Evening Post. SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1923. PROFIT OR SERVICE?

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 6

Evening Post. SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1923. PROFIT OR SERVICE?

Mr. Henry Fprd, in his recently published book, "My Life, and Work, '.. combats the theory that the sole object in the making of goods is for the purpose of making money. "Business exists for 'service" is one of the articles of his creed.' "Waste and greed," he maintains, "block the delivery of true service. Both waste and greed are unnecessary." Whatever one may be pleased to think of Mr. Ford, especially in respect to his Peace Mission, there is no doubt whatever about the success of the practical application of his belief that service should take precedence of profits in business, and be the sole motive of all industrial effort. Mr: Ford has literally delivered the goods.-; he has performed a great service to the world, which is testified in his sales lists. No evidence has been offered to show that he has made his enormous fortune out of utilising cheap or ill-paid labour and taking advantage of exacting conditions of work. His initial capital was 28,000 dollars, or £5600. If ever he held any of the current ideas of commerce and finance, he flung them on ' the scrap heap among • his defective castings and untrue • turnings. He kept the one idea of service before him, and the profits' came of themselves. Thepretically Mr. Ford was all wrong when he started and should be-wrong now; butwhat can be said of the results he has achieved?

The prevalent notion that profits first, last, and all the time are the chief end of all business enterprises, from. steamships to buttermaking, is wrong, according to Mr. Ford. Is he in advance of his age? If so, then the excellent motto of the Rotary Club, "Service before Self," requires looking into more closely than the increasing number of Rotarians appear to be doing. Still the clubs spring ,\ip in all sorts of places in Great Britain, the United States, and British Dominions, in fact wherever the English tongue is. spoken ; and they continue to flourish. Perhaps Mr. Ford is right: Service is first, Profits lying many lengths behind. Mr. Ford's idea, taken into consideration with an important debate in the Dominion House of Representatives, may set some, people thinking whether the Government and its supporters—not all necessarily or ordinarily of its own political faith—arc right in the line taken with the, dairy-export control legislation. After all, at bottom, the ideal aimed at in the measure is intensive separation of the butter-hit profits in tho dairy for the benefit of. tHe pro-

ducer; and, if possible, securing for him the skim-milk too. Economies in finance, shipping, handling, marketing, an d other services in connection with dairy produce are to be effected, but to what end? That the producer may receive the uttermost farthing by way of profits? Perusal of reports of discussions extending over several years past tends to confirm this view. The case is typical, not- exceptional. Profits, wages, .salaries, honoraria, and the like are but payment for work done or services rendered. The work of the dairy farmer is not in the butter-fat, but in tbe attention bestowed on its real producer, the cow, an d the labour of manipulating and delivering her produce. In the process of reaching the consumer the produce passes many hands, entailing much work, manual and mental. The great question arising out of this process is: What is a just return for services rendered, work and labour done? All engaged in' the transaction, from milker to retailer, look to get the utmost profit out of it. Such terms as "fair," "reasonable," "moderate," as applied to profits, have become vague/indefinite. What the producer may think a fair profit for his efforts the consumer may regard as sheer extortion. The ideal or idea of service does not enter into the-business at all; and yet Mr. Ford has shown how that idea is practicable and profitable. If profits were always placed before service as the incentive in all that men do for men there would have been precious few'profits for anyone when the call came to stem the, flood of the German hosts in 1914 and the bitter years that followed. Is Mr. Ford right oi wrong? is a question every man can. put to and answer for himself. But service first with Mr. Ford appears to have been a huge success.