He was thought to be crazy and was looked down upon by the magnates of the day. But Ford threw himself into the realization of his scheme with such whole-heartedness and intelligence that the positions were gradually reversed and some twenty odd years later he it was who was looking down on the magnates and severely condemning the monstrous processes that had enriched them.
Ford had created the world’s biggest industry!
Great credit indeed would be due to Henry Ford for the simple fact of his having created a business of such enormous proportions, but if the matter went no further his value would be limited to that of just another rich man, a modern Croesus. Ford, however, goes far beyond that. He maps out a future state of things more efficient and just than the present. Making donations? Endowing schools, libraries, hospitals? No. TEACHING HOW TO WORK, proving that work is the supreme good and demonstrating the incommensurable significance of the word INDUSTRY.
Industry is not, as used to be thought, an empirical means of making money; it is a scientific way of transforming the natural resources of the earth into utilities for general service and general profit. The end in view is not to make money; it is the common welfare, and the practical means of achieving this lies in the constant perfecting of labor methods, hand in hand with a rigorous distribution
