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The life of Henry Ford
The life of Henry Ford
Henry ford research essays
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One controversial decision Henry Ford made in 1914 was to increase salaries of workers to five dollars a day. This wage was unprecedented for the time period and had a large impact on the workers. According to the book The Unfinished Nation, by Alan Brinkley, one aspect of the gospel of wealth is that “people of great wealth should consider all revenues in excess of their own needs to be ‘trust funds’ used for the good of the community” (413). In essence, that is what Henry Ford was doing when he increased the wages of his workers to five dollars a day. He redistributed the surplus of wealth that he acquired to those who would benefit from it more. The bonus divided ten million dollars among his workers every year and “would take about half
the profits which the company was expected to earn in the coming year” (Sinclair 28). As a result, Henry Ford’s profits from his company were severely minimized but his workers were benefitting from the large financial return. Henry Ford stated that he believed in “making 20,000 men prosperous and contented rather than follow the plan of making a few slave drivers in [his] establishment multi-millionaires” (The Detroit Journal 4). This shows that he cared about rewarding hard work and bettering the lives of society as a whole. Overall, the increased wage improved the conditions of working class Americans’ lives and enabled them to afford things such as a house and car whereas they were previously not able to do so. This bonus advanced social progress because it allowed those who were willing to work hard to move up in social class.
More often than not, America’s antebellum capitalists are accused of being the “robber barons” of industrial America. The misconception is that these men took advantage of a naïve and growing economy and reaped its benefits without giving anything in return. True, the majority of America was poor in comparison to the few elites, but the philanthropist efforts and contributions of these men can not be denied. If not for these men and their efforts, there would have been no one to pave the road to America’s industrial domination.
Andrew Carnegie, was a strong-minded man who believed in equal distribution and different forms to manage wealth. One of the methods he suggested was to tax revenues to help out the public. He believed in successors enriching society by paying taxes and death taxes. Carnegie’s view did not surprise me because it was the only form people could not unequally distribute their wealth amongst the public, and the mediocre American economy. Therefore, taxations would lead to many more advances in the American economy and for public purposes.
Ford offered an incredible perk for people working in his company. He offered the workers $5 a day minimum wage even though in other auto industries the wages were $2.34. So Ford was paying more than double the average wage to his workers, this shows his dedication to his work. Henry Ford despised Labor Unions for the sole reason that they were pointless and that because he thought he knew how to take care of his workers better than anybody else did. However, in 1941 he faced a general strike from his workers that made him change his mind, reluctantly. Ford had worked a lot to create a car that would be affordable to any common person. He stated, “ I will build a car for the great multitude…so low in price that no one will be unable to own one.
This idea of Social Darwinism gave the robber barons of society the justification for their hostile behavior towards their workers. Andrew Carnegie tried to make the gospel of wealth by arguing that the duty of someone with power and a lot of money was to put advancement into the society such as libraries. John D. Rockefeller also used this idea and gave away some of his wealth to education as well. However, many socialists, promoting fair distribution of wealth, tried to write books, which were very popular and best sellers at the time to address the social development issue of the economy. The factory workers had no opportunity to gain the independence and advancement of their social class.
Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company who utilized horizontal integration to dominate the oil industry; Rockefeller was another capitalist considered to be a “robber baron” of industrial America between the time period of 1865 and 1909 who acquired a great amount of wealth. This money was acquired with the usage of cutthroat tactics that disadvantaged his competitors immensely; Rockefeller did anything to increase his own wealth. He ran competitors out of business, lowered his prices drastically in places where competition was rough, and even threatened companies into bankruptcy, such as Ida Tarbell’s father’s business. Rockefeller believed that industrial combinations were a necessity and firmly believed in them being of benefit to the public (Doc. 6). James B. Weaver, a Populist presidential candidate, however, {disproves} this alleged belief that trusts were for the benefit of the public {theory} in his book A Call to Action by stating that trusts are the product of “threats, intimidation, bribery, fraud, wreck, and pillage” (Doc. 3). He further discredits trusts by providing an example of how the Oat Meal Trust in 1887 proved to be extremely unfortunate for and to the disadvantage of the laborers at the mills who lost their jobs (Doc. 3). This shows that the trusts that Rockefeller thrived on and made Rockefeller wealthier, though advantageous for consumers and Rockefeller himself, could often be to the disadvantage of the laborers. Rockefeller
Document M gives us quotes from Andrew Carnegie’s, “Wealth” in the North American Review, June 1889. He states that he wanted more than just the wealthy to prosper: “The man who dies rich is a disgrace.” He was one of those men who would leave their wealth for public use on his deathbed. He never spent too much of his money because he wanted to “set an example of modest... living…; and… to consider all surplus revenues… as trust funds;” he’s a little bit of a hypocrite. Carnegie’s ideas are criticised for the mistakes along the way, but when his ideas came to be, they made big impacts all around the
During both the Progressive Era and New Deal Era many American citizens faced low pay. To deal with this, workers from both eras fought unfair labor practices by creating unions and strikes. During the Progressive Era employers soon realized better paid workers are better able to afford the products they were selling. Henry Ford was one of the first employers to realize this, in result he raised the pay of worker to an average of $5 per day. This resulted in Ford’s annual input increasing from 34,000 cars to 730,000 cars from 1910 to
