Editing Henry Ford (section)

=== Transmission Patent ===
In 1909, Ford applied for a patent on his new [[Transmission (mechanical device)|transmission]] mechanism. It was awarded a patent in 1911.<ref>{{Cite patent|number=US1005186A|title=Transmission mechanism|gdate=1911-10-10|invent1=Ford|inventor1-first=Henry|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1005186A/en}}.</ref>

====Model T====
The [[Model T]] debuted on October 1, 1908. It had the [[steering wheel]] on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and [[Transmission (mechanical device)|transmission]] were enclosed; the four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the [[Car suspension|suspension]] used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was simple to drive, and easy and inexpensive to repair. It was so inexpensive at $825 in 1908 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|825|1908|r=-1}}}} today), with the price falling every year, that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T.<ref>Richard Bak, ''Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire'' (2003), pp. 54–63.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/ |title=The Life of Henry Ford |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011005164558/http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/ |archive-date=October 5, 2001 |access-date=November 28, 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Ford assembly line - 1913.jpg|left|thumb|Ford assembly line, 1913]]

Ford created a huge publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and ads about the new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in almost every city in North America. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but also the concept of car local [[motor club]]s sprang up to help new drivers and encourage them to explore the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked at the automobile as a commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketed—several years posted 100% gains on the previous year. In 1913, Ford introduced moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and development came from employees [[Clarence Avery]], [[Peter E. Martin]], [[Charles E. Sorensen]], and [[C. Harold Wills]].<ref>Nevins (1954), 1: 387–415.</ref> (See [[Ford Piquette Avenue Plant]].)

Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000.<ref>Lewis 1976, pp. 41–59.</ref>

By 1918, half of all cars in the United States were Model Ts. All new cars were black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p72">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA72 p. 72].</ref> Until the development of the assembly line, which mandated black because of its quicker drying time, Model Ts were available in other colors, including red. The design was fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This record stood for the next 45 years, and was achieved in 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T (1908).<ref>{{Cite news |title=Beetle overtakes Model T as world's best-selling car |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/beetle-overtakes-model-t-as-worlds-best-selling-car |access-date=2022-06-26 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref>

Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son [[Edsel Ford]] in December 1918. Henry retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed the decisions of his son. Ford started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was determined to have full control over strategic decisions.) The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from the other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), vol. 2.</ref>

In 1922, Ford also purchased [[Lincoln Motor Company|Lincoln Motor Co.]], founded by Cadillac founder [[Henry Leland]] and his son Wilfred during World War I. The Lelands briefly stayed to manage the company, but were soon expelled from it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lincoln Motor Company Plant |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/lincoln-motor-company-plant.htm |website=National Park Service |access-date=July 1, 2021 |date=August 29, 2018}}</ref> Despite this acquisition of a premium car maker, Henry displayed relatively little enthusiasm for luxury automobiles in contrast to Edsel, who actively sought to expand Ford into the upscale market.<ref name="King 2003">{{harvnb|King|2003}}.</ref> The original [[Lincoln L series|Lincoln Model L]] that the Lelands had introduced in 1920 was also kept in production, untouched for a decade until it became too outdated. It was replaced by the modernized [[Lincoln K series|Model K]] in 1931.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edsel Ford and the Lincoln DNA |url=https://corporate.ford.com/articles/history/edsel-ford-and-the-lincoln-dna.html |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=Ford Corporate |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:1924-1925 Ford - T Roadster, Coimbatore (1).jpg|thumb|A 1926 Ford T Roadster on display in India]]

By the mid-1920s, [[General Motors]] was rapidly rising as the leading American vehicle manufacturer. GM president [[Alfred Sloan]] established the company's "price ladder" whereby GM would offer an automobile for "every purse and purpose" in contrast to Ford's lack of interest in anything outside the low-end market. Although Henry Ford was against replacing the Model T, now 16 years old, Chevrolet was mounting a bold new challenge as GM's entry-level division in the company's price ladder. Ford also resisted the increasingly popular idea of payment plans for cars. With Model T sales starting to slide, Ford was forced to relent and approve work on a successor model, shutting down production for 18 months. During this time, Ford constructed a massive new assembly plant at River Rouge for the new Model A, which launched in 1927.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 409–436.</ref>

In addition to its price ladder, GM also quickly established itself at the forefront of automotive styling under [[Harley Earl]]'s Arts & Color Department, another area of automobile design that Henry Ford did not entirely appreciate or understand. Ford would not have a true equivalent of the GM styling department for many years.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

====Model A and Ford's later career====
By 1926, flagging sales of the Model T finally convinced Ford to make a new model. He pursued the project with a great deal of interest in the design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son. Although Ford fancied himself an engineering genius, he had little formal training in mechanical engineering and could not even read a blueprint. A talented team of engineers performed most of the actual work of designing the Model A (and later the flathead V8) with Ford supervising them closely and giving them overall direction. Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission.<ref name="Sorensen1956p223">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|p=223}}.</ref>

