The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (Vintage) (108 page)

BOOK: The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (Vintage)
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21.
HF, in Bruce Barton, “‘It Would Be Fun to Start Over Again,’ Said Henry Ford,”
American Magazine,
April 1921, p. 7.

22.
HF,
My Life and Work,
pp. 135–36, 148; HF,
Today and Tomorrow,
p. 253.

23.
Henry Ford, “Why I Favor Five Days' Work with Six Days' Pay,”
World's Work,
Oct. 1926, pp. 613–16. The bulk of this article was later reprinted in the
Congressional Digest,
Oct. 1932, pp. 242–44, as part of a symposium on American industry and the five-day workweek.

24.
HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 154.

25.
The literature on modern advertising is vast and growing. Particularly suggestive works include T. J. Jackson Lears, “From Salvation to Self-Realization: Advertising and the Therapeutic Roots of the Consumer Culture, 1880–1930,” in Richard Wightman Fox and T. J. Jackson Lears,
The Culture of Consumption: Critical Essays in American History, 1880–1980
(New York, 1983); T. J. Jackson Lears,
Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America
(New York, 1994); Roland Marchand,
Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920–1940
(New York, 1985); Pamela Walker Laird,
Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing
(Baltimore, 1998).

26.
Motor World,
Dec. 12, 1912, p. 20; Pelletier obituary, Detroit
Free Press,
Sept. 6, 1938; Sorensen, “Oral Reminiscences,” pp. 97–98; Sorensen, “Making of Men,” p. 25. See also David L. Lewis,
The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company
(Detroit, 1976), pp. 37–38, 48–49.

27.
Articles in
Ford Times:
“Does Advertising Pay?,” Dec. 1910, p. 109; “Living Advertising,” April 1911, p. 222; “Suggestions for Advertising,” Jan. 1912, pp. 130–31.

28.
See the pamphlet
Ford Motor Cars,
1912, p. 31; “Ford APL—1912,” both in acc. 19, box 2, FA. For the promotion of the “winged pyramid” logo, see “Ford Trademark as a Window Sign,”
Ford Times,
July 1912, p. 316. The 1912 Ford ad is in
Automobile Trade Journal,
in acc. 19, box 2, FA.

29.
Ford Times,
Nov. 1911, p. 64; July 1911, pp. 287–88.

30.
For accounts of the race, see Stern,
Tin Lizzie,
pp. 63–75; “Ford No. 2 Winner of Great Auto Race,” Seattle
Post-Intelligencer,
June 24, 1909;
Story of the Race,
FMC pamphlet, 1909 in acc. 717, box 5, FA (quote).

31.
See ads in acc. 717, box 6, FA; Detroit
Journal,
July 12, 1909, p. 6;
Ford Times,
July 1, 1909, pp. 2, 6, 13;
Ford Times,
special “Trans-Continental Race Issue,” July 15, 1909.

32.
Ford ads, 1913–16, in acc. 19, box 2, FA; “Watch the Fords Go By,” 1909, in acc. 175, box 1909–11, FA.

33.
Ford ads, 1908, 1910, 1913, in acc. 19, box 2, FA.

34.
“Ford Motor Cars,” 1910, and “What the Motor Car Means to the Doctor,” 1911, both in acc. 175, box 1909–1911, FA, and
Ford Times,
Nov. 1910, p. 91.

35.
“Ford Motor Company,” 1911, in acc. 175, box 1909–1911, FA; “Visiting Historic Places by Auto,”
Ford Times,
April 1911, pp. 209–11; 1913 ad,
Horseless Age,
in acc. 19, box 2, FA.

36.
The Woman and the Ford,
1912, in acc. 175, box 1912, FA.

37.
F. L. Brittain, “Why Doesn't More Auto Copy Talk My Language?,”
Ford Times,
Oct. 1910.

38.
N. A. Hawkins, “The Man Who Does Things,”
Ford Times,
1908, p. 4.

39.
Brown, “Reminiscences,” p. 19; “The Auto,” Detroit
Journal,
Nov. 30, 1907; Peter E. Rev-elt, “Errant Bookkeeper Becomes Ford's First Sales Genius,”
Ward's Quarterly,
Fall 1967, p. 59; “Hawkins Pardoned,” Detroit
Free Press,
Dec. 25, 1896.

40.
Brown, “Reminiscences,” p. 20.

41.
Hawkins explained his early career at Ford in great detail in “Additional Tax Case,” transcript, 1927, in acc. 940, box 14, FA. His testimony was reported nearly verbatim in the Detroit
News,
Feb. 2, 1927, pp. 1–2.

42.
Arthur J. Lacey's testimony, in “Additional Tax Case,” transcript, 1927, in acc. 84, FA; Hawkins, quoted in Detroit
News,
Feb. 2, 1927, pp. 1–2.

43.
Hawkins, Detroit
News,
Feb. 2, 1927, pp. 1–2.

44.
These essays by Norval A. Hawkins appeared in
Ford Times
on April 1, 1909, p. 5; Sept. 29, 1908, pp. 8–9; Jan. 15, 1909, p. 4; March 1, 1912, pp. 194–95; April 15, 1909, p. 5.

