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Page Teti

Friday, May 11, 1946

CHRONICLE: and The Legal Chronicle

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01

50 YEARS OF
FORD PROGRESS

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OU began a wholly new way of life on June 4th, 1896. On that day, Henry Ford
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drove a small, sulky-wheeled vehicle down Bagley Avenue, Detroit .

without a horse.

A two-cylinder gasoline engine powered that early vehicle . . . the first practical
Ford car. It was the first demonstration of an idea destined to contribute immeasurably

to a better way of life, for you and all the world:

Give the public thrifty, personal tirsportation. Give them cars. Millions of cars, at prices

millions can afford. And in so doing, create a new industry, with millions of jobs for the

people who make those cars and the people connected with their use.

For fifty years, the Ford Idea has been
growing. It has expanded into a giant
industry, bringing freedom to the average
family and linking the country together.

To make this idea come true, a new manu-

facturing system had to he developed. For you
couldn't make enough cars for everybody ...
at lower and lower cost ... if you built them
by hand. So new machines were Ifesigned,
and the Assembly Line was invented. With
the assembly line, production shot up, manu-
facturing costs went down, and Mass Produc-
tion became a reality. This was the first big
To-
step toward fulfillment of the Ford Idea.

five dollars a day minimum wage. Now, Ford
employees earn an average of $1.39 per hour.
Directly and indirectly, millions benefit by
the Ford Idea. Nearly half a million people
work in the automobile industry. Another
three-quarters of a million supply materials
and parts. Five and a half million more, in
such service occupations as filling stations,
taxi and trucking businesses, road-building,
roadside stands, have work because of the
automobile. Jobs and wages for millions—
created by a single idea, in just 50 years.
Machines alone do not, and cannot, give us
efficient mass-production. That is a matter of
men and machines. And so the problems of
human relations in industry—of getting along
together, of teamwork towards a common
goal—rank foremost in our American life.

day, Ford-pioneered mass production methods
help make virtually everything you use.
With mass production came more jobs. In
1904, there were 118 Ford employees. Today,
there are 125,000. Wages went up, too. In
1904, the average Ford wage was 15 cents an

The record of fifty years of autom Hive progress
is clear. The results of applying research, engi-
neering and production skills in terms of more
and better products can he seen everywhere.

For the future, we of the Ford Motor Company
pledge our resources and our abilities to the
development of ever-better products, at euer-
greater value. We look forward with confidence

to the equitable solution of the human relations

'

problems that are restricting the great productive
capacity of our nation today. And we believe that
the effective continuation of the Ford Idea
tested and tried through fifty years of Ford
progress—can and will result in even greater
progress in the years that lie before us.

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We at the Ford
Motor Company know our welfare depends on how well the public accepts the
automobiles we make. If we can continue to make the kind of cars people want,
with higher and higher value for their owners, we will have the security and
opportunity that come with public approval. More cars will he sold, more jobs will
by made, higher wages will be paid.
That is the Ford Idea. It has worked for a long time. We think it is just as vital
and productive for the future as it has been in the past.
No product is so good it can't be made better. And no wage is too high that is

earned.

6 14:12

.

President

hour. Then, in 1914, Ford inaugurated the

FORD MOTOR

1896 . • . OUT FRONT

THEN

COMPANY

OUT FRONT NOW . . . 1946

