CHAPTER XXVII
THE IMPORTANCE OF A JOB
That surging mob of men outside this factory during the week following the announcement of his profit-sharing plan had impressed indelibly on Ford's mind the tremendous importance of a job.
"A workingman's job is his life," he says. "No one man should have the right ever to send another man home to his family out of work. Think what it means to that man, sitting there at the supper table, looking at his wife and children, and not knowing whether or not he will be able to keep them fed and clothed.
"A normal, healthy man wants to work. He has to work to live right. Nobody should be able to take his work away from him. In my factory every man shall keep his job as long as he wants it."
Impractical? The idea seems fantastic in its impracticality. What, keep every man lazy, stupid, impudent, dishonest, as he may be every man in a force of 18,000 workmen, on the pay roll as long as he wants to stay? Surely, if there is any point at which ideals of human brother-