45.
Miriam Trichner, “Detroiters at Play: Norval Hawkins, a Modern Midas,” Detroit
Times,
Dec. 1, 1913; “Ford Motor Company Minutes, 1908–1910,” in acc. 940, box 14, FA.

46.
Detroit
News,
Feb. 2, 1927, pp. 1–2.

47.
Ibid.;
Ford Times,
June 1912, p. 283.

48.
Norval A. Hawkins,
The Selling Process: A Handbook of Salesmanship Principles
(Detroit, 1920), pp. 1–218.

49.
Ibid., pp. 68, 219–21.

50.
Ibid., pp. 229–45.

51.
Revelt, “Ford's First Sales Genius,” pp. 59–60; Sorensen, “Making of Men,” pp. 10–11, 26–27; Charles E. Sorensen,
My Forty Years with Ford
(New York, 1956), p. 39 (quoted).

52.
Brown, “Reminiscences,” pp. 110–11. Allan Nevins noted that this story was corroborated by C. H. Wills, Jr. (See Nevins,
Ford: Times, Man, Company,
p. 581.)

53.
This incident was first noted in
Pipp's Weekly,
Aug. 25, 1923, p. 7, quoted in text. HF later offered a version of the story in Ralph Waldo Trine,
The Power That Wins: Henry Ford and Ralph Waldo Trine in an Intimate Talk on Life
(Indianapolis, 1929), p. 163.

Eight
*
Producer

1.
These figures come from tables in David A. Hounshell,
From the American System to Mass Production, 1800–1932
(Baltimore, 1984), p. 224; and Allan Nevins and Frank Ernest Hill,
Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933
(New York, 1957), p. 685.

2.
Henry Ford, “Machinery, the New Messiah,”
Forum,
March 1928, pp. 359–64.

3.
“To Make It All Ford,”
Motor Age,
vol. 10 (Sept. 1906), p. 9; “Ford Company in Highland Park,” Detroit
Journal,
March 9, 1907; “Ford Co. Plans Fine Building,” Detroit
Journal,
June 10, 1908.

4.
David L. Lewis, “Ford and Kahn,”
Michigan History,
Sept.–Oct. 1980, pp. 17–28.

5.
See Clarence Hooker,
Life in the Shadows of the Crystal Palace, 1910–1927: Ford Workers in the Model T Era
(Bowling Green, Ohio, 1997), pp. 26–27; Hounshell,
From American System to Mass Production,
pp. 226–27.

6.
This description relies heavily upon Nevins and Hill,
Ford: Expansion and Challenge,
pp. 454–56.

7.
Much of this is detailed in
Ford Factory Facts
(Detroit, 1912), in FA, a Ford publication that
took the reader on a step-by-step guided tour through the Highland Park plant. See also Hounshell,
From American System to Mass Production,
pp. 228–33.

8.
Detroit
Journal,
quoted in Nevins and Hill,
Ford: Expansion and Challenge,
p. 461. See also Hounshell,
From American System to Mass Production,
pp. 234–37.

9.
The production statistics come from Hounshell,
From American System to Mass Production,
p. 224. Colvin's sixteen articles appeared in
American Machinist,
May 8–Nov. 27, 1913; the quotations come from his “Building an Automobile Every 40 Seconds,”
American Machinist,
1913, p. 759; and “Special Machines for Auto Small Parts,”
American Machinist,
1913, p. 442.

10.
The statistic on American car production comes from Colvin, “Building Automobile Every 40 Seconds,” p. 757. See also “Ford Factory Is a Wonderful Place,” New Orleans
Picayune,
Nov. 12, 1912; “Figures on Ford Production Amaze,” Jackson, Michigan
Press,
Oct. 18, 1913; “New Idea in the Big Ford Factory,” San Francisco
Chronicle,
Nov. 17, 1912; “Ford's Gigantic Output Marvel in Auto Industry,” Toledo
Blade,
Jan. 18, 1913. Clipbook No. 1, in FA, is filled with such news articles.

11.
“Single Model Is Ford Secret,” Providence
Tribune,
July 6, 1913; “Save Thousands by Elimination of Waste Motion,”
Christian Science Monitor,
Nov. 9, 1912; “Make Ford Auto and Start in 2
1
?2 Minutes—This Remarkable Record Caught in Moving Pictures at the Factory,” Los Angeles
Times,
June 22, 1913; “Rise of Ford Is like a Fairy Tale,” Indianapolis
Star,
March 9, 1913.

12.
Ford Factory Facts,
pp. 44, 10.

13.
HF,
My Life and Work
(Garden City, N.Y., 1922), p. 80.

14.
Ibid., p. 81. Ernest G. Liebold, in his “Reminiscences,” vol. 3, p. 167, claimed that HF told him the watch factory story. See also W. C. Klann, “Reminiscences,” pp. 20–22; Charles Sorensen, “The Early Years,” ms., pp. 123–24, acc. 65, box 66-9, FA.