The result was the [[Ford Model A (1927-1931)|Ford Model A]], introduced in December 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of more than four&nbsp;million. Subsequently, the Ford company adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor General Motors (and still in use by automobiles today). Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned [[Universal Credit Corporation]] became a major car-financing operation. Henry Ford still resisted many technological innovations such as hydraulic brakes and all-metal roofs, which Ford automobiles did not adopt until 1935–1936. For 1932 however, Ford dropped a bombshell with the [[Ford flathead V8 engine|flathead Ford V8]], the first low-price eight-cylinder engine. The flathead V8, variants of which were used in Ford automobiles for 20 years, was the result of a secret project launched in 1930 and Henry had initially considered a radical X-8 engine before agreeing to a conventional design. It gave Ford a reputation as a performance make well-suited for hot-rodding.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 459–478.</ref>

Also, at Edsel's insistence, Ford launched Mercury in 1939 as a mid-range make to challenge Dodge and Buick, although Henry also displayed relatively little enthusiasm for it.<ref name="King 2003"/>

====Labor philosophy====
=====Five-dollar wage=====
[[File:Timehenryford.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine cover, January 14, 1935]]
Ford was a pioneer of "[[welfare capitalism]]", designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy [[turnover (employment)|turnover]] that had many departments hiring 300 men per year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 508–540.</ref>

Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 daily wage (${{Inflation|index=US|value=5|start_year=1914|r=0}} in {{Inflation/year|index=US}}), which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers.<ref>Using the [[consumer price index]], this was equivalent to $111.10 per day in 2008 dollars.</ref> A [[Cleveland, Ohio]], newspaper editorialized that the announcement "shot like a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial depression".<ref>Lewis, ''Public Image,'' p. 71.</ref> The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant employee turnover, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their [[human capital]] and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs.<ref>Nevins, ''Ford,'' 1: 528–541.</ref><ref>Watts, ''People's Tycoon,'' pp. 178–194.</ref> Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying male workers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/267145552/the-middle-class-took-off-100-years-ago-thanks-to-henry-ford |title=The Middle Class Took Off 100 Years Ago ... Thanks To Henry Ford? |work=NPR.org |last=Ciwek |first=Sarah |date=January 27, 2014 |access-date=July 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106033815/https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/267145552/the-middle-class-took-off-100-years-ago-thanks-to-henry-ford|archive-date=January 6, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/jan-5-1914-henry-ford-implements-5-a-day-wage/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206105248/https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/jan-5-1914-henry-ford-implements-5-a-day-wage/|archive-date=February 6, 2022|title=Jan. 5, 1914 : Henry Ford Implements the $5-a-Day Wage |website=The New York Times |author=The Learning Network |date=January 5, 2012 |access-date=July 29, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their best workers.<ref>Watts, ''People's Tycoon,'' pp. 193–194.</ref> Ford's policy proved that paying employees more would enable them to afford the cars they were producing and thus boost the local economy. He viewed the increased wages as profit-sharing linked with rewarding those who were most productive and of good character.<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_pp126-130">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA126 pp. 126–30].</ref> It may have been [[James Couzens]] who convinced Ford to adopt the $5-day wage.<ref>Lewis, ''Public Image,'' pp. 69–70.</ref>

Real profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Social Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and on what are now called [[deadbeat parent|deadbeat dads]]. The Social Department used 50 investigators and support staff to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing".<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|year=1915|title=Helpful Hints and Advice to Ford Employes [sic]|url=https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/367411/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119152200/https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/367411/|archive-date=November 19, 2021|access-date=February 13, 2021|website=www.thehenryford.org|publisher=Ford Motor Company|location=Detroit|pages=8–9|language=en}}</ref>

Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he spoke of the Social Department and the private conditions for [[profit-sharing]] in the past tense. He admitted that "paternalism has no place in the industry. Welfare work that consists in prying into employees' private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, often special help; and all this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But the broad workable plan of investment and participation will do more to solidify the industry and strengthen the organization than will any social work on the outside. Without changing the principle we have changed the method of payment."<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p130">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA130 p. 130].</ref>

=====Five-day workweek=====
In addition to raising his workers' wages, Ford also introduced a new, reduced workweek in 1926. The decision was made in 1922, when Ford and Crowther described it as six 8-hour days, giving a 48-hour week,<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p126">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA126 p. 126].</ref> but in 1926 it was announced as five 8-hour days, giving a 40-hour week.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Crowther |first=Samuel |date=October 1926 |title=Henry Ford: "Why I Favor Five Days' Work With Six Days' Pay" |url=http://geowords.com/e_/e_readings/ford2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108141134/http://geowords.com/e_/e_readings/ford2.htm |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |magazine=World's Work |pages=613–616}}</ref> The program apparently started with Saturday being designated a workday, before becoming a day off sometime later. On May 1, 1926, the Ford Motor Company's factory workers switched to a five-day, 40-hour workweek, with the company's office workers making the transition the following August.<ref name="history">{{Cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week/print |title=May 01, 1926 : Ford Factory workers get 40-hour week |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325165437/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week/print |archive-date=March 25, 2018 |access-date=December 1, 2018 }}</ref>

