BATA THE CZECH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 266, 9 November 1932, Page 5

BATA THE CZECH.

THE FORD OF THE BOOT TRADE A MODEST GENIUS. Tho remarkable rise of Tomas Bata, the Hungarian, who has been called the ".Henry Ford of Boot Trade," was graphically described at the Creditmen's lunch this afternoon by Professor Algie, who paid a visit to Czecho-Slovakia last summer. This remarkable man started peddling boots made by his father, who had a small shop at a village called Zlin, went to Vienna and Prague with the intention of starting in business on his own account, and failed both times. He persevered, however, and at the age of 22 he put on the market the first boots made by a power-driven plant in the whole of Austria —to which Czechoslovakia belonged before the war. Then he went to America to get ideae on mass production, returned to his native country, and in 1917 employed 5000 hands, and turned out 10,000 pairs of boots a day. To get over the Austrian and other tariff walls he cut his costs one half, and in 1921 he was turning out 50,000 pairs,- which rose to 100,000 pairs in 1930, and 120,000 when Professor Algie was in the country. Bata also had factories in Switzerland, Poland, England and France. He was a buying genius, and made a hobby of travelling everywhere by aeroplane to save time.

Mass production on tho Bata scheme was far from meaning sweating conditions. "If that is sweating," eaid the professor, "I wish we could have New Zealand full of half a million of these sweated labourers, such as I saw." The employees lived in Bata's model villages, and if young men got only £2 10/ a week it cost them only 1/ a day to live. Bata was a great man for slogans, one being, "If we want good work we must have good play," and there were wonderful facilities for recreation. "English opens a window into tho world" was another Bata slogan, and many of the employees spoke English, which was taught in the schools. With all his genius for organisation and push, Bata was a most modest man, and he considered himself merely as a nominal head; he had everything organised so that the great business went on whether he was there or not. At the age of 56" this remarkable man was killed in an aeroplane smash when returning from one of his many business trips by air.