August, 19l2i 



GLEANINGS IN J'. K K U I. T U R K 



530 



to see if the thousaiuls of busy men and 

 boys were happy at their work. While many 

 of tliem looked weary (for it was near the 

 hour of quitting) I saw no evidence of dis- 

 content. I think they work on eight-hour 

 shifts, and the great factory is kept run- 

 ning without stopping from 12 o'clock Mon- 

 daj^ morning till 12 on Saturday night. So 

 far as I could learn, Ford has given strict 

 orders to ' ' remember the Sabbath day to 

 keep it holy" — that is, so far as possible. I 

 watched the sea of human faces to see if I 

 could spy out drones or lazy or dishonest 

 men. My good friend. Rev. A. S. Gregg, of 

 the Civic Reform Bureau of Cleveland, who 

 was along with us, suggested that a man 

 could not very well loaf, with a busy man 

 before and behind him depending on his 

 movements. So they all work together like 

 the bees in a hive; and I could not discover 

 in all that trip that occupied 45 minutes 

 any one who seemed to act as foreman over 

 the different gangs. I did not see an idle 

 man anywhere. By the way, our friend 

 Kresge, notwithstanding his chain of over 

 200 stores, has just recently taken up bee- 

 keeping once more; and as we passed along 

 he* suggested in his droll way that Henry 

 Ford was turning out a finished automobile 

 in about the same space of time that it 

 takes a queen bee to lay an ef/g. Our guide, I 

 think, informed us that they are making 

 now about 4800 automobiles, ready to run, 

 every 24 hours. We have records of queens 

 lajdng as mauj as 3000 eggs in a day; and 

 it is very likel,y that tliere may be an oc- 

 casional queen that will lay -'fSOO eggs. 



Perhaps at just this point some of you 

 may wonder what the second text has to do 

 with what I have been telling you. It has 

 suggested itself to me in this way: Both 

 Kresge and Ford started out, so far as I can 

 determine, to benefit humanity, and not to 

 make money and get rich; but the great lov- 

 ing Father has blessed them as he did Solo- 

 mon of old in giving them wealth as well 

 as wisdom. I have been watching both Ford 

 and Edison since they stepped foot among 

 humanity in this busy world of ours; and 

 I have been impressed by the fact that in 

 both cases their mission and desire were 

 not to male money, but to benefit humanity. 

 They both loved their fellow-men, and God 

 recognized them and gave them the means. 

 In fact, we do not know wliat they may do 

 yet before they die. And our good friend 

 Kresge in another way has helped liumanity. 

 When I started that little counter store, 

 as we called it 42 years ago, it was princi- 

 pally with the view of helping young mar- 

 ried couples with limited means, to get the 

 things needful in starting a home, at a low 

 price, and with as little running about as 

 possible; and Kresge is doing this on a tre- 

 mendous scale all over our land. He is not 

 only a temperance man but a Christian man, 

 and God has honored him. 



As we left the Ford plant I remember 

 saying to my good friend Gregg that, if 

 Ford had not already done so, he ought to 



thank God devoutly for liaving permitted 

 him to be the humble instrument of doing 

 so great a work. Gregg's reply was some- 

 thing like this: 



"Mr. Root, I feel sure our friend Ford 

 thanks God for what he sees being done, 

 very mucli along the same line you do; but 

 where you say 'Thank the Lord' out loud. 

 Ford does it in another way. We are not all 

 alike, even in our way of giving thanks to 

 God." 



With the above preface, my good friends, 

 I want to quote to you Kresge 's own words 

 when he addressed our lielpers here at the 

 time of liis visit to our establishment the 

 fore part of May. 



Address of S. S. Kresge at Medina on 

 May 9, 1922. 



I have been almost talked to death, so I don't 

 know just what else I have to say, but I might 

 give you a little incident of what happened while 

 Billy Sunday was in Detroit and we gave up our 

 house for eight weeks to house his -organization. 

 That was in 1916, the same year that Michigan 

 was made dry. During that time, Fred Posdick 

 of Fitchburg, Mass., called with a delegation to 

 solicit Billy Sunday to come out to their town, 

 and Mr. Fosdick, by the way, is one of the- com- 

 mitteemen of the National Anti-saloon League (I 

 am now headed for their meeting at Washington 

 Thursday). He stopped at a corner where a po- 

 liceman was stationed and said, "Officer, which 

 hotel is Billy Sunday stopping at?" "He isn't 

 stopping at no hotel — he's at Kresge's mansion," 

 replied the officer. "Who's Kresge?" returned 

 Mr. Fosdick. "Don't you know who Kresge is? 

 He's got about a thousand stores around the 

 country." Of course Mr. Posdick knew all about 

 tne, but he wanted to find out how well I was 

 known in my own town. 



About 35 years ago (I was then located on a 

 farm in Pennsylvania, where I am now headed to 

 see my mother). I used to buy bee supplies from 

 this place. I had many happy days with bees. 

 I always had a great fondness for them, because 

 my parents gave me the privilege of keeping the 

 money from the bees, as I worked with them at 

 odd times and on rainy days, and really robbed 

 my parents of no time. About that time they 

 sent me to Fairview Academy, about three and a 

 half milps away, where I walked one whole win- 

 ter, morning and night, no matter how deep the 

 snow or what the weather. I went with the un- 

 derstanding that, if they sent me there until I 

 was 21 years old, I should give to them all I 

 earned outside of from the bees. They needed it, 

 and I knew they needed it. Just around that 

 time -I had some pigeons — I really don't know 

 just where I got them, but when I sold then. I 

 bought turkey eggs with the money. I had poor 

 luck with turkeys, but sold them the next fall and 

 with that money bought some bees. When I was 

 20 years of age the bees made enough honey so 

 that when I sold the crop in the fall, I bought a 

 solid gold hunting case watch. In case you do 

 not understand what a hunting case is, it was 

 something like this one, only it had a cover 

 over the face and was about twice as large and 

 weighed twice as much or more. I don't remem- 

 ber just how much I paid for it (about .$55.00), 

 but I paid for it and had some money left. The 

 winter following I taught school and walked two 

 miles every morning and evening from my par- 

 ents' home and gave them the proceeds every 

 month after paying for my necessary wants. The 

 next fall I was examined to teach but didn't get 

 the school I wanted, so went to Scranton and 

 worked in a grocery store. After paying my ex- 

 penses, whatever I had left I gave to my parents. 

 I boarded with my sister and gave her $15 per 

 month for board and washing. I was getting $40 

 a month, and my parents always got some money 

 out of that. In the spring I quit my job and 

 went back on the farm again, and during that 



