Mr. Henry Ford has closed his huge automobile plant in
Detroit, thus throwing 75,000 men out of employment. Mr. Ford, as a manufacturer, is exercising the "Right to Strike." He says the high prices he is being charged for steel and coal are not justified and are the result of "graft." Hence his protest. He is noted for his disregard and defiance of the so-called established laws of business. He has even gone so far as to declare that "History is bunk," which, we suppose, ho applies especially to economic history. In other words, he does not believe that the traditional way is ipso facto the best way. Many people, in the face of this latest move of his, suspect that the reason given for his action is not the true reason and that Mr. Ford is being morally subtle. This we cannot believe. All of Mr. Ford's career, especially as seen in the building up of the Ford ear industry, exhibits a mind much too fixed and single in purpose and idea to be capable of subtlety. He is now merely carrying to a very logical conclusion an idea which he has always held and approved. He has done it before with other ideas. It is his usual method. As for the men thrown out of work, we are willing to wager that Mr. Ford is quietly seeing to it personally that they do not suffer. He is, first of all, a humanitarian.
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