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Anncr:
People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice ofAmerica.
Every week at this time, we tellthe story of a person important in the history of the United States.Today, Steve Ember and Frank Oliver complete the story ofindustrialist Henry Ford.
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In nineteen-oh-three, a doctor in Detroit, Michigan, bought thefirst car from the Ford Motor Company. That sale was the beginningof Henry Ford’s dream. He wanted to build good, low-priced cars forthe general public. As he said many times: “I want to make a carthat anybody can buy.”
To keep prices low, Henry Ford decided that he would build justone kind of car. He called it the Model T.
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The Model T was ready for sale inOctober nineteen-oh-eight.
The Model T cost eight-hundred-fifty dollars. It was a simplemachine that drivers could depend on. Doctors bought the Model T. Sodid farmers. Even criminals. They considered it the fastest andsurest form of transportation. Americans loved the Model T. Theywrote stories and songs about it. Thousands of Model T’s were builtin the first few years. The public wanted the car. And Henry Fordmade more and more.
VOICE 1:
To make the Model T, Ford built the largest factory of its time.Inside the factory, car parts moved to the workers exactly when theyneeded them. Other factories moved some parts to the workers. ButFord was the first to design his factory completely around thissystem. Production rose sharply.
As production rose, Ford lowered prices. By nineteen-sixteen, theprice had dropped to three-hundred forty-five dollars.
The last step in Ford’s production success was to raise hisworkers’ pay. His workers had always earned about two-dollars forten hours of work. That was the same daily rate as at otherfactories.
With wages the same everywhere, factory workers often changedjobs. Henry Ford wanted loyal workers who would remain. He raisedwages to five dollars a day.
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That made Henry Ford popular with working men. He became popularwith car buyers in nineteen-thirteen when he gave back fifty dollarsto each person who had bought a Ford car. Henry Ford wasdemonstrating his idea that if workers received good wages, theybecame better buyers. And if manufactures sold more products, theycould lower prices and still earn money.
This system worked for Ford because people continued to demandhis Model T. And they had the money to buy it. But what would happenwhen people no longer wanted the Model T, or did not have the money.
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In nineteen-nineteen, Henry was involved in a dispute with theother people who owned stock in the Ford Motor Company. In the end,Henry bought the stock of the other investors. He gained completecontrol of the company.
The investors did not do badly, however. An investment often-thousand dollars when the company was first established produceda return of twenty-five-million dollars.
A few years later, another group of investors offered Fordone-thousand-million dollars for the company. But he was notinterested in selling. He wanted complete control of the companythat had his name. In a sense, Henry Ford was the company.
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Henry’s son, Edsel, was named president of the company beforenineteen-twenty. No one truly believed that Edsel was running thecompany. Whatever Edsel said, people believed he was speaking forhis father.
In nineteen-twenty-three, fifty-seven percent of the carsproduced in America were Model T Fords. About half the cars producedin the world were Fords. Taxicabs in Hong Kong. Most of the cars insouth America. Never before — or since — has one car company socontrolled world car production.
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The success of the Ford Motor Company permitted Henry Ford towork on other projects.
He became a newspaper publisher. He bought a railway. He builtairplanes. He helped build a hospital. He even ran for the UnitedStates Senate.
Some of Henry’s projects were almost unbelievable. For example,he tried to end World War One by sailing to Europe with a group ofpeace supporters.
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While Henry Ford enjoyed his success, a dangerous situation wasdeveloping. Other companies began to sell what only Ford had beenselling: good, low-priced cars. Ford’s biggest competitor was theGeneral Motors Company. General Motors produced the Chevroletautomobile.
Ford’s Model T was still a dependable car. But it had not changedin years. People said the Model T engine was too loud. They said itwas too slow. The Chevrolet, however, had a different look everyyear. And you could pay for one over a long period of time. Forddemanded full payment at the time of sale. Ford’s share of the carmarket began to fall.
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Everyone at Ford agreed that the Model T must go. Henry Forddisagreed. And it was his decision that mattered. Finally, innineteen-twenty-six, even Henry admitted that the age of the Model Twas over. A new Ford was needed. A year later, the Model T was gone.
Strangely enough, people mourned its end. They did not want tobuy it anymore. But they recognized that the Model T was the last ofthe first cars in the brave new world of automobile development.
The success of Ford’s new cars did not last long. Afternineteen-thirty, Ford would always be second to General Motors.
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In nineteen-twenty-nine, the United States suffered a greateconomic recession. Many businesses failed. Millions of people losttheir jobs. In nineteen-thirty-one, the Ford Motor Company sold onlyhalf as many cars as it had the year before. It lostthirty-seven-million dollars. Working conditions at Ford grew worse.
In nineteen-thirty-two, hungry, unemployed men marched near theFord factory. Police, firefighters and Ford security guards tried tostop them with sticks, high-pressure water and guns. Four of themarchers died, and twenty were wounded.
Newspapers all over the United States condemned the police,firefighters and security guards for attacking unarmed men. And toMake a bad situation worse, Ford dismissed all workers who attendedfuneral services for the dead.
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More violence was to come. For several years, automobile workershad been attempting to form a labor union. Union leaders negotiatedfirst with America’s two other major automobile makers: the Chryslercompany and General Motors. Those companies quickly agreed to permita union in their factories. That left Ford alone to fight againstthe union. And fight he did.
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In nineteen-thirty-seven, union organizers were passing outpamphlets to workers at the Ford factory. Company security guardsstruck. They were led by the chief of security, Harry Bennett.
Harry Bennett knew nothing about cars. But he did know what HenryFord wanted done. And he did it. Bennett’s power came from Henry.The only person who might have had the power to stop Bennett wasHenry’s son, Edsel, who was president of the company. But Edselhimself was fighting Henry and his unwillingness to change.
Bennett’s power in the company continued to grow. His violenceagainst the union of automobile workers also grew.
The Ford Motor Company did not agree to negotiate with the unionuntil nineteen-forty-one. Henry Ford accepted an agreement. If hehad not, his company would have lost millions of dollars ingovernment business.
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In nineteen-forty-three, Edsel Ford died. With Edsel gone, Henryagain became president of the Ford Motor Company. It was difficultto know if Henry or Harry Bennett was running the company. Americawas at war. And Henry was eighty years old, too old to deal with theproblems of wartime production. And Bennett knew nothing at allabout production.
So Henry’s grandson, also Henry Ford, was recalled from the Navyto run the company. Young Henry’s first act was to dismiss HarryBennett.
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Old Henry Ford retired from business. His thoughts were in thepast. He died in his sleep in nineteen-forty-seven, at the age ofeighty-three.
Henry Ford was not the first man whose name was given to anautomobile. But his name– more than any other — was linked to thatmachine. And his dream changed the lives of millions of people.
Some still wonder if Henry Ford was a simple man who seemeddifficult, or a difficult man who seemed simple. No one, howeverquestions the fact that he made the automobile industry one of thegreat industries in the world.
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VOICE 2:
You have been listening to the Special English program People inAmerica. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Ourprogram was written by Richard Thorman. I’m Ray Freeman.