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,