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The handwriting is on the wa/1,
but unbelievable prosperity and
world peace is closer than you
think! To be forewarned is lo be
forearmed - and this wi/1 affect
every one of us!
I
T's time we take notice. The trend
is now unmista.kable. You need
to understand
what it means!
Suddenly the United States no
longer enjoys the highest per capita
income of any nation. Sweden has
now risen above us.
The United States' world 's high–
est livi ng standa rd
has started on the
way down.
You need to understand
WHAT is oow actually happening,
WHY it is happening, and WHERE it's
going to take vou and your family,
your re latives, and your neighbors!
The buying power of the average
American fami ly dropped nearly
three percent last year. And that
was the second year
in
a row! Ac–
tually, the typical family's REAL in–
come last year was even less than it
was six years befare - and that
in
spi te of the fact tha t more wives are
working now. Forty-three percent –
or twenty million wives - are now
working. More than that, sorne five
percent of laborers are now holding
down two jobs. Still, total FAMILY
INCOMES are on the decrease.
Wbat CAUSED American prosper–
ity to rise so high above a ll other
nations in the first place? And what
has CAUSED this trend to decline?
1 was involved in a personal expe–
rience that expla ins
in
part the ris–
ing of the aver age American
income. In early January 19 14, 1
was traveling eastward in upstate
New York from Buffalo, as editorial
representative of America's largest
trade joumal. At Utica
1
r eceived a
telegram from the magazine's borne
office to go immediately to Detroit
to interview Henry Ford. A news
bombshell had broken the same
day. The Ford Motor Company bad
startled the nation - and the world
- with the sensational announce–
ment of a new $5.00 per day wage
scale. The union scale for automo-
The
PLAIN TRUTH Aprii-May 1976
Personal from
. : __.
- -
~~ ~
...- ..!..:.·:""..,.-
-
WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE
U.S. STANDARD OF LIVING–
ANDWHY?
bile workers was then $3.75 per ten–
hour day. Ford had announced a
$5.00 per day wage for a nine-hour
da
y.
The magazine editors wanted an
on-the-spot story by tbeir own edi–
torial represen tative.
l
did see
Henry Ford, but the real story carne
from John R. Lee, head of Ford's
Sociological Department. He had
originated the plan.
l
have published the accou nt of
this incident befare, but
iL
is impor–
tant tbat I repeat it here, because it
explains a majar factor in America's
rise to the highest living standard in
a ll human bistory.
"You are now paying the highest
wage rate in the automobi le indus–
try,
right?''
1 began.
"WRONG!" carne back
Mr.
Lee,
with emphasis. "We a re now paying
the
lowest
wage rate."
"But is not the union scale at
other plants $3.75 per 10-hour day,
and are you not now paying $5.00
per 9-hour day?"
"Oh yes, but we figure what we
pay in terms of what we GET, and
we GET twjce as mucb work accom–
plisbed per 9-hour day as other fac–
tories get per 10-hour day. In other
words, other factories pay $7.50 to
GET the same amo unt of production
we get for $5.00."
This left me a little bewildered.
"You see,"
Mr.
Lee explained,
"we have now gone on the assem–
bly-line system of mass production.
This automatically sets tbe pace for
each man's work. The machinery
now does m ue h of th e work
formerly done by hand. We have a
mass market which makes possible
MASS MACHINE PRODUCTION. That's
the reason we can sell tbe Model T
Ford at such a low price. That MASS
PRODUCTION by the assembly-Jine
method lowers producti on cost. No
other automobi le company has a
market large enough to go on this
method of production."
But it was only a matter of a little
time until a ll U.S . automobile
makers were on machine mass pro–
duction. American population was
growing. Mass machine production
greatly lowered labor costs in pro–
duction. No other country at the
time had a market large enough to
warrant mass-machine production.
Perhaps this might bave made
America's capitalists far richer, but
labor unionism was growing by
leaps and bounds at that time. They
went after and got their share of the
benefits from this lower-cost ma–
chine production.
Result:
In
a few years America's
laboring class produced a new and
vast MIDDLE-class population.
(Conlinued on page 21)