similar line of business, and it ought to be the workman’s ambition to make this possible. ” The basic question ought to be no.t “What ought the employers vo pay or the employer tp receive?” but “What can the business stand?” “If it is right for tho manager of a business to make it pay larger dividends, it is quite as right that he should try to make it pay higher wages. Wages and salaries are a sort of profitsharing fixed in advance, but it often happens that when:-the business of the year is closed, it is discovered that more can be paid. Then more ought to be paid.” On the subject of combating trade depression, Mr. Ford has certain striking sentences which arc worth quoting— . “If the prices of goods arc above the incomes of the people then get the prices 'down to the incomes.” That is admittedly the first essential, but “cutting wages is the easiest and most slovenly way to handle the situation, not to' speak of its being an inhuman way. , Why flounder* around waiting for good business? Get the costs down by better management. If wV only kenw it, every depression is a challenge to every manufacturer to put liiorc brains into his business —to overcome by management what other people try to overcome by wage reduction. To tarnpbr with wages before all else is changed is to evade the real issue. * Concentrating on prices instead of on service is a sure indication of the kind of business man .who can give no justification for' his existence as a proprietor.” This is a challenge to all our preconceived ideas of business organisation. There is in it for every man, whether he be a director of a company employing thousands, or a plain man working at one set task at one set bench, some inspiration which is worth carrying "Hack into his daily life. Mr. Ford is'a revolutionary though he specifically disclaims the title. We need revolutionaries of his kind if we are to meet the changes that arc everywhere taking place around us. His motto, “To make the world a better place.to live in,” is one which is worth adopting. - : . .