GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



cially when my grandson is trying to teach 

 me to run a Ford automobile. 



Now, here is one other thing that pleased 

 me greatly. We went into one room 800 

 feet long and perhaps 200 feet wide; and 

 the piles of machinery, belts, and wires, 

 made it look like the tangled forest up 

 around that " cabin in the woods." Well, 

 amid all this machinery were human beings 

 so thick they made me think of bees at the 

 front of a hive on a mid-summer day. Why, 

 there were ju.st clusters of men and boys 

 so close together you would not think they 

 could work. But they did work with such a 

 vim that I asked if they were employed by 

 the piece. I was told there was no piece- 

 work in the whole establishment. My in- 

 formant said that, while there were some 

 good things about the piece system, it was 

 so liable to start jealousy and ill feeling 

 they had decided against it. I told him it 

 was much the same way in our establish- 

 ment of between 200 and 300 hands. Well, 

 now, I made a little inspection of those boys 

 and men crowded like bees in a hive. Come 

 to look carefully, each man did one partic- 

 ular thing. For instance, one part of the 

 automobiles that was being put together 

 was located on a long stand or table, and 

 this was pulled along slowly by means of an 

 endless chain. As it passed, each man did 

 something to it. For instance, one man had 

 a box of burrs. These he put in place and 

 turned them down hard and screwed each 

 burr tight with an appropriate little 

 wrench. The next added something else; 

 and it was all so timed and managed that 

 all were kept busy and nobody had to wait. 

 In fact, they had to hustle sometimes to get 

 their part finished before the machine had 

 passed and the next one had come along. 

 Now, you might think it would be monot- 

 onous to do the same thing over and over 

 hour after hour and day after day. But to 

 my surprise each man looked well and 

 happy. Right here a great lesson comes in. 

 These workmen are happy, and do enjoy 

 their work. The things I have been telling 

 you about, the looking after his health and 

 comfort, is the secret. , Added to it all, the 

 institution is now " profit-sharing." Each 

 person is a part of the institution. If it 

 prospers, he prospers. If I remember cor- 

 rectly, they have, at least some of the time, 

 been enabled to turn out a finished machine 

 for very minute of the day and night. 



By the way, the appliances to obviate the 

 necessity of heavy and tiresome lifting are 

 a wonderful feature of the institution. One 

 of their workshops is six stories high ; and 

 away up under the roof is a traveling crane 

 that moves the whole length (I thiok 800 



feet) of the big room. Under this is a sec- 

 ond traveling crane that runs back and 

 forth at right angles; and then there are 

 grappling-hooks that will go down to any 

 story and pick up a load and deposit it 

 where wanted. This system of mechanism 

 picks up every box of materials and lays it 

 down right where the workmen want it. In 

 this way the workman is spared fatiguing 

 work that has formerly been supposed to 

 be unavoidable all over the world. A good 

 many of the materials slide down on an 

 inclined plane just where they are wanted. 

 For instance, at one point the rubber wheels 

 came down and were slipped on to the 

 machine. Then it was pushed along until 

 it came on to som.e revolving rollers in the 

 floor. This set the Avheels revolving, which 

 cranks the machine so the engine can be 

 tested. If everything went all right, a boy 

 hopped on to the chassis, or the auto with- 

 out a top, and ran it under a certain plat- 

 form. When he got to the right spot he 

 hopped off and the top was let down by 

 this traveling crane, and dropped into place 

 so quickly and surely that it almost seemed 

 like sleight-of-hand. I said to my guide, 

 " Why, Mr. McKay, the stories in the Ara- 

 bian Nights are nowhere compared with 

 what we see going on in this department." 

 I asked him if it was possible for the men to 

 get along without jealousy, bickering, or 

 fault-finding, or things of that kind, that 

 are so common. He said the secret of it 

 was they tried to cultivate such relations 

 between employer and employee that they 

 were all loyal to the institution. 



By the way, if this Home paper should 

 be the means of inducing everybody to try 

 to go to work for Ford, let me tell you 

 there are ever so many thousands of appli- 

 cants waiting for a place all the while. 

 In regard to intemperance, there is very 

 little of it, because it is understood that a 

 man necessarily loses all chance of promo- 

 tion and also his place if he comes to work 

 showing any symptoms of booze. Our 

 readers already know what Ford has done 

 to discourage the use of cigarettes. In fact, 

 this Ford institution is to me another re- 

 minder of what I have so often been telling 

 you of late, that " God's kingdom is com- 

 ing;" and it is coming thru means that have 

 been brought to bear thru our great business 

 centers and the factories as well as thru our 

 churches and religious organizations. What- 

 ever may be said of Ford's theological 

 views, he certainly loves his fellow-men; 

 and his great work, therefore, is along the 

 line of our beautiful text that " God so 

 ]ovrd the world." 



Just a word about our second text. So 



