Henry Ford

Cover

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Contents

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Introduction to New Edition

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pp. vii-xxxvii

Seven books on Henry Ford were published in 1922 and 1923. Three were extremely eulogistic, one was a scathing attack, and another was reasonably objective, although inaccurate and cursory. Then there were...

Introduction to Henry Ford: An Interpretation

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pp. 1-3

THIS book is all about Henry Ford, so far as it goes, but it is not the story of his life, not a record of events beginning with his birth and brought down to the present hour. The Ford chronicles make interesting reading, but...

I. The Ford Halo

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pp. 4-14

Given freedom to create a man will reveal himself in what he produces — the painter in his picture, the sculptor in his marble, the writer in his book, the musician in his composition, and the mechanic in his machine. The Ford car is Henry Ford done in steel, and...

II. The Art of Self-Advertising

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pp. 15-24

Mr. Ford seems to love sensations, to live in them and to be everlastingly creating them, jumping from one to another. And many of his sensational acts and utterances are so clever that the world looks on with something more than amusement. In spite of the fact that he...

III. A Dream That Came True

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pp. 25-30

But there is another reason, and that is that he has in him all the makings of a popular hero. A boy on a farm with a humble parentage back of him; never saw the inside of a college, and never was particularly interested in what went on inside a country schoolhouse; interested...

IV. The Ford Fortune

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pp. 31-40

I DO not know how much Henry Ford is worth. I am under the impression that, if he so desired, he could convert his business into a stock company and pay very satisfactory dividends on a billion capitalization. I doubt whether any other man ever made so large a...

V. Some Elements of Success

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pp. 41-48

HENRY FORD has built up a great industry; he has amassed a great fortune; he has paid labor a liberal wage; he has built a hospital; he has set in operation agencies which in their day have done a great deal of good. To human thought, to politics, to science, the...

VI. Mental Traits and Characteristics

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pp. 49-57

A CROSS section of the mind of Henry Ford would reveal some striking contrasts. There are in him mental altitudes which mark him as a genius, and there are others that are little above mental sea level. A complex mind of strength and weakness, of wisdom and..

VII. "Just Kids"

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pp. 58-69

HENRY FORD was born July 30, 1863, and is still a boy. Along with the amazing shrewdness in him there is a charming simplicity. " How did he impress you?" I asked a well-known writer after she had an interview with Mr. Ford. " He is a mixture," she...

VIII. Behind a Chinese Wall

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pp. 70-79

ONCE you get to Mr. Ford, you will find him, of all men, most affable and democratic. He is apt to leave upon you the impression that he stands ready to do anything for you, give you anything, even to the half of his kingdom. He makes promises which he sometimes...

IX. Henry Ford and the Church

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pp. 80-92

I ONCE preached a sermon for Henry Ford's special benefit. I told him I was going to do so and asked him to be present and hear it. He came. He listened very attentively. He went away. It was a good sermon, if I do say it myself, but so far as I was...

X. Henry Ford, Dives, Lazarus and Others

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pp. 93-103

HENRY FORD is a rich man, but he is not a Dives. Dives went to his office every morning, saw Lazarus lying at his gate as he passed out, and did nothing about it. He accepted the beggar as a necessary evil, the outgrowth of a disease in the industrial order for which...

XI. The Ford Charities

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pp. 104-117

MR. FORD hates the word charity and all that it stands for. He gives generously to friends and employees, but it is in recognition of services rendered. He gives neither a stone nor money to the man who asks bread, but a job...

XII. The Ford Executive Scrap Heap

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pp. 118-129

ONE of the most conspicuous, interesting and significant things about the Ford Motor Company is its executive scrap heap. Into it, from time to time, have gone the most capable men of the organization, men of high character and great ability, the value of whose services...

XIII. The Ford Indebtedness

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pp. 130-138

If the Ford indebtedness were such that it could be met by writing a check it would have been paid in full long ago. But it isn't that kind of an obligation. There are things connected with the formation of his executive scrap heap which leave the impression that..

XIV. Industrial Scavengers

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pp. 139-146

WHEN I entered the employ of the Ford Motor Company Mr. Ford had about him the group of great executives mentioned in the preceding chapter. I doubt if there ever came together in any organization a body of men of greater ability, each in his own line or of finer...

XV. Lights

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pp. 147-159

IT was toward the close of the year 1915 that I gave up the deanship of St. Paul's Cathedral, Detroit, and took charge of the Sociological department of the Ford Motor Company. I continued in the employ of the company for a period of a little more than five...

XVI. Shadows

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pp. 160-167

A STILL picture of Henry Ford is impossible, for the simple reason that there is something in him that is never still. He thinks quickly and he acts quickly, and he is always thinking and acting. His normal state seems to be that of mental agitation, and it is an...

XVII. An Elusive Personality

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pp. 168-178

My observation has been that people who are sure that they know all about him are those who have very slight acquaintance with him, whose contact with him has been very superficial, or who have come in contact with him not at all, but rest their judgment of him on what...

XVIII. Edsel Ford

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pp. 179-187

It was Edsel Ford who made this statement to me and the circumstances which called it forth, together with the tone of sincerity and righteous indignation in which it was uttered, left upon my mind an indelible impression, — the impression that I was in the presence of a...

XIX. The Son and His Father's Shoes

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pp. 188-190

The sons of the creators of vast fortunes and the builders of colossal industries do not always inherit the mental equipment and develop the moral character necessary to the conduct of the business established by their fathers. Fortunes tend to self-destruction by destroying those...

Index

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pp. 191-206