With the help of Mr. Samuel Crowther, Mr. Henry Ford
has been able to write his biography. It is evident from his account that it is by personal qualities that he has gained his position. We see Mr. Ford as a man of specialized intelli- gence, of inventiveness, and of whole-hearted interest in his work. But when he turns from the actual detail of organ- ization and successful business enterprise to the discussion of politics and of sociology he seems, despite his dogmatism, not to have been remarkably liberal or original in his thoughts. " I am not a reformer," he admits ; and, indeed, he is inclined to support any measure which will increase production without a sufficient inquiry into its sociological and psychological effect on his workmen. " I have not been able to discover that repetitive labour injures a man in any way," he says ; and as instance he gives the following example of highly-specialized labour " Probably the most monotonous task in the whole factory is one in which a man picks up a gear with a steel hook, shakes it in a vat of oil, then turns it into a basket. The motion never varies. The gears come to him always in the same place, he gives each one the same number of shakes, and he drops - it into a basket which is always in the same place. No muscular energy is required, no intelligence is required. He does little more than wave his hands gently to and fro—the steel rod is so light. Yet the man on that job has been doing. it for eight solid years. He has saved and invested money until now he has about forty thousand dollars—and he stubbornly resists any attempt to force him into a better job." It would be difficult to bring forward a completer example of the evils of over-specialization in labour. " No intelligence is required "—for a man to work for eight years with no call on his mental faculties must obviously in some degree atrophy his mind and stultify himself. It is no palliation ; in fact, it shows all the more thoroughly the dangers of this system, that the man should have no wish to leave work which, in all but money, is so unprofitable to himself. But this quotation will show that either Mr. Ford or Mr. Crowther writes in straightforward and sound English.
Previous page
