Henry Ford once said, “I will build a motorcar for the massesconstructed of the best materials, by the best me to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can deviseso low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces. ” (Willamette 1) This is one of his most memorable yet earliest public quotes in history, that can easily sum up his whole life. Ford was much more than a person who made cars.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 on a farm near Greenfield Michigan where he lived a normal childhood. At thirteen years old Ford became obsessed with the “horseless carriage”, after he witnessed a steam engine rolling down the street on its own (Lacey 8). Ford, was a curious child, one day he ran up to the engineer and asked him many questions. After getting all his answers the engineer actually let him drive the engine (Robert 9). Four years later, he went to work in Detroit as a machinist (Sahlman 1). One year later, he met Thomas Edison and earned a job at Detroit Edison Illuminating Co. Caldwell 21).
Ford and Edison became life long friends, and because of Edison’s continued encouragement Ford built the first quadricycle gas powered car in 1896 (Salhman 1). In 1903 he founded his company The Ford Motor Co. (Caldwell 21). Ford invented the assembly line in 1913 to be able to produce his cars more rapidly then any other company (Willamette 1). He was the first to use the moving conveyor belt in his factories (Encarta). In 1908, he introduced the Model T. The Model T’s were sold at an affordable price of $850 (Willamette 2).
In 1920, 4 million Model T’s were sold nationwide. When Ford came out with the assembly line for the Model T the price dropped to $490. Due to mass production in 1925 from the assembly line profits were increased. This enabled the price to be decreased to $260. (Willamette 2). However, Ford never gave up on the Model T even when he should have because the car’s popularity was disappearing (Iacocca 2). In 1919 Ford turned the company over to his son Edsel until he died and Ford once again took over the company until he was forced to retire because of old age (Salhman 3).
He died two years later on April seventh 1947, at the age of eighty-four (Salhman 3). Ford was a very caring loving person who was always interested in the well being of others. Ford not only wished for every middle class family to afford a car but he also wanted his workers to have a car too (Jarold 1). That was why he wanted so badly to make a car at a price so that everyone could afford it (Iacocca 1). After many numerous attempts to accomplish this goal Ford would say, ” Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. “(Lacey 65) This kind of attitude led Henry Ford to create the Model T in 1908.
Henry Ford could have expanded his business and make many types of cars, but he chose to only make one for mass production. He did this because he knew that the cars would not only be cheaper, but the more cars that were made the more the price would drop. The purpose of the price reduction was to give everyone an opportunity to own a car. Ford did this unselfishly and his company never lost a dime (Jarold 1). He was once quoted saying, ” A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business (Willamette 5). ” Even though Henry Ford sold over 15 million
Model T’s over the next two decades, his happiness came from seeing the people’s response to him (Caldwell 48). In addition for his care of his consumers, Ford also cared a lot for his workers. In fact, in 1913, when his assembly lines were up and running the workers produced such a He also thought that well paid workers would work better and the more money they made the more likely they could by themselves a car. high turnover, Ford doubled the minimum wage of his workers salary to $5 a day. Then he cut their work hours down from 9 hours to 8 hours per day (Iacocca 5).
This made his workers feel more appreciated therefore they worked harder and this was just the beginning of a great relationship. Not only did Ford care about what his workers did on the job but he even had a “sociological department” set up to make sure that the workers did not blow their money on booze and unnecessary materials (Lacey 56). Ford even banned smoking because he believed it was unhealthy for his workers. Ford would say, “I want the whole organization dominated by just, generous and humane policy” (Willamette 5). Ford had one goal in life: to make sure that every man with a well paid salary could afford a car.
This was not an easy task, but he did it in the most effective way and still kept his workers happy and his company prosperous. Henry Ford was a very loyal man not only to his workers and customers but also to his country. Ford was known to be a very strong pacifist (Willamette 3). “In 1915 he organized the “Ford Peace Ship”, a group of pacifists who sailed to Europe in an ineffective attempt to mediate between the warring nations during (Caldwell 58). During World War Two Ford set aside his beliefs in pacifism and this time he played even a greater role (Willamette 3).
He set aside his company, stopped making cars and decided to help out his country (Salhman 3). Ford built special factories to produce military aircraft and vehicles for the allied forces (Iacocca 7). For this America repaid him with all they could, awarding him the American Legion’s Distinguished Service Medal in 1944 (Lacey 98). Henry Ford even tried to run for senate but did not win (Caldwell 78). Despite these smaller acts of heroism one of the greatest things Henry Ford ever did for his country was change our lifestyles for the better.
He gave us the opportunity to be better people by creating a less stressful environment. He wanted to serve his country and make it a better place for all of us to live by giving us the opportunity to own our own vehicle. Many would have thought that buying a car would have cost them a fortune, but Ford made it possible so that everyone could live happy and still be able to feed their families (Jarold 1). In addition to Henry Ford’s goal of making an affordable car for every middle class working American, Henry Ford was also a highly known philanthropist .
He wanted even the poorest people to have a car so he started establishing small village factories so that production could continue in small towns and create good jobs for people who needed money. Ford initiated many philanthropic organizations, but his most famous was The Ford Foundation (Jarold 1). The Ford Foundation’s goal was not to just give people loans and hand out money, but instead they wanted them to take it and get everything that they could out of it. They wanted to make sure that they were using it to change their lives (Jarold).
The Ford Foundation had four goals: to strengthen democratic values, to reduce poverty and injustice, to promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement (Iacocca 2). All these goals were set up by Henry Ford and his son, and the foundation was up and running in 1936. Te Ford foundation started in the state of Michigan, but by 1950 it became a national and international foundation(Willamette 4). ” The foundation still provides many grants for charitable causes such as scholarships, aiding charities to fight poverty, and providing for many more charities around the world.
Ford also set up his own hospital, which to this day has grown into a network of hospitals (Willamette 4). “Ford started this in 1914 to 1926 and spent over 11 million dollars of his own money to fund this hospital” (Lacey 93). Ford also took a lot of environmental responsibility in making his cars and decided to use steel instead of wood to preserve forests (Iacocca 6). He set many other rules in his factories to avoid wasting wood and lumber. He thought that everyone should live in a healthy environment.
