684 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



of spreading the glad tidings of God's love; 

 and may God giant that it may be the same 

 after I am dead and gone, for it is my aim 

 to build up first "the kingdom of God," 

 and a great business second. Well, now for 

 the stoiy told me by friend Flower. It may 

 be fiction, but I give it for what it is worth. 



He said one of the greatest and mcst 

 useful men in that company of over thirty 

 thousand eame to Ford's attention years ago 

 something in this way. The fellow had suc- 

 ceeded in defrauding the Standard Oil Co. 

 of a good many thousand dollars. He was 

 convicted, and sentenced to ten years in the 

 penitentiary. They proved it against him, 

 but he had so skillfully manipulated the 

 books and covered his tracks that even 

 expert accountants could not tell how he 

 did it. They puzzled over it in vain, and 

 finally offered to remit the sentence and set 

 him free if he would divulge the secret — 

 that is, the plan he had worked out to 

 swindle the great corporation. Ford heard 

 of it, and thought that a man of such ability 

 should be of at least some use to the world, 

 and so he employed him; and as he made 

 himself useful in developing Ford' business 

 his wages were increased. But he was rest- 

 less, and wanted to cut loose so he could 

 use his talents in a wider way. But I think 

 Ford finally otfered him $50,000 a year to 

 stay at his plant. But he refused to take 

 even so princely a sum; but as a sort of 

 joke he told Ford he would go on without 

 any salary if he would allow him a dollar 

 for every automobile they put out. Now, 

 friends, you can see something of the out- 

 come. When they succeeded in making a 

 million automobiles this ex-convict got a 

 million dollars.* 



Well, friends, about a year ago I wrote 

 the Ford company that I saw an automobile 

 dealer in the great city of Akron who sells 

 perhaps hundreds of high-priced machines, 

 and he advised me to buy a Ford if I 

 wanted to go by land to Florida; and he 

 said this, even tho he had never dealt in 

 Ford's machine in anj? way. I gave it in 

 substance in Gleanings, and a copy of it 

 was sent to Ford's people. This little inci- 



* Just think of it, friends. Here was a man 

 whose talents and ability astonished the world, and 

 yet he might have been doomed to spend ten of the 

 best years of his life in the penitentiary. The 

 trouble was that he had made the mistake of devot- 

 inp; his wonderful ingenuity to the robbing of a 

 great multi-millionaire syndicate instead of doing 

 something to bless and benefit his fellowmen. The 

 lioy I have mentioned, who could neither read nor 

 write when he was almost 21 years old, did not 

 seem to get on well with his teachers. If I remem- 

 ber correctly he had been told there was no use for 

 him to go to school, for he did not learn anything. 

 When my daughter Carrie took him in hand he did 

 seem a little peculiar, and yet in a short time he was 

 able to write a letter to his poor old mother, who 

 had not heard from him in years. 



denl introduced me to the manager of the 

 advertising department. By the way, the 

 Foi'd people have never given us any ad- 

 vertising; and I told their advertising agent, 

 Mr. Russell Munro, that on the whole I was 

 rather glad they had not given us any, be- 

 cause no one could now say that the write- 

 up I gave them was in any way, even in- 

 directly, paid for. Let us now get back to 

 llie humanity which " God so loved." 



After I had become someAvhat acquainted 

 with the manager they called in an expert 

 and gave him orders to " show Mr. Root 

 everything he wants to see, and answer all 

 his questions." This expert who went along 

 with me was Mr. A. Lee McKay, the "court- 

 esy manager." I told him. I wanted per- 

 mission to give them full credit in print. 

 Perhaps I should explain that great crowds 

 of people are being taken thru the works 

 day after day by one or more guides; but 

 instead of sending me with the crowd they 

 gave me a personal guide; and it was a 

 little tough on the guide, not only because 

 I am a little deaf, but because I am an old 

 man. He had to take my arm and twist me 

 around thru the machinery, and then shout 

 in my ear to make me hear. By the way, 

 years ago when I used to take my good old 

 mother thru our factory she did not care 

 very much about the new automatic machin- 

 ery, but she was greatly interested in look- 

 ing into the smiling faces of the boys and 

 girls who were running the machinery; and 

 on this wonderful trip on that afternoon I 

 honestly believe it is true that, while I was 

 interested in the wonderful machinery, I 

 was more interested in the gTeat streams of 

 humanity that were before my eyes con- 

 stantly. Just think of it ! There are some- 

 thing like 30,000 people employed in that 

 great pile of factories, and they are mostly 

 married men, because the preference is to 

 give a place to men with families or boys 

 who have mothers to suiDport. That is a 

 part of the Ford management. 



Friday, July 14, was a terribly warm 

 day in a good m.any places as well as in 

 Michigan; and the first thing that interested 

 me was their plan for supplying pure air, 

 and to have the air as cool as possible. 

 Their apparatus for supplying pure air free 

 from dus(, and sufficiently moist, is perhaps 

 aliead of anything else in the world. Next 

 come their arrangements for supplying 

 pure cold water. In many places the work- 

 men are obliged to work with artificial heat, 

 say in handling furnaces and hot metals, 

 and also in the japaning department. 

 Well, there are great glass bottles full of 

 cold pure water everywhere ; and every 

 workman, big or little, has a drinking-eup 