Carnegie did not believe in spending his money on frivolous things, instead he gave most of his fortune back to special projects that helped the public, such as libraries, schools and recreation. Carnegie believes that industries have helped both the rich and the poor. He supports Social Darwinism. The talented and smart businessmen rose to the top. He acknowledges the large gap between the rich and the poor and offers a solution. In Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie, he states, “the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves” (25). He believes the rich should not spend money foolishly or pass it down to their sons, but they should put it back into society. They should provide supervised opportunities for the poor to improve themselves. The rich man should know “the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise- free libraries, parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and mind” (Carnegie p. 28). Also, Carnegie does not agree they should turn to Communism to redistribute wealth. Individuals should have the right to their earnings. Corporations should be allowed to act as it please with little to no government
David A. Wells wrote a piece in which it talked about the workers in factories. When the workers are not taught any skills and are directed to do one job, they are essentially disposable. This make it very unstable for the workers and their families. This method is based off Frederick Winslow Taylor’s idea of Taylorism. It is a way to organize factory work so that unskilled workers can do the easy jobs and be paid the minimum amount. This method creates a huge amount of money for owners and trusts. On the other hand, the workers are facing constant fear of losing their jobs. Because Wells believes in the well being of society, he does not agree with this method of Taylorism. It takes away the pride and purpose in even having a job. While this may help the general economy, it hurts the American working people. While some believe that the entrepreneurs and trusts are over powerful, unfail, and ruthless, there are other who feel they have an opportunity to help the workers. Andrew Carnegie’s book Wealth talks about setting an example my living a modest life. When one has a surplus of revenues, his duty is to help his fellow Americans that are poor. Carnegie, being a wealthy entrepreneurs has enough experience to understand and tell others like him that they must help the poorer communities. Andrew Carnegie led by example by helping build more than 2,800 libraries as well as building and opening a university. George Rice an oil producer and businessman talks about Rockefeller and his Standard Oil ruined him. Rice’s Ohio Oil company was taken down by Standard Oil. By offering cheaper oil, RIce’s company was simply run out of business. Rice, however, was not the only victim. Many other companies had been destroyed by Rockefeller just like this. By doing this the economy’s diversity was torn to shreds. This makes it harder to find oil at competitive prices, hurting the economy. With the
Of course, there were not always supporters of Henry Ford. If fact, there were many critics, critics who believed that Henry Ford was so controversial that it prevented the potential of Fords from becoming greater than it is today. By the mid twenties the Ford’s was already the worlds most successful automobile company, but their great reputation would soon decline. Fords $5/day plan for all employees signified the overwhelming success of the company. Many believed this success was short-lived with the new policies dealing with the workers which soon followed. With the need to increase production and lower costs, in the mid 30’s Ford cut all Ford worker’s wages in half.
When the topic of American economics arises, the infamous Robber Barons of the 19th Century often springs to mind. They are often glorified as "Captains of Industry" for their money making strategies and enterprising methods. Those who hold this view probably do not know the evils of the laissez-faire capitalism in which the Robber Barons believed and participated. They wanted an unrestricted system of economics so that they could amass as much money as they could to out do each other and control the power in society. They were not as glorious and generous as some people make them out to have been.
The 1920’s was a time of great social, political, and economic change. The early automobile industry was no exclusion. It appears that throughout history, the figures that stand out the most are either worshipped or despised, and there is very rarely an in-between. Henry Ford, an icon of the 1920’s and the early automobile industry is no exemption. Many people love Ford for his innovative and entrepreneurial skills, while on the other hand, Ford is disliked by many due to his association with Anti-Semitism. Regardless of how Ford is viewed, many decisions he made significantly impacted the automobile industry. These decisions included installing the moving assembly line in his plant, and introducing the Five-Dollar Day. Through the implementation of the Five-Dollar Day, Ford was able to drastically change how the Ford Motor Company company operated, and how business would operate for years to come.
Henry Ford, the man who revolutionized the car industry forever, founded his company under the beliefs that a car wasn’t a high-speed toy for the rich but instead a sturdy vehicle for everyday family needs, like driving to work, getting groceries or driving to church. However, Henry ford did much more than just this feat. He also tried to make peace in WWI before America had joined the war. In addition, Ford made the radical new five dollars a day payment. However, Ford also had his lows. At an early age, his mother died. His first two companies had also been failures. Against many of his closest friends protests, he published an anti-semitic (Jewish) newspaper. Ford had a very interesting and unique life and he changed the automotive industry forever.
Andrew Carnegie and Samuel Gompers had very similar ideas during the Industrial Revolution. Both authors wrote articles directed towards the wealthy in hopes of making a difference by explaining how the rich mocked and refused to share money with the poor. Although Carnegie and Gompers’s writings were aimed towards the wealthy for different reasons, both made an enormous contribution to how the wealthy should treat their workers and
Born July 30, 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan, Henry Ford was the first child of William and Mary Ford. As a young man he became an excellent self-taught mechanic and machinist. At age 16 he left the farm and went to nearby Detroit, a city that was becoming an industrial giant. There he worked as an apprentice at a machine shop, while months later he would begin work with steam engines at the Detroit Dry Dock Co., where he first saw the internal combustion engine, the kind of engine he would later use to make his automobiles.