Henry Ford: An Interpretation

V. Some Elements of Success

CHAPTER V SOME ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS 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 arts, education, religion, his contribution — directly or indirectly — is yet to be made. What he has done for others has been along lines that have as a rule brought a liberal return to himself. Seriously and to his credit I would say that his most valuable contribution to humanity thus far has been his discovery of some very profitable kinds of philanthropy. A good thing done for reward is good. Nobler and better things, however, are possible. I wish Henry Ford had more good to his credit that had cost him something. In actual service to humanity and in unselfish use of his 41 HENRY FORD wealth his old running mate,- Couzens,has done so far more that will live. Henry Ford plays a spectacular game. He pulls some wonderful stunts. He is a pinch hitter in finance and the idol of the bleachers. But there are better all-round men in the game. He is as temperamental as an artist and as erratic. He has been known to fan out. And he certainly muffed a couple of balls in the case of the Peace Ship and his Jewish diatribes. He isnot a team man. He must play the game alone and for himself. He has advanced a good many men on the bases of the financial diamond, but I do not recall that he ever did so by a sacrifice hit. Henry Ford has attained a remarkable prominence, but he has not attained that which makes prominence permanent, namely, eminence . Prominence may be gained by saying things and doing things; eminence isachieved by being. The essence of eminence is in a man — in his mind and soul. Henry Ford is an unusual, a most remarkable man, but not a great man — not yet. There are in him neither that breadth nor depth of mind, nor 42 SOME ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS that moral grandeur which are the distinguishing marks of the truly great. Some men are born great, some achievegreatness, but no man ever had greatness thrust upon him, Shakespeare to the contrary. He may be thrust into prominence, but not into eminence, for eminence is reached by climbing an inward spiritual ascent. If Henry Ford could quit watching the popular winds, take down his political lightning rod, and devote himself to the solution of those human problems which press upon him for solution as an industrial leader, I think he could attain a great and enviable reputation. It is in that direction, I believe, that he will find the fulfillment of the wish which he expressed to mewhen he said, "I donot want the things which can be bought with money. I want to live a life — to live so that the world will be better for my having lived in it." He has had the vision. He has the ability and the opportunity. It is unfortunate that he has not manifested the same sustained interest in the work undertaken in behalf of his employees that he has 43 HENRY FORD shown in some other matters. In some things he reveals an indomitable will, an unfailing interest. In other things the will weakens and the interest dies. He sometimes springs at things with startling suddenness. And then he drops them as suddenly as he took them up. It requires a stronger will to be than to do. In 1914 he entered with great enthusiasm a new path in the field of social justice. The work he then instituted gave promise of a notable contribution to human progress along industrial lines. It quickened the conscience of the employers. It roused hope in the ranks of labor. It promised the restoration of that which modern industry has lost and which would prove the greatest boon any man could restore to it, namely, a personal relation between employer and employee. That phase of the work, with some other distinguishing features of it, are for the present in eclipse; only in eclipse, it is to be hoped. As to Henry Ford's success in industry, it is no mere accident. You cannot say that...