Ford had decided to boost productivity, as workers were expected to put more effort into their work in exchange for more leisure time. Ford also believed decent leisure time was good for business, giving workers additional time to purchase and consume more goods. However, charitable concerns also played a role. Ford explained, "It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either 'lost time' or a class privilege."<ref name=history/>

=====Labor unions=====
Ford was adamantly against [[trade union|labor unions]]. He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of ''My Life and Work''.<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_pp253-266">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA253 pp. 253–66].</ref> He thought they were too heavily influenced by leaders who would end up doing more harm than good for workers despite their ostensible good motives. {{Anchor|No_prosperity_without_productivity}} Most wanted to restrict productivity as a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for economic prosperity to exist.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the broader economy and grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in others. Ford also believed that union leaders had a [[perverse incentive]] to foment perpetual socio-economic crises to maintain their power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their profits. However, Ford did acknowledge that many managers were basically too bad at managing to understand this fact. But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as he, could fend off the attacks of misguided people from both left and right (i.e., both socialists and bad-manager reactionaries), the good managers would create a socio-economic system wherein neither bad management nor bad unions could find enough support to continue existing.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

To forestall union activity, Ford promoted [[Harry Bennett]], a former [[United States Navy|Navy]] boxer, to head the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to quash union organizing.<ref>Harris, J.: ''Henry Ford'', pp. 91–92. Moffa Press, 1984.</ref> On March 7, 1932, during the [[Great Depression]], unemployed Detroit auto workers staged the [[Ford Hunger March]] to the [[Ford River Rouge Complex]] to present 14 demands to Henry Ford. The [[Dearborn, Michigan|Dearborn]] police department and Ford security guards opened fire on workers leading to over sixty injuries and five deaths. On May 26, 1937, Bennett's security men beat members of the [[United Automobile Workers]] (UAW), including [[Walter Reuther]], with clubs.<ref name="Wallace">{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=Max |url=http://archive.org/details/americanaxis00maxw |title=The American axis : Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of the Third Reich |date=2003 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-29022-1 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> While Bennett's men were beating the UAW representatives, the supervising police chief on the scene was Carl Brooks, an alumnus of Bennett's Service Department, and Brooks "did not give orders to intervene".<ref name=Wallace />{{rp|311}}The following day photographs of the injured UAW members appeared in newspapers, later becoming known as [[The Battle of the Overpass]].{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel—who was president of the company—thought Ford had to come to a [[collective bargaining]] agreement with the unions because the violence, work disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Ford, who still had the final veto in the company on a ''de facto'' basis even if not an official one, refused to cooperate. For several years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions trying to organize the Ford Motor Company. Sorensen's memoir<ref name="Sorensen1956p261">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|p=261}}.</ref> makes clear that Ford's purpose in putting Bennett in charge was to make sure no agreements were ever reached.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

The Ford Motor Company was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the UAW, despite pressure from the rest of the U.S. automotive industry and even the U.S. government. A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the [[River Rouge Plant]]. Sorensen recounted<ref name="Sorensen1956pp266-272">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=266–72}}.</ref> that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat to break up the company rather than cooperate. Still, his wife Clara told him she would leave him if he destroyed the family business. In her view, it would not be worth the chaos it would create. Ford complied with his wife's ultimatum and even agreed with her in retrospect.

Overnight, the Ford Motor Company went from the most stubborn holdout among automakers to the one with the most favorable UAW contract terms. The contract was signed in June 1941.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp266-272" /> About a year later, Ford told Walter Reuther, "It was one of the most sensible things Harry Bennett ever did when he got the UAW into this plant." Reuther inquired, "What do you mean?" Ford replied, "Well, you've been fighting General Motors and the Wall Street crowd. Now you're in here and we've given you a union shop and more than you got out of them. That puts you on our side, doesn't it? We can fight General Motors and Wall Street together, eh?"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reuther Dickmeyer |first=Elisabeth |url=https://archive.org/details/puttingworldtoge0000dick/page/63 |title=Putting the world together : my father Walter Reuther, the liberal warrior |date=2004 |publisher=LivingForce Pub |isbn=978-0975379219 |location=Lake Orion, Michigan |page=[https://archive.org/details/puttingworldtoge0000dick/page/63 63] |oclc=57172289}}</ref>