except Henry Ford, but then Ford is a pioneer of industry and not just a factory owner in business for the profit to be made out of it. He goes further and applies his revolutionary system. He rejects the 100-dollar price index and deliberately marks it down, say, to 80 dollars. It is evident that the factory would not be prepared at the moment to produce for that price. But it finds itself obliged to do so, for this is vital. Either produce at 80 or succumb. The instinct of self-preservation of the formidable organism that bears the name of the Ford Motor Company (an organism that surpasses in production an entire country, such as ours) is awakened; every brain in it applies itself to the task of eliminating still further waste, of perfecting labour methods still more – and bit by bit the cost falls until it reaches the level demanded by the presiding genius. And hardly have things settled down at this level – the index of a certain moment of efficiency in the factory – when Ford determines once more a new basis – 70 dollars, for example – and so on consecutively. Thus he contrives to keep the minds of his men in a constant glow of research directed towards the common end in view, namely, to improve unceasingly, to make his business ever greater and more solid, to have it almost absurdly irresistible.
What does this mean but to acknowledge in practice what we all acknowledge in theory – THE OMNIPOTENCE OF MIND?
