This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAPTER XXX

THE BEST PREPAREDNESS

Henry Ford saw that the meaning of his work was about to be lost. He was in for the greatest fight of his life.

He counted his resources. The mammoth factory was still running to capacity, the farm-tractors, which would mean so much in increased production of food, in greater comforts for millions of farmers, were almost ready to be put on the market. His plan for profit-sharing with the buyers of his cars had recently been announced. Three hundred thousand men in this country would have, during 1916, an actual proof in dollars and cents of the practical value of cooperation, of Ford's principle that "helping the other fellow will help you." Those men would share with him the profit which would add still more millions to his credit.

Ford had these things; he had also a tremendous fortune at his command. He cast about for ways of using that fortune in this fight, and again the uselessness of money was impressed upon him.

"Money is of no real value whatever," he says. "What can I do with it now? I cannot pay a