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more, entertain an amusemcnt-hungry
world.
A fascinated, cntranced world now
looks ahead to the magic push-button
dream-world of Century 2
L,
when
human labor wiU be all but banished -
a world of leisure, luxury and license.
Isn't this a world of breathtaking
PROGRESS?
So it seems. And in no country are
these advances so universally enjoyed as
in the Unitcd States.
But therc is another side of the world
picture.
Today all peoples are not enjoying
this materialistic dream-world "prog–
ress." Millions in other lands are ill–
fed, hungry, even starving - wracked
with disease - living in poverty, illiter–
acy, filth and squalor.
True progress is not mcasured by the
criteria of gadgetry, mechanical devices,
material possessions, and the fatal con–
cept - held by too many in the United
States - that labor is a curse and idle–
ness a blessing.
This is a very deceptive world. With
all the vaunted "progress" it remains a
hard, cold fact that
never befo,.e
was
the world lilled with so much dis–
content, unhappiness and suffering -
never before so much ill health, mental
disturbance, frustration and suicide -
even in the affiuent countries. Never
before so many broken homes, so many
divorces, so much juvenile delinqueocy,
crime
and violence. Youth is in revolt.
Campuses are lilled with violeoce.
Morals have degenerated ioto the
cesspool.
Yet in this sick, sick world, the
Uoited States has the highest living
standard ever enjoyed by any people.
The American working class is living on
a standard higher than that enjoyed by
the very rich a hundred years ago.
lts
largest class is its burgeoning middle
class.
How did this all happen?
An incident I experienced will
illustrate.
On January 5, 1914, the Ford Motor
Company made banner newspaper head–
lines nationwide. Basic wage rates at the
time, in the automobile industry, were
$3.40 for a 9-hour day. Ford announced
The
PLAIN TRUTH
a raise in pay to $5 for an 8-hour day.
It
was sensational news.
At the time I was
10
the Editorial
Department of the largest trade journal
in the United States. My editors sent me
immediately to Detroit. They wanted an
exclusive interview and article on the
story.
The Ford plant at the time was out
north in Highlaod Park. 1 saw Henry
Ford, but he himself was oot familiar
with the details of the new plan. Per–
haps few realize that Henry Ford was
primarily a mechanic, not a business
man. Yet he had the shrewd business
sense to apply three ideas that made
him one of the weal thiest men in the
world. 1) He had the sense to know
that he could make more money selling
a low-priced "flivver" to the MASSES
than a high-priced car to the few. (2)
He had the practica! business sense to
surround himself with men who
were
experienced and able business men. And
(3) he was shrewd enough to retain
to himself
lOO%
owncrship of the
business.
Revolutionary Wage Plan
The roan who invented the whole
revolutionary pay scale idea was Mr.
John
R.
Lee, a Ford executive.
The $5 per day wage scheme involved
a whole new production system, and a
revolutionary new sociological program.
Mr. Lee, I found, had submitted his sen–
sational new plan to Mr. Ford and his
top executive board. AII had approved
it, and Mr. Lee was made head of the
new Sociological Department and given
the respoosibility of admioistering thc
new plan.
"Mr. Lee," 1 began, "you are now
payiog by far the highest wages in the
automobile industry -
oc
perhaps
any
industry. l'd Iike to get all the facts
aboutit."
His response was surprising. He
smiled, shook his head.
"No, Mr. Armstrong," he replied
"we do
,10t
pay the highest wages, but
on the contrary we pay the
lowest
wages
in the int!ustry."
"B-but," I stammered, "don't you
now pay a standard mínimum scale of
$5 for an 8-hour day, and don't the
March 1971
other factories pay only $3.40 for a 9-
hour day?"
"Yes, quite true," smiled Mr. Lee,
"but still we are paying the
lowest
wages in the industry, even though our
men are the
highest
paid
in
the
industry. You see, we don't measure thc
actual
wage scale in dollars paid, but by
the amount of productioo we receive
per dollar paid. Our sales volume is by
far the largest in the industry. This has
made it possible for us to MASS·produce.
We have installed an assembly-line sys–
tem of productioo. We are more highly
mechanized than other companies. This
mass
machi11e
production means that we
now reccive
lOO%
more production
per
man, while we pay only 47% more for
it. This means our workers are paid
47% more for one hour less work per
day, and we make more profit. The
company gains, and our employees
gain."
That was my .first direct personal
experience with the fast-rising mecha–
nized
MA~S-production
by conveyor-belt
and assembly-Iioe methods.
The United Statcs is a
BIG
country -
espccially compared to countries like
England, France, ltaly, Spain, Japan.
The only other mass-population coun–
tries - China, India, Russia - were
then backward countries industria1Iy.
The smaller nations did not have mass
markets. Mechanized mass-production
got a much later start in those countries.
With machine production, in sorne
instances, one man can produce as much
with the machjoe as 10 or
12
meo can
produce by hand. The Ford Motor
experience, at the outset, doubled pro–
duction per man.
One other factor entered into Amcr–
ica's exceedingly high living standard.
Two Philosophies of Life
Prior to the organization of labor
unions, employers paid wages as low as
circumstances allowed - on the whole.
There are the two overall broad phi–
Iosophics as a WAY OF
LIFE.
This world,
I rcpeat again and again, lives on the
"CET"
philosophy. The other is the
"GNE"
way of outgoing concern for the
good and welfare of others egual to
( co,¡tintted on page 48)