15.
Hounshell,
American System to Mass Production,
pp. 218–49, has offered a persuasive account of the development of the Ford assembly line based on an exhaustive examination of the evidence.

16.
Klann, “Reminiscences,” pp. 27–31.

17.
Ibid., pp. 46–51; Horace L. Arnold and Fay L. Faurote,
Ford Methods and the Ford Shops
(New York, 1915), p. 116; Hounshell,
From American System to Mass Production,
pp. 248–49.

18.
Klann, “Reminiscences,” p. 55.

19.
Ibid., pp. 47, 55, 60, 63, 68–71; Harold Wibel, “Reminiscences,” p. 21.

20.
Clarence W. Avery, “How Mass Production Came into Being,”
Iron Age,
June 13, 1929, p. 1638.

21.
Klann, “Reminiscences,” pp. 79, 80; Clarence Avery, “Speech at Dinner for 35-Year Employees, Dec. 19, 1944,” p. 3, in acc. 23, box 8, FA; Hounshell,
From American System to Mass Production,
p. 255.

22.
See Arnold and Faurote,
Ford Methods and the Ford Shops.

23.
Ibid., pp. 32, 307.

24.
Ibid., pp. 95, 102–3, 104.

25.
Ibid., p. 135.

26.
“Ford Factory Is an Ideal,”
Interstate Motorist,
June 20, 1914; S. S. Thompson, “Through the Ford Factory,” Boise, Idaho,
News,
June 7, 1914; “New Ford System,” Houston
Chronicle,
May 30, 1914.

27.
“Ford Production Industrial Marvel,” Washington, D.C.,
Times,
Sept. 27, 1913; “Assemble Complete Car in Two and One-Half Minutes,” Grand Rapids
Herald,
June 8, 1913; “Auto Is Built in Two Hours,” Detroit
Journal,
June 2, 1913; “Record Broken at Ford Factory,” Louisville
Herald,
May 10, 1914; “Ford Motor Car Reduced to $500,” Chicago
Tribune,
Aug. 3, 1913.

28.
“Ford Motor Co. Employees, the Most Expensive Picture That Was Ever Taken,” Grand Rapids
Herald,
Aug. 29, 1913, “Ford Army Gets Paid on a Daily Schedule,” Chicago
Evening Post,
June 2, 1913; “Half Million Fords in Use—Every Third Car a Ford,” Boston
Post,
April 26, 1914, also in Indianapolis
Star,
April 26, 1914.

29.
Frank Vivian, “Reminiscences,” pp. 6–9;
Ford Times,
July 1915, p. 455.

30.
For biographical information on Wills, see Ford R. Bryan,
Henry's Lieutenants
(Detroit, 1993), pp. 289–94; Jack Woodward, “Childe Harold Wills,”
Special-Interest Autos,
Aug.–Oct. 1977, pp. 30–33, 60–61; M. D. Henry, “Childe Harold Wills: A Career in Cars,”
Automobile Quarterly,
Fall 1966, pp. 136–45.

31.
Alfred P. Sloan,
Adventures of a White-Collar Man
(New York, 1941), p. 72; Edward J. Cutler, “Reminiscences,” p. 185; Henry, “Childe Harold Wills,” p. 136.

32.
Allan Nevins,
Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company
(New York, 1954), p. 227; Oliver Barthel, “Reminiscences,” p. 46.

33.
Charles H. Bennett, “Reminiscences,” p. 97; Fred W. Seeman, “Reminiscences,” p. 25.

34.
Charles E. Sorensen, “Oral Reminiscences,” acc. 65, box 66-9, pp. 77–79, FA; Seeman, “Reminiscences,” p. 8; Fred Rockelman, “Oral History,” p. 11; and Nevins,
Ford: Times, Man, Company,
p. 227, where the author relates the story of Wills and the Ford trademark that he heard from Wills' son, Harold Wills, Jr.

35.
John Wandersee, “Reminiscences,” p. 12; Rockelman, “Oral History,” p. 13; Sorensen, “Oral Reminiscences,” p. 44.

36.
Charles Sorensen, “The Making of Men,” p. 42, in acc. 65, box 67-8, FA; Irving Bacon, “Reminiscences,” 14–16.

37.
Woodward, “Childe Harold Wills,” p. 60, based on an interview with Wills' daughter, Virginia Wills Chauvin; Sorensen, “Making of Men,” pp. 50, 52, 42.

38.
Sorensen, “Oral Reminiscences,” pp. 43–44, in acc. 65, box 66-9, and pp. 41, 49–52, box 678, FA.

39.
On Wills' pioneering role in developing vanadium, see Rockelman, “Oral History,” pp. 50–51; Wandersee, “Reminiscences,” p. 20; Nevins,
Ford: Times, Man, Company,
pp. 348 ff., which relates Wills' own account as told to his son, Harold Wills, Jr. See also Henry, “Childe Harold Wills,” p. 138.

40.
John F. Dodge, testimony, in Dodge case, in acc. 572, box 20, “Wills” folder, FA; Sorensen, “Making of Men,” pp. 53, 59.

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